TAVEN talking highly of the IMPACT locker room is great, and it seems like every more people are tuning into IMPACT on AXSTV these days.

Bodyslam covered the huge viewership and demographic increase recently, and it’s also worth noting that IMPACT has maintained/driven up their viewership numbers even with the NFL returning on Thursday nights recently.

In a new interview with Fightful, Taven talked about his stint with the company, where he said that the locker room is one of the best he’s ever been a part of.

“Well the IMPACT! Wrestling locker room is one of the best locker rooms I’ve ever been a part of. That says a lot because Ring of Honor was such a family, especially towards the end. We really had this mentality of us against the world. During the pandemic we became even closer than I could even imagine. So it was tough. Once that came to an end, none of us knew what was going to happen next. So to find ourselves in IMPACT! in a place where, for the first time in ten years, I’m in a foreign locker room. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m the odd man out, all of a sudden.’ But at the same time, there’s so many familiar faces from Moose, obviously Eddie Edwards, and a bunch of other guys that had been in Ring of Honor in the past and places like here in Greektown, you run into a bunch of people. I saw Bhupinder, who I haven’t seen since IMPACT. There was so many familiar faces once we got there, once we finally got our stride, it was like, ‘Oh, man. This could be a home for a little bit.’”

Taven then went on say that he looked at IMPACT Wrestling as another challenge and another place to cement his legacy in professional wrestling.

“But at the same time, we were looking to keep our momentum going. We had come to the end with Ring of Honor unfortunately and a lot of us didn’t know what was going to happen next. All of a sudden we got a phone call, it’s less than a month after my last match against the Briscoes in Ring of Honor, and here I am showing up at IMPACT. I just looked at it as another challenge, as another place to make my name and to cement my legacy and the fact that I can say I was also am IMPACT! Tag Champions is another check on the resume or CV.”

Taven went on to recall that he knew his deal with IMPACT Wrestling was up in October 2022, and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen after that. Luckily, Tony Khan gave him, Mike Bennett, and Maria Kanellis a call.

“Nothing in wrestling is really planned too much. Honestly, ever since Madison Square Garden, my life has been ‘don’t plan on anything, because that’s not what’s going to happen.’ So with Ring of Honor, we didn’t see that happening. We jumped over to IMPACT!, it was one of those things that we didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. We had a deal there that we knew was coming up in October and we weren’t sure what we were going to do next. Then we got a phone call, and made a decision, and debuted right here in Toronto a week after that Guns match. It all just happened boom-boom-boom-boom. My head was spinning. To look at it, it’s almost been a year since we signed with AEW. It’s been crazy to look back at that time that went from ROH, IMPACT!, back to ROH, AEW all within a year. You know what, I’m just trying to be everywhere. I was trying to be Rick Rude of this generation, trying to be every show at once.”

Taven also hyped up the Motor City Machine Guns.

“I love the Guns. They were so good to us, whether it was Shelley in Japan or when the Guns were in Ring of Honor. They were almost like a Roderick Strong, you could always go to and ask for advice. But personally, just like Roderick Strong as well, I was a huge Motor City Machine Guns fan. I think they don’t get the credit that they deserve for pioneering what tag team wrestling is today. Them and the Young Bucks, Generation Me at the time in TNA, were some of the most innovative tag team matches ever. I think that it kinda changed a lot of the environment of tag team wrestling and what people thought a good tag team wrestling match could be. So I was always a huge Motor City Machine Gun fan. At that time they kinda knew we were on the way out, I was like, ‘Oh, one of our last matches is going to be against the Guns? Sign me up.’”

H/T Joel Pearl, William Thatch, & Skylar Russell for Fightful.

Full interview:

Matt TAVEN showed up to IMPACT Wrestling in January 2022 at the Hard to Kill Pay Per View with a group of former Ring of Honor talent and they took out a bunch of top IMPACT talent. It was Mike Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis), PCO, Vincent, & Matt Taven in the group, and they called themselves Honor No More.

Shortly after their arrival, Eddie Edwards would turn on his IMPACT cohorts and end up leading Honor No More in IMPACT. TAVEN and the group would be part of IMPACT until October 2022, when he and Mike Bennett, known as The Kingdom, won the IMPACT Tag Team Titles from the Good Brothers in September 2022, defeated the Motor City Machine Guns at Bound For Glory i October 2022, and then would drop the Tag Team Titles to the Heath & Rhino later that week on their way out. The team showed up in All Elite Wrestling literally a week later, and have been there ever since.

Make sure you watch all the stars of IMPACT WRESTLING EVERY Thursday!

-IMPACT Plus App
-AXSTV in USA
-Fight Network in CANADA

-DAZN for international fans sign up here (includes BTI pre-show, weekly IMPACTonAXSTV episode, LIVE monthly specials, 4 flagship PPVs, + footage from the library)

-Become a YouTube Insider HERE and subscribe.

• Insider is $1.49/month. (includes weekly show)
• Ultimate Insider is $6.99/month. (includes weekly show w/ live chat, exclusive series, live monthly specials, and old content)

#IMPACTonAXSTV

Follow Gerard at @BearDown316 on Twitter

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