Matt Taven has had some experience in a producer role in professional wrestling and hopes to be able to use that to extend his career in the industry after he is done between the ropes.
Matt Taven is a former Ring of Honor World Champion and one of the key wrestlers whose name was synonymous with the company for the last half-decade. Even though he loves sitting on the throne of his wrestling Kingdom and basking in the spotlight while inside the squared circle, he has also had instances where he was able to help further along the next generation of wrestling stars.
Speaking on USA Today’s Under the Ring podcast, Matt Taven detailed his experiences as a trainer and behind-the-scenes agent for Ring of Honor and Northeast Wrestling.
“The pandemic really kind of closed the doors on it for now. But we had 'The Wrestling Kingdom' in Rhode Island, where we're able to — some of my favorite times, honestly, because so many people help you along the way,” said Matt. “I mean, maybe it's different for other people. But for me, you know, there's been so many people that have helped me, and even if they're not necessarily your trainer, they've given you a little piece of pieces of advice along the way. Now, to be able to kind of see that come to fruition with a lot of guys that we helped out and trained, there's Waves and Curls who are the NEW Tag Team Champions, and they're champions everywhere right now. My man, Love Doug, he's tearing it up in Beyond Wrestling. I mean, there's so many people that that came through the doors there, even people that might have trained somewhere else, and then came then trained at our school that to now see them go out there.
“Recently, I was able to come back home and kind of take a picture with a crew of guys and girls that, you know, we helped along the way,” Matt continued. “That's one of the coolest things of my journey in wrestling is like now that I'm considered a vet, which seems so weird and happened so quick in my mind. I'm able to help out. In Ring of Honor, I was able to produce and agent, and obviously, Mike and I have the school I was helping train and now you're seeing kind of that art of wrestling go from you into other people and keep branching out and it makes you look back at all the people that helped you along the way and be grateful for that. So it was an amazing experience and, really, it saved me in a lot of ways because I was coming back from the knee surgery when we started the school and so it was a way to kind of get in the ring and really test it out because that was a scary, scary process. My first match back was like in a new place in front of a sold-out Arena Mexico, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I'm gonna need to get in the ring a lot before this.’ So I was able to rehab both surgeries with the school. But at the same time, like I said, and still to this day, I was just texting a bunch of the guys last night because they'll send me their matches, and I'll be able to critique them and even with them being, you know, kind of out of the training situation and doing other things, we keep that relationship and you keep those bonds, and that's more than you could ever ask for.”
Furthermore, Matt Taven talked about what his career could potentially look like when he's done in the ring and stated that he could potentially move into a full-time position behind the scenes or move away from wrestling altogether. But, if any of that does happen, it won't be anytime soon.
“I was Northeast Wrestling Champion, and I blew up my ACL and then re-signed to a deal with Ring of Honor, during the time I was rehabbing. But part of that was I was going to be exclusive and couldn't do independents anymore. So it was this weird part where I was like, ‘I guess I can't work Northeast now,’ and I was still rehabbing," Taven claimed. “Thankfully, Michael Lombardi knows that not only do I love wrestling, as far as in front of the camera, I love the whole part of it, you know, everything that goes into it,” Matt said. “So the behind the scenes stuff, it was always something that I was interested in, and wanting to be a part of. Thankfully, Michael gave me the opportunity to do that. And again, the biggest part of that is just helping other guys and seeing them succeed, especially in a place where, you know, it helped you out so much. So I always try to think about life down the road after wrestling. Maybe not saying that that soon. But it's just one of those things where you're like, I want to see if I'll have to completely pivot elsewhere, or if I'll be able to work in wrestling forever. Because even if I'm not in the ring, and the spotlight’s not on me, I still love everything that goes along with that. To kind of be a part of that behind the scenes stuff, Michael Lombardi gave me my first opportunity to do that with Northeast, and like I was saying, I started kind of helping out with agenting in Ring of Honor, now's the time where so much stuff's up in the air, I really don't have the opportunity to do it as much I'm not able to get up to Northeast and help out to be on the scene as much or as much as I would like to. So that's one of those things where I'm thankful for that experience so much and I'm hoping I can use it again down the road.”
Currently, Matt Taven is with IMPACT Wrestling and will be a part of a big 8-man tag match this coming Thursday as Honor no More faces Bullet Club. Learn more here.
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