ROH superstar Mike Benett and Matt Taven, better known as The OGK, recently appeared on the ROHStrong podcast to discuss winning the ROH tag team championship, an accomplishment that is hard for the duo to enjoy as the company is on the eve of going on hiatus in 2022. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Taven says the win is hard to enjoy because it happened in front of no fans on the even of the company going on hiatus:
“It’s so hard, it’s just so unbelievably hard. I don’t know how else to say it. You wanted something for so long, and it happens, but it’s just not the way it’s supposed to happen. I’ve been talking about, since we’ve been back and in the pandemic era, the things that have happened with no crowd, from my own return to Mike Bennett’s return to you know, something that we had been backdoor planning for years, happened in front of no one. And for this to happen in this circumstance, not just without the crowd, but knowing that we don’t know what tomorrow brings, it’s a tough one. It’s a tough one. And you know, it’s funny because you want to enjoy these things and you know, you don’t too much stock to the things online but everyone, you know, questions about what’s happening for the future and they have their little comments to make. And obviously that’s been in our minds the whole time, but when you’re holding on, you’re looking at your suitcase and there’s this big trophy that you’ve been desperate for for almost six years now, but when you pick it up, you think of all these uncertain things that might happen. It’s, you know, you’re playing with a double-edged sword. And it’s been tough. It’s been really tough.”
Taven on how sad he feels that the ROH family is about to be broken up:
“It’s a tough thing for all the guys in the locker room. So when I watched [the match] last night, I loved it because of what it was for Mike and I, and such a road to get back here. But it was a tough one, just because I know hard everyone works in that locker room, you know, everyone, from the production to the people that set up the ring. God, I love this place so much, and they’re all my family. And to see kind of the end of the road coming up sooner than later, it was tough because at the end of that match, I knew we were one step closer to the end. So I mean I have all the faith in the world that all these guys and girls will do great things in this business, one way or the other. But it’s always tough because no matter what, when someone leaves or goes somewhere else, you don’t see them as much, you don’t talk to them as much. This is just such a hectic world that you kind of live in this bubble where, if someone’s not in that bubble with you, they’re on the outskirts of your life. And to think the family that we’ve all grown together here in Ring of Honor, to think that we’re not gonna be in the same bubble anymore, that’s tough. That sucks.”
Bennett agrees with Taven, but admits that the victory still felt important to him:
“Matt couldn’t have said it any better about how I’m feeling, honestly, he kind of summed everything up about my exact emotions,” said Bennett. “The only thing I’ll add is that the win last night, it was the first time in my very long career that I feel like, not that I feel like, but what actually happened was, when the three count happened, I don’t ever remember uncontrollably crying like I did in that exact moment. And I didn’t exactly know what I was crying for because the emotions were all so conjumbled and joined together, and it was kind of like what Matt was saying. It was this moment of, we had set out on something that was very personal to us, and that was regaining the tag team championship because I feel like when I left and when everything kind of hit the fan, it was that one thing that we always had in the back of our mind that we’re like, ‘Alright, we always have this goal that we’re gonna get back to.”
Bennett discusses the career paths of himself and Taven that led to this moment:
“And then to see the paths that our careers took and then to come full circle in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of all this crap happening, and to just once again be on that path and that goal, and to set it and to feel like we were on that trajectory that we wanted to accomplish, and then to have the rug pulled out from underneath you, yeah, it’s an emotion of happiness and sadness and anger and being terrified and being sad, it’s just, literally every single emotion went though my body at that point. And I guess the only way to handle it was to just uncontrollably cry, and so that was the first time I experienced that in a match. But it was a special moment. And regardless of my emotions behind it, whether they’re sad or anger or just pure happiness, it’s probably gonna be one of, if not the the most significant world championship win I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
(H/T and transcribed by WrestleZone)