Matt Taven

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Matt Taven
Matt Taven at House of Hardcore 9.jpg
Taven at House of Hardcore 9 in July 2015
Birth name Matthew Marinelli
Born (1985-03-20) March 20, 1985 (age 39)[1]
Derry, New Hampshire, United States[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Matt Taven[1][2]
The Romantic Touch[3]
Billed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1][2]
Billed weight 219 lb (99 kg)[2]
Billed from Los Angeles, California[2]
Boston, Massachusetts
Trained by Bob Evans[1]
Spike Dudley[1]
Debut March 7, 2006[1]
Matt Taven wrestles Vinny Marseglia at a 2015 outdoor event in Rhode Island

Matthew Marinelli (born March 20, 1985),[1] or better known by his ring name Matt Taven, is an American professional wrestler.

Taven has competed in Ring of Honor since 2012, most recently as a member of The Kingdom, as well as performing across the Northeastern United States independent circuit. Taven was the winner of ROH's 2013 Top Prospect Tournament, is a former one-time World Television Champion,[4] and held the ROH World Tag Team Championships with Michael Bennett.[5] Taven has also worked for the Dragon Gate USA, Family Wrestling Entertainment, National Wrestling Alliance, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Top Rope Promotions, and World Wrestling Alliance.

Taven and Bennett operate a wrestling school in West Warwick, Rhode Island.[6]

Professional wrestling career

Ring of Honor (2010–present)

Matt competed in a few tag team matches over the course of 2010 and 2011, all losing efforts.[7] Matt would receive a Ring of Honor tryout at a TV taping in January 2012.[citation needed] Since that time, he has competed semi-regularly for the promotion. At ROH Boiling Point on August 11, 2012, Taven was unsuccessful in a four way match, with the winner receiving an ROH contract.[8] In the 2013 Top Prospect Tournament, Taven would go on to win. With assistance from heel manager Truth Martini, Taven beat TaDarius Thomas in the finals.[4] With that win, Taven was awarded an ROH World Television Championship match against Adam Cole at ROH's 11th Anniversary Show. Taven went on to defeat Cole to win the ROH World Television Championship at the 11th Anniversary Show, establishing himself as a heel after Truth Martini hit Cole in the back of the head with the Book of Truth, allowing Taven to apply the Climax and pick up the win.[9] On April 5 at Supercard of Honor VII, he successfully defended the title against Adam Cole and Matt Hardy. On April 6, he would successfully defend the title against ACH. At Border Wars 2013 he would successfully defend the title against Mark Briscoe. On June 22 at Best in the World 2013, Taven successfully defended the ROH World Television Championship against Jimmy Jacobs and Jay Lethal in a three-way match. On June 23, he defeated Eddie Edwards to retain the title. On July 13 at Reclamation Night he defeated Kevin Steen. On July 27, he made another successful title defense against Brian Fury. On August 3 at All Star Extravaganza 5, he faced Roderick Strong in a losing effort in the first round of the tournament to determine the new a champion after the ROH World Championship was vacated.. On September 20, 2013 at Death Before Dishonor XI he lost to Adrenaline Rush (ACH and TaDarius Thomas) and C&C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander) with Michael Bennett and reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) as his partners. On September 21 he successfully defended the title against Jay Lethal. On September 28 at A New Dawn, he successfully defended the title in a three way match against Davey Richards and Roderick Strong. On October 5 at Charm City Challenge, he retained the title against Cedric Alexander. On October 26 at Glory by Honor XII, he teamed with reDRagon and Adam Cole in an Eight-man elimination tag team match where he was eliminated by Michael Elgin. On November 2 at The Golden Dream, he successfully defended the title against Adam Page. On November 15 at Pursuit Night, he retained the title against Zach Gowen. On December 14 at Final Battle 2013, Taven lost the ROH World Television Championship to Tommaso Ciampa. Matt Taven's reign as World Television Champion was the longest in the company's history to date at 287 days and he accrued the most title defenses in an individual reign at 12.[10] At ROH's wrestling's finest show Taven fired Truth Martini. Later that night he unsuccessfully challenged Tommaso Ciampa for the ROH World Television Championship in a three way match that also included Jay Lethal. At the 12th Anniversary Show, he defeated Silas Young. On March 7 Raising The Bar Day 1, he unsuccessfully challenged Adam Cole for the ROH World Championship.[11] On March 22 at Flyin' High, he unsuccessfully challenged Tommaso Ciampa for the ROH World Television Championship. Taven then entered a feud with Jay Lethal, unsuccessfully challenging him for the ROH World Television Championship on 3 different occasions. The first was at Global Wars in a Four corner survival match that also included Tommaso Ciampa and Silas Young. At War of the Worlds he teamed with ACH and Tommaso Ciampa to defeat Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) and Takaaki Watanabe. The second was at Best in the World in a singles match.[12] The last was at Field of Honor on August 15, where he was defeated by Lethal in a Steel Cage match after interference by Truth Martini. On August 19, 2014, Taven announced he had decided not to re-sign with ROH and would be leaving the promotion.[13] This was actually just an angle used to write Taven off of television. He would make his return at September 27 tapings where he would align himself with The Kingdom and help them attack The Briscoe Brothers, thus cementing his heel status. On October 11 at Champions vs All Stars, he defeated The Romantic Touch. At Survival of the Fittest- Day 1 on November 7, Taven teamed with Michael Bennett to defeat the Briscoe Brothers. The next day at Survival of the Fittest- Day 2 he was defeated by ACH.[14] On November 15 at Glory By Honor XIII, he teamed with Michael Bennett where they unsuccessfully challenged reDRagon for the ROH World Tag Team Championship.[15]

On September 18, 2015, at All Star Extravaganza VII, Taven and Bennett won the ROH World Tag Team Championship by defeating The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) in a three-way match.[5] They lost the title to War Machine (Hanson and Ray Rowe) on December 18 at Final Battle.[16] During the match Taven suffered a knee injury, tearing an anterior cruciate ligament and medial meniscus and rupturing a lateral meniscus, which forced him to undergo a four and a half hour surgery on January 12, 2016. He is expected to be sidelined for nine months.[17]

New Japan Pro Wrestling (2014–2015)

Taven (left) and Michael Bennett (center) with Maria Kanellis (right) as the IWGP Tag Team Champions in July 2015

Through ROH's relationship with NJPW, from November 23 to December 5, 2014, Taven and Michael Bennett took part in New Japan Pro Wrestling's 2014 World Tag League.[18] The team finished their round-robin block with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.[19] Taven and Bennett returned to NJPW on April 5, 2015, at Invasion Attack 2015, where they defeated Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[20][21] On July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Kingdom lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship back to Bullet Club in their first defense.[22] Taven and Bennett returned to NJPW in November to take part in the 2015 World Tag League, where they finished with a record of two wins and four losses, failing to advance from their block.[23]

In wrestling

Taven performing a missile dropkick on Sebastian Suave
Taven (left) and Michael Bennett performing Hail Mary on Sebastian Suave

Championships and accomplishments

Taven with Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis, with the ROH World Tag Team Championship
Taven as ROH Television Champion.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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