Shane Taylor Wants To Be Third African American Man To Do This In ROH

Shane Taylor has made a name for himself all over professional wrestling, including in top indie promotions like GCW, ROH, and Impact Wrestling. He was brought back into the spotlight during the ROH Final Battle pay-per-view this past weekend, teaming up with JD Griffey in a loss to Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland, but he sees the opportunity as beneficial despite losing. Speaking with "One Fall With Ron Funches," Taylor opened up about how he's once again focused on becoming one of the only Black ROH champions in the history of the company.

"I'm looking forward to those challenges but also quickly reestablishing to the audience and to my competition just who the man is, right? And the one thing that I have yet to do that I couldn't accomplish was win the Ring of Honor World Championship, and to me, being that guy to reach the top of that mountain and be only the third African American male to be able to do that, other than Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham, that's a big goal for me."

This wouldn't be the first time Taylor was making waves for the African American community while signed with ROH — Taylor was the third black man in history to win the ROH World TV title. "So, it's lining up where I can possibly make that history again, but that's important to me [to become World Champion," Taylor added. Taylor was in a feud for the ROH World Championship in early 2021, and if he had emerged successful, it would have marked a historic moment when a Black WWE World Champion and ROH World Champion were reigning simultaneously — something he still wants to happen. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, ROH temporarily closed all operations in 2021 until being bought by Tony Khan earlier this year.