ROH TV Champ Shane Taylor Discusses Bully Ray - Fan Incident, Upcoming Bandido Match
At an ROH live event in Portland last week, a fan says he was confronted by Bully Ray after what the fan calls playful trash talk to Velvet Sky and other talent. That prompted both Bully Ray and ROH to come out with statements about the matter and others in the industry are also weighing in on the situation.
One of those people is the new ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on Wednesday's edition of our WINCLY podcast.
"This is the thing: whatever character you wanna portray is fine. Having people say stuff to you comes with that territory but there are lines that you shouldn't cross," said Taylor. "If someone crosses those lines, you still have to remember that's someone wife. Someone is gonna come to the defense of that person. I know if that was my wife what I would do, but nothing like that happened.
"I believe in this social media era that the things you say and do don't have consequences. You can say whatever you want ? that's not the world that I come from. I would take the story with a grain of salt because you're only hearing from the fan's perspective. I wasn't there so I can't tell you, but some people can definitely cross lines. When they do, do we not have the right to be like, 'Hey man, what's your issue?'"
Taylor will put his TV title on the line against Bandido at Best in the World in a few weeks. He talked about what fans can expect to see.
"They're gonna get to see a tremendous clash of styles. You have Bandido who is one of the best high-flyers on the planet against the hardest hitter in ROH. They are gonna see him flip and fly all over the ring only to get smashed in the face by me," stated Taylor.
"I am gonna destroy the aura of Bandido. It's funny that you have a guy who's name is Bandido which translates to bandit or thief and this is a guy that we're cheering now? If I was a bandit or a thief, society would view me differently. But that's okay. He's gonna come in here with all of the support and everybody's gonna leave with their hearts broken thanks to Shane Taylor."
Taylor was then asked if Bandido would be better served outside a big group like Lifeblood.
"I can't speak to what he would be better off doing. He picked his right; he's a grown man. That's for him to decide. The only thing for me is to knock down whoever's in front of me and that's him," stated Taylor.
Taylor got to take on some other members of Lifeblood in a Six-man New York City Street Fight at the G1 Supercard. He talked about being able to perform in The World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
"Anytime you get to be a part of history, it sticks with you," revealed Taylor. "So for me, being able to say that I was in sold out MSG still gives me goosebumps and I definitely will remember that for the rest of my career."
Shane Taylor is the current Ring of Honor World Television Champion. He will defend his title against Bandido on Friday June 28th as part of ROH's Best In The World PPV. Taylor's full interview with Wrestling Inc was included on Wednesday's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post.
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