Matt Taven Comments On His ROH Contract Status, Who He Is Rooting For In ROH #1 Contender Tournament

Matt Taven is currently the ROH World Champion but is also reportedly poised to be a free agent. There are rumors that Taven's contract is up this month and he weighed in on those reports when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"The wrestling business is one of those things where you can never say, 'This is definitely gonna happen.' So, I'm leaving it at that. It's one of those things where it will be sorted out in time," said Taven.

ROH TV Champion Shane Taylor recently had his Ring of Honor contract bought out and Taven weighed in on that.

"I think everyone is trying to be like Matt Taven and having contract situations coming up in September. I'm such a trendsetter where everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon," stated Taven.

"Shane, I think has been on a roll lately and he's an underappreciated champion. It's really something that I've only seen on the fringes because I have a pretty big match coming up with Rush. Shane Taylor may have his little situation but I have something big on the horizon and that's where my focus is at."

ROH is slated to hold a No. 1 Contender Tournament for Taven's world championship and Taven calls that just desperation on ROH's part to try to take the title from him.

"I'm not really sure how to feel at this point because ROH has done nothing but throw every single person they could at me with the hopes that someone could take the title off me," Taven said before listing off the various competitors to his title. "Not a single person has dethroned me. It's one of those things where it's like ROH seems desperate for people to challenge me for the title so they give all these guys an opportunity. It doesn't matter who it is, the results are gonna be the same.

"But I personally will be cheering for Jay Lethal. Why? Because me and Jay Lethal have had this rivalry going for the past six years and since I've become champion, I've been waiting for the moment I can put my foot on his chest, hold the title in the air and declare the end of the feud."

Marty Scurll is one of the competitors in the tournament and Taven was asked if he'd like to see him in the finals.

"I've been waiting. It's not like I've turned down any people that have stepped up to the plate. Every single person with a pair of wrestling boots, I've accepted the challenge," stated Taven. "But Marty hasn't stepped up and hasn't even been curious. I'm curious as to why he isn't curious. So, I'm sitting here waiting for that day that Marty the Melvin wants to get slapped around by Matt Taven."

Just as Taven isn't paying too much attention to Shane Taylor's situation, he also isn't keeping an eye on Flip Gordon getting booted from Villain Enterprises.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Flip Gordon ? I know him as the intern which was how he was introduced to me. Now that he's having a lover's quarrel with the rest of the island of misfit toys, am I supposed to care about that? I'm confused; the guy is an intern. He's the one who goes and gets the copies and they want to play with promotions? Just do your job and make sure all of the copies get done," said Taven.

Matt Taven defends his ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Rush tonight at ROH's Death Before Dishonor. Taven's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Taven discusses his current ROH contract, defending his title against RUSH at Death Before Dishonor, the ROH World title #1 Contender's tournament, who he'd like to see win the tournament, Super Humman, ROH's relationship with CMLL and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.