Shane Taylor has been a free agent since Ring of Honor went on hiatus following Final Battle 2021.
Taylor was a staple in ROH as the leader of Shane Taylor Promotions and a former ROH Television and Six-Man Tag Team Champion. His Fight Without Honor match against Kenny King at Final Battle 2021 was one of the top matches on the night as it concluded the long history between the two men.
Speaking to JOFO In The Ring, Taylor was asked about his current status as a free agent and the buzz for STP with ROH going on hiatus.
"There's definitely buzz, for sure. I know, some people have issues with me because of how I represent myself, the subject matter in which I represent. There are a lot of people, who are in positions of power, who just don't understand what this is. It was no different than some of the conversations we had in ROH. You have people who aren't educated enough on the things we're trying to do and understand that when we talk about being for our culture and being proud of who we are, that is not negative against anybody else, it's not excluding anybody else. If you were to say that you were proud to be Canadian, no one would say that you hate America or England or Portugal, you're just proud to be who you are. It's no different with us. We've always said that we are for everybody, but WE aren't for everybody because we are loud, we are boisterous, brash, confident, we're good and we know we are. We know what our worth is and for some people, hearing that coming from us is an issue. When you look at the responses online, the merch, all this, there are people of all backgrounds, and ethnicities, that support STP and do so proudly. That should show you right there that we're able to make this thing work and get all this love and buzz, essentially by ourselves, what do you think happens when you put us on a major network? This is only going to go up. Right now, the lay for some people is what they've heard about me vs. them actually knowing me. My question then is, 'what's the agenda of those people trying to make sure that we're not there?' Really, they're protecting a spot if that's the case, in my opinion. They see what we're about to do, they see who we are, and they see the organic following we've built, damn near by ourselves. That's something that they can't reproduce. There are a few things on the table, we're going to discuss all that in due time. We're just here, we're grinding. For a lot of people, they don't understand that we can't just show up in a place. We can't just show up at AEW or IMPACT or wherever. 'You should just show up.' That's not how it works. That's not real life," he said.
He continued by saying, "It's just a waiting game at this point. I know that's not something our fans want to hear, but this is the process, it's how it goes. Our job is to make sure that when we get that call, we absolutely knock it out of the park and that's what we're going to do."
Taylor compared STP to a team being drafted, believing they should be first round picks and that companies are going to regret passing on them the same way teams regret passing on Tom Brady.
ROH was purchased by Tony Khan in March 2022 and two events have been run under the Khan era. Shane Taylor was not part of either event.
When asked about being part of the new ROH, Taylor replied, "We go back to the politics of things. I know, when I started STP and everything from the beginning, I got everything cleared from the best way I knew how to do it. We did it, the way we went about doing it, some folks were upset, but we had to get the eyes, we had to do what we had to do and we made it work. I've got messages from people who were like, 'we didn't like this when it started, we didn't think it was good for the company, we didn't like this, we didn't want to promote this, we didn't want to do anything, but y'all made it work. Good job.' My response was, 'Yeah, I wasn't going to not let it work.' You don't go that far out on a limb and not do what you have to do. A group like ours was never supposed to be a thing. There were people who were trying to make it happen and were flat out told 'no, this is not what we want, this is not where we're going to go.' We were an anomaly because we shouldn't have been a thing yet we were, we made it work, it was popular and we were the most talked about thing, not only when it came to six-man stuff but as the company as a whole, even though other people were supposed to be promoted before and more, everyone is talking about this group that shouldn't exist. I think the fact that I am as steadfast in my beliefs and vision for how I wanted things to go was a problem for some. Everybody talks and people play these games and I'm sure that it's one of those things where 'we didn't like this guy.' 'Okay, we don't like this guy either.' Okay. If you sit down and have a conversation with somebody and understand what the motives and intentions were and what we were trying to do, I feel people come out with a better respect and understanding as opposed to dealing with emotion."
Taylor has wrestled for various Independent promotions, largely in the Texas area since leaving ROH.
He did make an appearance for a television company over the weekend. Fans can find out which promotion by clicking here.
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