With the Tiger King Netflix series taking over social media by storm, Matt Taven shares an interesting story about him going to Joe Exotic's zoo.
Taven was on ESPN West Palm and told the story of him going to the famous zoo along with some fellow Ring of Honor wrestlers. The former ROH World Champion said he, along with Jay Lethal and Dalton Castle, went to the zoo after seeing billboards about and when they were questioned on where they come from as Taven believed they were suspected of being spies or working with Carole Baskin.
“So I watched Tiger King like everybody else. So funny story, me, Jay Lethal, Dalton Castle actually went to Joe Exotic’s zoo. Yeah, we did. We had a show in Texas and the next day we were in Oklahoma City. On that drive you see nothing but billboards saying '240 exotic tigers' and then all of a sudden you see a billboard with Joe Exotic on it and you’re like 'I’m sold, I need to see what this place is all about.' So we went and we had no idea at the time, and I kind of found out after listening to a podcast before Tiger King, they got really weird when Jay Lethal told them he was from Tampa when they asked where we were all from. Because that ends up being where Big Cat Rescue and Carole Baskin is from. So they thought we were some sort of spies instead of some random guys walking in without a family like everybody else to this tiger zoo. So they thought we were some sort of animal activist or spy. I think after they saw our reaction to 'woah woah, we’re just here to see some tigers' they realized that we had no other intention besides exactly that,” Taven said.
Taven isn't the only wrestler who has a lot of thoughts on Exotic. Kofi Kingston watched the Netflix series and even said on The New Day's podcast that he wants to see Exotic vs. Baskin at WrestleMania. Tim Storm also spoke on meeting Exotic and you can check out his comments at this link.
The full interview can be heard at this link.
