Earlier today I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with ROH superstar and current reigning six-man tag team champion (along with Moses & Kaun) Shane Taylor, who talked with me in detail about ROH releasing all their talent for the recently announced rebuild in 2022. Taylor discusses where he hopes to end up now that he is a free agent in the competitive wrestling industry, adding that he plans on bringing Shane Taylor promotions wherever he goes. Highlights from our talk, including the full video interview, can be found below.
His thoughts on ROH’s rebuild and being released from his contract:
I mean, it’s, it’s surprising. It’s not something that if you were paying attention that you didn’t foresee maybe being an option or being a potential thing. So it’s not very, it’s not shocking. It’s disappointing. Because you know, just cause of how hard the talent has been working. For the last 18 months or so, there’s been no roster that’s consistently put on the performances that we have. And what’s really disappointing is I felt like we were kind of kind of turning a corner. It’s just one of those things where you’ve made this big comeback in the game, you just didn’t have enough time. I mean, and that’s the feeling that I get all the time, time just ran out, you know what I mean? And for the hole that we were put in, and the continuous things that kept continuing to trip us up. The talent has been absolutely incredible. So I tip my hat to every man and woman there who have been busting their ass and you know, spending time away from their families and putting their bodies to hell. For Ring of Honor, and for what we have, and the passion that we had for that place. So we’re we’ve got this taping coming up this week. And then we’ve got Final Battle. And I’m sure everybody’s gonna go out there and absolutely, leave it all on the line one last time.
Where he sees himself and the rest of Shane Taylor promotions ending up:
Everything’s an option right now. I’ve already had different places reach out. So everything is an option right now. I think what me and the guys are going to do and, and because again, the the idea and the goal is to keep all of us together. Because I feel like we were just sort of scratching the surface of what we could be in ROH. I still feel like there was so much more left to do there. But obviously we’re going to have to continue that work elsewhere. So the goal will be to bring this whole thing to, you know, as one unit as a package deal. And bring it to a place that isn’t afraid of pushing…pushing the lines, being able to be real and you know, be controversial at times, but know that it’s all towards the greater good. So anywhere where they can say “Hey, you know what we trust you guys to be who you are and take us where we need to go.” You know that’s probably going to be where we end up, but there’s a lot of places now that could use talent that is ready to step into a main event. Especially African American talent. So We’re we’re excited about the possibilities of working with everybody.
On his ROH run, feeling the support from fans, and getting to work with the ROH greats:
We just appreciate the support man. It’s been a crazy 14 year career, six of that being in Ring of Honor, a place that, you know, was one of my dream places to go when I started. So to be able to have the run that I did and make the history that I did with the people around me, the people that I got to step into the ring with that I had looked up to guys like the Briscoes, guys like Jay Lethal, you know, to be able to have their respect to be able to have them, you know, respect me and tell me personally what they think of what I can do means the world.
