Matt Taven talks Ring of Honor, Andrade, The Elite and more

Of all the matches on tap for Friday’s 19th Anniversary Show presented by Ring of Honor, Matt Taven vs. Vincent just might promise to be the most must-see, as well as the most violent.

The two have been at odds for over a year and a half when Vincent betrayed his former friend and put an ax to his head. Vincent went on to defeat Taven one-on-one at Final Battle 2019, but that merely marked the beginning of what has been a ruthless rivalry between them.

Their Unsanctioned match is sure to be a spectacle in one way or another, but it’s just one of many marquee matches on the card. The 19th Anniversary will serve as the next step in has been an exciting period for Ring of Honor since its relaunch in the fall, as it can easily be argued that it’s one of the best weekly wrestling products on TV right now.

Taven shares that sentiment, and in this exclusive interview with Daily DDT, he discusses wanting to get his hands on Vincent, re-signing with ROH, why he wants Andrade on the roster, proving his naysayers wrong, and more.

Matt Taven discusses his bad blood with Vincent and reuniting with Mike Bennett

“I’ve been waiting for this moment since December of 2019,” Taven said. “I had to sit through a whole pandemic just hoping this moment would come. There was a long time where I didn’t think it would happen.”

It will be a bittersweet moment for Taven to settle his score with Vincent in Fall River, MA, a place where the two shared locker rooms together while on the independent scene. Now, it will host one of ROH’s most brutal battles in recent memory.

The two previously ran alongside each other in The Kingdom, but the original incarnation of The Kingdom saw Taven teaming with Mike Bennett. Taven and Bennett held tag team gold in ROH and NJPW together and were waiting for the perfect moment to finally reunite, despite it happening in the midst of a pandemic.

“It’s been one of those things where this is what we always wanted to happen,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for this moment. We talked about this for years now. We’ve been planning for this, what’s going to happen when we finally do this again.

“I feel like me and Mike still haven’t been able to show what we used to, what we can do, why he came back in the first place,” he continued. “The fact that we are, in my opinion, one of the best tag teams in Ring of Honor history and we haven’t really been able to prove that yet because of Vinny, and it’s another thing that after Friday, I can move past [him] and I and Mike can go off on our way and show people exactly why after five years we are still the same team we were when we were IWGP and Ring of Honor Tag Team champions.

Taven had his first match under ROH contract at the 2012’s Anniversary Show against Adam Cole. When you consider his clashes with Cody Rhodes and most notably Jay Lethal that went to the time-limit draw, it isn’t a stretch to say that Taven is Mr. Anniversary Show. His upcoming war with Vincent will put that title to the test.

Matt Taven explains why he re-signed with Ring of Honor

At one point, it was commonplace for wrestlers to win the ROH World Championship before going elsewhere. Eddie Edwards, Kevin Steen, Adam Cole, Cody Rhodes, and Kyle O’Reilly all fell in that category at one point or another.

Taven has proven to be the exception, along with The Briscoes and Jay Lethal. When asked about his decision to stay, he simply cited loyalty.

“Loyalty is everything to me,” he said. “It’s why I and Mike Bennett can pick up right where we left off because I’m loyal to people that are great to me and Ring of Honor has always been great to me.”

After suffering a serious injury at Final Battle 2015, Taven had no idea what the future held for him. Bennett had just left for IMPACT and Taven was on his own, but ROH didn’t hesitate to keep him under contract and show him how committed they were to make him a key part of the promotion.

ROH is home for Taven and he doesn’t see himself going anywhere else for that reason alone.

“I will always want to be here at Ring of Honor,” he said. “Who knows what the future will hold, but in my heart, I will be with Ring of Honor forever. I have a sense of pride in a place that shows so much loyalty and pride toward me.”

Taven believes in the brand of ROH and for good reason. Despite their various setbacks in 2019 following the departure of The Elite among other issues that plagued the promotion, ROH relaunched in late 2020 with an excellent weekly product.

It’s hard to argue with that opinion when you consider everything ROH has done right since its return to weekly programming and pay-per-views and the talent they’ve picked up and held onto.

“Since the pandemic, I will honestly challenge anyone out there to say that any product touches Ring of Honor,” Taven said. “The Pure Championship Tournament was fantastic, Jonathan Gresham has been the absolute MVP since the return of Ring of Honor, and maybe I’m biased, but [between] pay-per-views and weekly TV, Ring of Honor is putting the best stuff out there. There was always that sense of pride in me to be a part of this thing, to keep it going, and to make sure that it is the best product humanly possible.

Matt Taven on Andrade in ROH and there not being as much of a turnover rate anymore

When asked about who he’d like to see join the ROH roster sooner rather than later, Taven didn’t hesitate in saying, Andrade. The recently-released WWE star is officially a free agent and is reportedly clear to compete anywhere he wants whenever he wants.

Taven has interacted with Andrade before and would love to have him in the ROH locker room.

“Andrade, La Sombra, whatever he wants to go by in Ring of Honor, I’m okay with it,” he said. “I’ve seen him in Mexico, in Japan, we’ve crossed paths and obviously watched him in NXT and WWE. He’s unreal. I think he would fit perfectly in the Ring of Honor locker room and on that roster. If this is a sales pitch, come on, come home. You know a lot of people in this locker room. You have a lot of good friends here.”

Additionally, the turnover rate in ROH isn’t what it once was. As previously noted, they’re holding onto all of their top names and bringing other terrific talents such as Mike Bennett and EC3 into the fold.

Done are the days of ROH being seen as a “stepping stone” for NXT and other companies; it is its own commodity and an exciting one at that.

“This is no longer a place where people come and go,” he said. “For years, Ring of Honor… some people looked at it as an audition to go elsewhere. I think guys like myself, The Briscoes, Jay Lethal, and Rush re-signing and staying, all these top guys in the company saying, ‘No, this is our home. There is where we want to be. This is where we like to be. This is where we find ourselves to be the happiest.

“I think it’s trickled down to other guys that have seen that and say, ‘Okay, this is no longer going to be a place that could have turnover from time to time. This is going to be a place that’s very stable and I’m going to have to work hard to break through the ranks because these guys aren’t going anywhere.’”

Matt Taven wants to regain the ROH World Title to prove his critics wrong, again

Taven has won almost every title there is to win in Ring of Honor, and yet he still has a long list of goals he hopes to accomplish.

One of those goals, other than wanting to continue building the brand of ROH, is him wanting to capture the ROH Pure Championship at some point.

“To me, and maybe this is because of my personality or because I hear the things around me, but me, I have so much left to prove,” he said. “I’ve never won the Pure title. I don’t know if I could handle The Octopus because watching him wrestle with pure rules blows my mind sometimes, but I’d love to challenge myself in that sense.”

Furthermore, he wants to also hold the ROH World Tag Team Championship because he hated the way their first reign ended at Final Battle 2015. The story never got a proper payoff, so redeeming himself in that sense is important to him.

Finally, he has his sights set on becoming a two-time ROH World champion. His first reign was marred by criticism, some of it unjustified because of the circumstances in the company at the time. Taven, to his credit, made the most of an unfortunate situation.

Now that he’s evolved as a performer and is even better than he was two years ago, another run with the top title is Taven’s top priority at the moment.

“I still feel I have a lot to prove to people as world champion,” he said. “When 2019 came around, we knew what was happening. We knew a shift was happening and half our roster left in one night. To look down the barrel of rebuilding and to say, ‘I’ll take that challenge on, throw it on my shoulders,’ is something that I’m proud of.

“But I think there were a lot of people that had doubts in me, including you. I think I made you eat your words every single time I got in the ring, but there’s still a big part of me that says not enough people saw that because of the transitioning happening in the wrestling world and I want that title back just to prove to the Melvins out there that had any sort of doubt there’s a reason why I was world champion. If you missed the matches I had as world champion, then let me have that title again and I’ll show you one more time exactly why I think I deserve to be the world champion again.”

Don’t miss ROH’s 19th Anniversary Show on Friday, March 26th at 8/7c, live on pay-per-view and HonorClub.