Quick Facts
Biography
Matthew Marinelli (born March 20, 1985), known by his ring name Matt Taven, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Ring of Honor and also appearing for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, where he is a former NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion.
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,, one-time ROH World Tag Team Champion with Michael Bennett and one-third of the first ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions. Taven has also worked for the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former one-time IWGP Tag Team Champion with Bennett. Taven is also the second wrestler to win titles in ROH, CMLL and NJPW after Rocky Romero.
Taven and Bennett operate a wrestling school in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Professional wrestling career
Ring of Honor (2010–present)
Taven competed in a few tag team matches over the course of 2010 and 2011, all losing efforts. Taven received a Ring of Honor tryout at a TV taping in January 2012. 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. In the 2013 Top Prospect Tournament, Taven went on to win.
With assistance from heel manager Truth Martini, Taven beat TaDarius Thomas in the finals. 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. 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 againstACH. 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. 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. 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. 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. This was an angle used to write Taven off of television. He made his return at September 27 tapings where he aligned himself with The Kingdom and helped 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. 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.
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. They lost the title to War Machine (Hanson and Ray Rowe) on December 18 at Final Battle. 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 was expected to be sidelined for nine months. On September 18, 2016 Taven returned to announce that he and his Kingdom would be entering the ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament but wouldn't announce his partners. On a match taped on October 1, 2016, for the October 23, 2016, episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Matt Taven recruited TK O'Ryan and Vinny Marseglia to join The Kingdom and defeated Bullet Club to advance to the semi-finals of the ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament. On the November 19 episode of ROH TV The Kingdom defeated Team CMLL (Hechicero, Okumura and Ultimo Guerrero) to advance to the finals at the Final Battle 2016 PPV. On December 2, The Kingdom defeated Jay White, Kushida and Lio Rush in the finals to become the inaugural ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions. They lost the title to Bully Ray and The Briscoes on March 11, 2017, in a match, where Silas Young replaced an injured TK O'Ryan. On April 29, 2017, at ROH Masters Of The Craft Taven defeated Adam Cole.
On May 10, 2017, at ROH/NJPW War Of The Worlds 2017 - Night 2 Taven was unsuccessful at winning the ROH World Championship against Christopher Daniels. At Final Battle 2017, Taven defeated Will Ospreay. In January 2018, Taven started a rivalry with Cody Rhodes, attacking him and stealing his "Ring Of Honor". On ROH 16 Anniversary Show, Taven was defeated by Cody.
On May 9, 2018 at ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Tour, The Kingdom would regain the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship by defeating SoCal Uncensored. During a match for the ROH World Championship Taven had a three count in the match while the referee was not looking the match ended with Jay Lethal winning the title. The Kingdom would lose the titles to the bullet club (Cody & Young Bucks). At ROH's Death Before Dishonor The Kingdom would attack Will Ospreay and Jay Lethal after the assault Taven pulled out of a bag a copy of the Ring Of Honor World Championship that was purple instead of black leather saying he is the true Ring Of Honor World Champion. The Kingdom would win the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship again for the third time beating The Bullet Club (Cody & Young Bucks).
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2014–2015)
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. The team finished their round-robin block with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. 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. 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. 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.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2016, 2017, 2018–present)
Through ROH's working relationship with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Taven made his debut for the Mexican promotion on September 9, 2016, which also marked his return from his knee injury. On September 13, Taven was defeated by Rush in Arena México.
Taven returned to CMLL on March 17, 2017, unsuccessfully challenging Último Guerrero for the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship. On June 14, 2017, CMLL announced Taven's participation in the CMLL International Gran Prix 2017. On August 18, 2017 Taven with Juice Robinson and Marco Corleone defeated Volador Jr., Diamante Azul, and Valiente in Arena Mexico.Taven returned to CMLL on Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2018. On March 30, 2018, he defeated Volador Jr. to win the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship.
Championships and accomplishments
- Chaotic Wrestling
- Chaotic Wrestling New England Championship (2 times)
- Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Vinny Marseglia
- Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
- NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship (1 time)
- Impact Championship Wrestling
- ICW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Rhett Titus
- National Wrestling Alliance
- NWA On Fire Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Julian Starr
- New Japan Pro-Wrestling
- IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Bennett
- Northeast Wrestling
- NEW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- Pro Wrestling Experience
- Robbie Ellis Tournament of Super Juniors (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him number 93 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013
- Ring of Honor
- ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (3 times, current) – with TK O'Ryan and Vinny Marseglia
- ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Michael Bennett
- ROH World Television Championship (1 time)
- Top Prospect Tournament (2013)
- ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament (2016) – with TK O'Ryan and Vinny Marseglia
- Top Rope Promotions
- TRP Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Luchas de Apuestas record
| Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bárbaro Cavernario and Rush (hair) | Matt Taven and Volador Jr. (hair) | Mexico City, Mexico | CMLL 85th Anniversary Show | September 14, 2018 |