Pro-wrestling star Matt Taven recently joined the Under The Ring podcast to discuss a number of different topics, including his thoughts on his ROH world title reign, how he feels about being blamed for the company’s attendance drop at that time, and how much he’s enjoyed his time at ROH. Highlights from the interview are below.
On his run as ROH World champion and whether he feels responsible for the significant drop in attendance at that time:
That’s an interesting question [what Matt thinks of his ROH run]. Um, I feel proud in many ways. At the same time, I definitely feel like there’s so much to prove still and I’m still very — I’m fighting very much for it and what I mean by that is like, say what you want about what ended up happening with Ring of Honor and a lot of people like to put that blame on my shoulders and I have no problem taking that head-on. At the time, we had just lost the guys to — we basically built the company around for the previous couple of years and you know, seven, nine, all these — almost half the roster in one night and I vividly remember the shows directly after that, the houses being down and stuff and going into Madison Square Garden, we had already saw what the first couple of months were before that and I really felt like, all right, I have no problem taking whatever heat comes with this and I felt like besides for one match maybe, I am very extremely proud of what I did with the Ring of Honor World Title but, the time that it happened, I feel like it maybe doesn’t get the attention that I feel like it deserves or the appreciation or just the respect in general.
Says he takes everything to heart, but only has fond memories of working for ROH:
It’s one of those things that I think for me personally, I’ve always taken things [to heart] to drive me to get me up in the morning. Almost that Michael Jordan, ‘I took that personally too’ so like, I take everything pretty to heart and I feel very much proud of what I’ve done so when I hear anyone question that, I’m like, all right, well go back and watch it. I’ll put it up against anyone so I constantly have that feeling in the back of my mind to when I’m asked about this grand picture about my Ring of Honor run, it’s oddly very much focused there because I feel like I’m still fighting that battle so, with all the things that I ended up doing there that were absolutely… I look back and I’m almost in awe of it because I had such a great time there and was able to do so much. I mean right from the beginning, winning the Top Prospect tournament and the Television Championship but, me and Mike [Bennett] proving a lot of people wrong and winning those tag titles and being able to go back and forth with Ring of Honor and New Japan and then coming back from injury and doing the Six-Man Title run. There’s so many things to proud of and you know, right now with things changing so much, I feel like I’m constantly thinking of how it ended more than how it went. So I’m sure maybe years down the line, I’ll be able to appreciate it more but right now when you ask that question, made me — I haven’t been asked that question so it made me feel all sorts of ways so that’s about as honest as I can get. You know, I think when I — down the line when I sit back and look at it, things probably — I’ll appreciate them more but, I think right now, I’m still fighting that battle of something to prove and especially with the last — the pandemic years, there’s so many good things that happened in Ring of Honor, not just for myself but for other people that were there as well, that I feel like just doesn’t get the credit that it deserves. So, it’s one of those things where… right now, I definitely feel there’s just like a thing, like a defensive-proving-ness, however I can say that when I think back on Ring of Honor. But at the same time, everything’s just so fresh.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
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