When Matt Taven was ROH TV Champion and hanging around with the House of Truth I really wasn’t enjoying him. It wasn’t even all his fault — I fell off the bandwagon when Taven needed outside interference from everyone in the HOT to beat a non-contracted, one legged wrestler. That’s not Taven’s fault, it’s the way his character was presented and it was terrible. He was ruined for me, and for everyone else – which helps explain why he had to “quit” the company to freshen himself up. When Taven re-debuted as the infamous “Matt” of The Kingdom I went from apathy towards Taven to exploding heart shaped eyes.
Here’s the beauty of The Kingdom. They’re a heel stable, getting heel heat, for doing the exact things that the ROH fans hate the members for. Adam Cole is not the best example of this because he’s amazing and I think everyone is kind of on board with that classification, but people (and ROH fans in particular) genuinely dislike Michael Bennett and Matt Taven. They’re Jim Cornette era WWE-look talent that most of the dedicated ROH fans associate with the darkest timeline. So when Bennett or Taven are being anything other then completely abhorrent, move stealing, showoffs their talent is wasted. Michael Bennett may be the most hated wrestler on the American independent scene right now for reasons that are completely not his fault — but he has embraced them, used the “smark” narrative against the fans and is excelling right now. I’ve seen Michael Bennett literally get a crowd of bloodthirsty Beyond Wrestling fans to chant the exact thing that he was taunting them to chant. Newsflash, Bennett is amazing.
And now, all of a sudden — I find myself loving Matt Taven too.
That’s a long way to go to introduce this week’s ROH TV but I wanted to get some love in for The Kingdom before they disappear to Japan for the rest of the year.
Todd Sinclair bumps his ass off
I’ve been going back and watching some old ROH shows for a couple retrospective reviews that I’ll be posting in the not too distant future. One thing that I had forgotten is that Todd Sinclair has been taking a beating for YEARS in Ring of Honor. The opener this week was Cedric Alexander against Tommaso Ciampa and during the match Alexander absolutely kicked the shit out of Sinclair. Dude is an underrated performer.
As for the match, Tommaso Ciampa is one of the reasons that I tell people to watch Ring of Honor. Yes, they’re kind of recycling an old “me vs the man” wrestling storyline trope with Ciampa, but he’s so amazing at playing an unhinged killer that it’s working for me. I don’t really like the interaction with Nigel McGuinness because Nigel isn’t a good enough actor to play it off – and there is no pay off coming. Nigel and Tommaso are never going to wrestle. Cedric Alexander for his part is one of those guys that deserves to be in the conversation as “the future of ROH.” If Alexander doesn’t hold the ROH World Title one day then someone has made a significant mistake.
A great visual ends this match
Because he’s out of his mind after a decision is reversed and Alexander is awarded the victory, Ciampa hits a brain buster on a chair. The amazing visual comes after that when Ciampa takes the mangled chair, sets it up in the middle of the ring, sits in it and begs Nigel to come into the ring to stop him. It’s the little character moments like that which help build someone to icon status — it’s why Kevin Steen was able to get the ROH crowd to eat out of his hands and I think Ciampa is on his way to a similar position.
RD Evans and Moose with Veda Scott.
C’mon RD Evans, no Veda Scott (animated heart breaking .gif). Evans is probably the most gifted “comedic” performer in wrestling right now. Sorry Colt Cabana, sorry Kikutaro — but nobody can combine understated traits and character work like RD Evans. The guy is magnificent and teaming him with Moose is the perfect compliment to his style. Moose gets to hide his flaws in a tag team environment and Evans gets to continue the streak. See, even ROH does things right sometimes.
Here Michael Elgin is…I can’t even finish this thought.
I like Michael Elgin. He’s been nothing but nice to me when I’ve had the chances to speak to him, I’ve enjoyed more of his matches than I’ve hated and I’ve defended him on this site more than once against people who are bored by his schtick. That being said, the interview that Elgin did here was — not great. ROH had a real chance to do something interesting with Elgin, the last real “hero” on the roster who gets broken, not by an opponent but by circumstance and office politics. Remember when Steen hugged Corino and SCUM was formed? That hug was real and emotional and it wasn’t just Steen turning heel, it was Steen coming to terms with the fact that the office, and politics had put him in this position. Elgin could’ve done the same thing — instead he’s just going to wear a sports coat, pack a dip and say it’s time for him to be himself. Unless himself is a high flying luchador, I think we all know what we’re going to get from Elgin. This whole angle has been a nightmare and a real missed opportunity to do something interesting with one of your last truey established “good guys.”
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO MATT TAVEN?!
So Matt Taven debuts as the third (or fourth) member of The Kingdom, along with Michael Bennett he hits a Doomsday Device on Mark Brisoce and stands tall over the Briscoes. So in his first match back with ROH as a member of the Kingdom what happens? He eats the pin. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!? Are we protecting the Briscoes? The longest tenured, most absolutely without any need to be protected at all ever for any reason duo in the history of Ring of Honor? How does this match make Taven look good? How does it help The Kingdom? Hell, how does it help the Briscoes? This is the worst WWE style 50/50 booking that you could imagine. After the Briscoes win, the Kingdom beat them down. Everyone keeps their heat, nobody achieves anything and Matt Taven, the BIG REVEAL is just a guy to take the pin. Congratulations Kingdom you’ve added Captain New Japan to your ranks. Would anyone have been harmed if Taven had pinned Mark Briscoe? If you made Taven look great in finishing the match like you made him look during the match? So now The Kingdom have added a member who immediately takes a loss and then goes to Japan. Nice work everyone, good game, good effort.
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