Matt Taven Discusses AEW's The Butcher Helping With His Madison Square Garden Entrance

Matt Taven's defining moment of his career came at last year's Supercard when he won the ROH World Championship in a three-way ladder match with Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll. It took months of preparation and build-up for Taven to reach that main event spot and he was asked if he had a backup plan if he didn't wind up in the Supercard main event when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.

"It's kinda a funny thing because you get into conversations with people where, 'This should have happened at Supercard or that should have happened.' Whatever, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But since I had come back from CMLL, I had talked such a big game and built myself up in such a way that if I didn't pull through when I finally had the opportunity, it would kill everything I had built up to," admitted Taven.

"The way the story would have made the most sense going into MSG was how exactly it happened. If you watched the last six months leading up to it, I had built this rivalry with Jay Lethal up all the way to if Matt Taven doesn't finally live up to all of this trash he's been talking for months, well then now he doesn't have anything to back up these words and they're empty.

"When we finally got to MSG, I didn't know what was gonna happen until the day of. So, I didn't really have any other thought in mind because this is the only thing that could and should happen."

It was Taven's first World Championship and it also made him ROH's second-ever Grand Slam Champion. He was asked if capturing the title on top of the ladder was what he expected it to be.

"It's funny because anyone that watches wrestling with me laughs because I make movements as if I'm still in ring and trying to correct my movements as I watch them. I think everyone has little things they would critique when they watch back moments like that. Even with I grabbed the title after Jay gets knocked off the ladder, to me, I thought that moment was so long of me holding onto the title and looking around MSG. That felt like a lifetime but then I watch it back and it was two seconds," recalled Taven.

"I could have taken another second to enjoy that moment a little more? Everyone that whole day was like, 'Take a second for yourself.' But I watched it back and it's like a millisecond and I'm rushing right to the moment of ripping down that belt. Maybe it's because the mark in me is thinking I've got to make this official before someone takes it from me."

For the Supercard show, Taven wanted a special theme song and he ended up enlisting Andy "The Butcher" from AEW.

"Andy is a guy that I've known through The Blade for a long time. We were all in that scene and genre of music and we'd go to shows," stated Taven. "[Blade] told me that he knew Andy from [the band] Every Time I Die and I knew he was a wrestling fan and that he wanted to get into it. This guy looks like a mean dude and is built like a house so I said, 'You should definitely get into this.'"

As for Taven's MSG theme, had ideas for people to play piano for his intro but everyone kept backing out. Taven told Andy he was having a problem and he immediately had a recommendation of someone Taven could use for the song.

"My entrance I envisioned forever at MSG was slowly turning into a nightmare until Andy was able to hook me up with the guy that ended up playing it," said Taven who also noted that Andy helped he and his girlfriend get stage passes for a Yellowcard concert and they were very appreciative.

Matt Taven can be seen every week as part of ROH TV. For more information about ROH please visit www.ROHWrestling.com. Taven's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.