Matt Taven is ready for his future and for Madison Square Garden.
The "conspiracy" that The Kingdom have claimed is against them in Ring Of Honor has disappeared for the time being as Matt Taven is getting a shot at the ROH World Championship on Saturday at Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Supercard show in a Triple Threat Ladder match involving Marty Scurll and the current champion Jay Lethal. Taven has stated for months that he is the real ROH World Champion and the higher-ups in the company have it out for him and do not want him to be champion.
ROH and NJPW's G1 Supercard has sold out Madison Square Garden and Taven shared that his first memories of wrestling take place in MSG and for him to be in a marquee match in that building makes everything come full circle.
"I've been a wrestling fan since I was six-years-old." Taven said during an interview with Mirror Sport. "My first memories of wrestling in general, take place at Madison Square Garden. I can remember being a fan before this but I vividly recall like SummerSlam '91, begging my parents to get it on pay-per-view. Seeing Bret Hart beat Mr. Perfect and Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior teamed up that night. I'm that little kid tying my shoelaces on my arm and pretending I'm the Ultimate Warrior at Madison Square Garden. Now for it to finally be happening, I'm excited. Every once in a while I have to take myself down a notch and say, 'You've got this, it's just Madison Square Garden which you've always wanted to do. It's just finally happening'. I'm excited, I'm anxious, I'm nervous, I'm all of the above. I think once you get in there, it's a different story, but getting in there and walking around before the match, looking up at that ceiling, I'm going to have those butterflies. But I'll have the smile on my face that I have now. I couldn't be any more ecstatic not just to be there, but to be in the spot I’m in, fighting for the Ring of Honor World Championship."
Matt Taven currently runs a wrestling school in Rhode Island with Vinny Marseglia, TK O'Ryan and 205 Live's Mike Kanellis. Taven was asked about not being able to see Kanellis as often due to WWE's touring schedule and was also asked does he have any plans to join his former Kingdom stable-mate in WWE or head to All Elite Wrestling. Taven responded with, "never say never" and added that his contract with Ring Of Honor runs through the next few months.
"I always say 'never say never' on anything. It's one of those things where if you say, 'It's never going to happen', you can almost guarantee it's going to happen. Right now, my contract is still with Ring of Honor for the next few months. We'll see what happens at the end of that. The wrestling world is crazy. If you were to tell me there'd be an NXT U.K. and AEW and Ring of Honor is in Madison Square Garden and different divisions in WWE. If you'd have told me that when I started, I'd have never believed you." Taven said. "When I started, there was one way to get there and that was it. You had to be a football player, an amateur wrestler, now everything is so completely different. A year ago, going into Supercard of Honor, I was outside the building protesting the show. Now I'm in the world title match in the main event. So you never know what's going to happen."
Eleven matches are slated for G1 Supercard and Fightful will have live coverage of the show along with a post-show podcast on the Fightful Pro Wrestling YouTube channel once it concludes.
