Ring of Honor’s faction The Foundation made an addition just over a fortnight ago, with the group’s leader Jon Gresham extending an invitation to UK star Chris Ridgeway following a match at Wrestle Carnival’s “Pure” event in Nottingham. Ridgeway, of course, accepted, and I asked my latest guest “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams about the latest addition to The Foundation.
“It’s an exciting development, I think,” began the best-named man in the business. “I know I agree with Gresham on this that we don’t see The Foundation as just a faction in Ring of Honor. We know that if we’re going to stand by our ideals and our vision of wrestling that we want to find the people all across the world who agree with that and get the most power and most momentum behind that we can.
So, to now see that coming into fruition and seeing people from all over, not just in Ring of Honor, being welcomed in and being acknowledged as people who can carry that flag and represent what The Foundation is all about is super exciting.
“I think Chris Ridgeway is a great example of that,” Williams commented on the 10-year veteran. “He’s a great first step in that process, and I’m just excited to see who else pops up, and who else we can make connections with, and share those ideas between each other and all that. It’s exciting. It’s definitely exciting.”
The Foundation: Phase Two
The Foundation’s recent addition falls right in line with the vision that the group has had for months. In an interview with WrestleZone just over a year ago, Williams alluded to the overall vision of The Foundation, speaking of a two-part approach to expansion.
“You talked about phase two of The Foundation, where phase one was [to] establish yourself and win all the championships,” I stated. “Now it’s looking like you’re moving into that phase two of recruiting. Obviously, you kick it off with Ridgeway, but without giving away the farm, is there anybody else that maybe you would specifically be looking at to bring into The Foundation, whether with Ring of Honor right now or crossing the proverbial forbidden door?
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Williams smiled. “When you start thinking about all the doors you could go through [and] all the bridges that you could cross, I mean, there are tons of people,” said the former tag team champion. “I think it’s no secret I’ve always been a huge supporter of Wheeler Yuta, [and] always been a huge supporter of Fred Yehi. These are both guys that I’ve teamed with in many other places, but I think it would be great to see people of all different kinds and all different genders represent The Foundation. There are great technical wrestlers across all spectrums of human existence.
“I’m a big fan of Nicole Savoy,” he mused. “She’s a great technical wrestler. I think she would be – I’d be proud to have her carrying that flag. Yeah, there’s a couple names that I could think of, but there are people of all kinds all across that we’ve got our eyes on.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes. Thank you!