Shane Taylor has been one of the most dominant stars in Ring of Honor for the last few years. Alongside Moses and Kaun, he has reigned supreme as one-third of the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions.
But for the last several days, ROH has been in the news following various outlets’ reports which stated that the company will not be renewing the contracts of its talent roster at the end of the year. As a result, ROH has fans have known it is seemingly ending, and this situation has left many fans disappointed and confused as to where it all went wrong.
During an appearance on the Handsome Genius Club Radio Show, Taylor shared his thoughts on the matter and expressed his frustration about the fact that this outcome was “totally preventable.” He emphasized that Ring of Honor has an amazingly talented roster, but he hinted that management issues are to blame for the company’s looming hiatus.
“I think the most frustrating part about it is, all of this could have been prevented, you know what I mean,” said Taylor. “There were steps along the way that should have been taken, could have been taken, ideas that were given that should have been listened to, you know, that just did not happen. So this is the situation that they find themselves in. And it’s one of those things, no matter how talented a group of people you have, no matter how talented the men and women [are,] no matter how talented the roster is, the roster can only do so much.
“You can have every star player in the world, but at the end of the day, people have to put them in positions to be successful. If you’re not doing that, then you’re gonna lose games. And that’s just the reality of it. You know, obviously everybody’s grateful for how things were handled during the pandemic….All of that is all well and good but again, it’s frustrating because it was totally preventable.”
To elaborate, Taylor explained that one way to avoid this outcome would have been to use Sinclair Broadcast Group’s marketing resources more effectively in order to spread the word about the product. He also pointed to a lack of local promotion as another issue, as he felt that members of the ROH didn’t get to do enough media appearances in local markets, though they were willing to do so.
“There’s a lot of things that could have been prevented,” said Taylor. “There’s a million resources that they had at Sinclair, from radio to TV, that could have been utilized, you know what I mean, to promote locally, if we were doing live events. When you think about how like if there’s a concert or a comedy show, or something like that, you always see the artist out there, two-three days beforehand in that city doing promo work, doing radio, TV, all that stuff promoting the show.
“I just felt like things like that weren’t done, and they could have been. We have the resources to do it, we have the talent who’s willing to do it. You know, it simply just takes phone calls to be made, you know what I mean?”
Taylor then shifted his focus to some problematic aspect of the way the company booked its roster; he argued that ROH prioritized a small group of stars to the extent that made it difficult for everyone else to rise up the card. He again complimented the quality of ROH’s roster before he stated that this management process kept getting in the way of any real growth.
“And then obviously talent-wise, you have a group of individuals who you put everything around and tell your fans, these are the only people that matter,” said Taylor. “And then you don’t help create any new stars with them, you know what I mean? Or using that to elevate the talent that’s going to be here to help continue to try to help this company thrive. So you kind of start everybody in this hole.
“And the talent that we have on our roster is second to none. I would put Ring of Honor’s top twenty [wrestlers] right now against anybody’s, and I feel like we match up well. But again, it just seemed like how matter how hard we tried to climb out of that hole, something, some situation, some decision kept throwing dirt back on us, just like damn. How do you expect us to climb out of this if these things continue happen? It’s like, help us help you.”
If you use this transcript, credit WrestleZone and link back to this post.
Taylor recently spoke with WrestleZone about how he saw untapped potential in Shane Taylor Promotions’ Moses and Kaun, and later O’Shay Edwards, and how the group shares a common goal in its vision for the future of professional wrestling, especially as it relates to Black performers.
“I see everything in them, and I saw it the day that I saw them at the [ROH] Dojo,” said Taylor. “I saw when they just started to go on the road, and nobody else knew what to do with them. They were just sitting there, waiting. And I was like oh, well that’s where y’all messed up. Because I saw it right away.
“And in talking to them, we all have the same goals, the same vision, and we look at professional wrestling as a whole, especially when it comes to being African-American males in this sport, we see what we want this sport to be the exact same way. And that’s what Shane Taylor Promotions is all about. Bucking those trends, tearing down those stereotypes and creating the industry, creating the sport, creating the opportunity that we want, not only ourselves to have, but the generations after us to have as well. So once we all sat down and figured out we were all on the same page, the rest was just a formality. Then that’s why you see the chemistry on-screen and off. And for me, I don’t think there is a more cohesive unit, I don’t think there is a more talented unit from top to bottom, in every aspect of this sport, than STP is right now.”
Check out our full interview with Taylor at this link.
