This is Shane Taylor, CEO of Shane Taylor Promotions and you are listening to the Urban
Wrestling Network.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
This is Urban Wrestling Network.
Today is not just like any other day with us.
It's a special.
I'm running with obviously my man, the Conquito Papi himself.
And today he's either left or he's right as the man says himself.
I ain't sure.
But this man, it ain't none other than Shane Taylor, our await superstar.
And that's what he is.
He's a superstar people in his own right.
He makes his own history.
How are you Shane?
I'm good man.
I'm blessed.
Thank you guys for having me.
Appreciate it.
Oh, I'm super excited when Butcher was like, yo, we're going to have Shane Taylor, the
champ on.
I was like, get the fuck.
Yeah, you know what?
I'm going to say what I want.
I'm like, yeah, I was bugged.
I was like, oh, no way.
And he's like, bro, we got him.
And I was like, man, we're going to get it in.
Butcher, please.
You go at him.
I got a million random.
I don't know.
Even if they're really wrestling.
I'm like, I'm like, this is Shane Taylor.
I've been like, I've got a message in this guy for ages.
I actually, I mean, I've been watching you for a while.
But I mean, I mean, I'm like, I'm like, well, my message was buddy buddies with Rickland
Stevens.
And I'm like, I'm like, oh, I'll see if I can be Rickland's friend.
I mess, I go like Rickland.
And I say, oh, Shane Taylor.
Okay.
So I mean, listen, I mean, I know you're you grew up.
I grew up in Cleveland.
And tell us a bit about growing up in Cleveland.
Um, man, where to begin with that one?
Um, we have a saying in Cleveland, especially on the East side.
Hold on.
My daughter is screaming.
Give me one second.
You're the only one.
Kids are going to be kids.
Absolutely.
But, uh, nah, man, listen for everybody while we have a little dead spot, I'm excited for
this one, man.
I mean, this guy's the champ.
You know, I mean, he, he's putting him in work.
I would put him, you know, to be honest with you, there's not a wrestler in our weights
that I can't see him beating.
I mean, let's be honest.
Dude, this is what I'm going with this.
This is what I'm going with.
You know, me and he'll do it.
You know, me being the best, the best BH ITV.
This is like a man I would.
I've done to the carpet.
I'm fucking with this dude.
Listen, listen, I hope he's ready because we're not going to give, uh, that carbon copy bullshit
interview that people like to do.
You know what I mean?
Like, you know what, Conquito?
Unlike some, we don't have holidays.
We work all day.
And you know why we work all day and all week?
Cause wrestling never sleeps.
Facts.
The big old facts.
We can edit all that in post.
It's cool.
Come on.
I got two kids.
He's got kids.
Right.
She usually sleeps.
I just am like, why is she screaming right now?
All right.
Um, we have a saying where I'm from and that is you're either from Cleveland or you're
not.
And what that means is there are certain things you grow up a certain way and it's different
than any other city.
You know what I mean?
Because Cleveland's sort of this like it's a major city, but then it's not too.
Like it's not a Chicago.
It's not an Atlanta.
But when you talk about, especially where I'm from, the East side, right?
When you talk about per capita crime rate, per capita violence, per capital, per capita
drug, you know, all the statistical things that they rank cities in the East side of
Cleveland, Ohio is always what they measure.
They don't even measure the whole city.
They talk about this specific area and it still ranks up there because that's what that's
what goes on there.
Right.
So coming from that background, coming from that area, seeing the things that I've seen,
things that my friends were involved in, family was involved in, you know, I tell people
all the time, I'd probably been to 100 funerals by the time I was 14.
You know what I mean?
It changes the way you look at the world.
And for me, it makes you grow up very, very fast.
And for me, I appreciate that now that I'm 35 to go, I grew up ready for the world, you
know, at a very young age.
I knew what the world was.
I'm not one of these people that is ignorant to how society is, to how the world works,
to how different things work.
I know exactly what this game is.
Right.
So that prepared me for that.
And so all of the things, all of the negative, eventually for me, turns into a positive
because now when I go to the ring, I get to let people know that I'm from the East side
of Cleveland, Ohio.
And what that tells them is that I've been through the same things you've gone through.
I've seen the same things.
I've been a part of it.
I've seen from top to bottom what that city, what that area can do.
And I am still standing here.
I am still one of the very best in the world at my craft.
I am still successful, you know, and if I can do, and I'm nobody special, I will let
people know that right now.
I am nobody special.
But you know, I refer it, I referred to the Jay-Z lyric, you know, he's like, and nothing
really to it just had the balls to do it.
You know what I mean?
That's all it is.
You know what?
I'm a disagree when you say that you ain't nobody special because not a real talk because
on just what you said now, it makes you special.
Like we didn't even know your wrestling thing, but you're a productive person and you're
giving people a blueprint of how you could be successful and get out of the grit.
You just did that.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, and my question to you is coming from where you from, I get it.
But that moment where you knew that wrestling took you somewhere, what was that moment that
you said, damn, all that shit that that fuck with me for years, I made it.
And I'm curious what that moment was where you felt you made it.
Um,
that's a great question because I've been able to do a lot of cool things.
But in my mind, I haven't made it yet.
Um, and it's because I'm not the ring of honor world champion.
I'm not the number one guy I am not the go to.
I am not the top of the marquee that to me.
Once I reached that mountaintop that only one other person like myself, not your physical
right now.
Exactly.
One other person like myself has ever made the history I'm trying to make.
And that's Jay lethal until I'm able to do that.
I haven't made it.
And even probably after that, I haven't made it because then I have to go about the business
of proving why I'm the guy, right?
Of showing the entire world, every wrestling company, every wrestling fan, every CEO, every
whoever, why I am undoubtedly the baddest dude in the sport.
Um, and to be able to have that goal and more importantly be an African-American male in
this sport, given its history and doing it my way, the way I want to do it, the way I
think it should be done being as loud and as opinionated as I am.
That to me will truly be when I fulfill my potential, when I shatter that glass ceiling,
when I submit my legacy is to be able to be that top guy, have that run and do exactly
what I said I was capable of doing.
It's funny you should say that shattering glass, right?
Because when I first came across you and I seen the attitude, the just the hard hitting,
just the way you were, I was like, this is a guy that, he's felt it, he's lived, no
struggles growing up in that sort of way.
Now I mean, I've been a wrestling fan for 38 years, 38 years and I've seen people come
and go.
Now, I think my homie here will say to you, I love heels.
I love heels man.
You can stick your faces up your ass.
I'm interested in that and I'm not really interested in this created.
This is what we've got for you right now.
Don't interest me.
I mean, you're as real as they come.
You know, so I mean, when I see you in a ring and I see you telling someone what is going
to happen.
I'm like, oh shit.
Here we go.
That's the funny thing about it too, right?
Is so many people who know me from wrestling, look at how I am outside of it and then look
at how I perform and they go, oh, it's like you're two different people.
And I go, no, the person you see in the ring is the closest to my real personality that
you're going to see.
Everything else outside of that is business.
Everything else outside of that is me setting up the foundation and the future for my kids.
You know what I mean?
This is how I build my empire to be able to pass to them.
This is a part of the job.
What you see when I'm in the ring, I get to turn all that off.
I get to turn every filter off.
I get to turn every worry off except beating the person's ass that's in front of me.
That's how I grew up.
So that's naturally where my mind goes.
So the easiest part of this job and the part that I get to closest be myself is when I'm
in the ring.
So what people see when I'm out there is me.
That's why I think it resonates so well with people that come from the backgrounds that
I come from because they know that mentality.
They know those looks.
They know those mannerisms.
They know when the mood changes in a flight or when you're talking to somebody and they
say the wrong thing and you look over there and go, oh, yeah, he didn't fuck up.
You know what I mean?
Like, no.
It's organic.
What you like.
That's the one thing that I try to tell people where a lot of wrestling fans don't understand
the separation of wrestling and gimmicks.
And then you've got people who come in and you know where they're from.
You know what I mean?
Like, like these guys like the low keys or Santana or tease, you know what they about
the Kingston's with you.
It's the exact same feel and people think, wow, this guy really worked on his gimmick.
No, this is him.
Like this.
And I'm telling you now, if you wasn't who I thought you was because I didn't know, you
know, until you could talk to you, you know, whatever.
But if I didn't know this, I would have been like, nah, man, I can't mess with this guy
because I don't even talk to people I enjoy, you know, who I like watching and everything
that people don't even understand the work you walk in with.
You know what I mean?
Like that, that street bop that you got, people don't get it.
They just think it's a walk in.
Nah, this is who you are.
Like, and I like, I think you were the guy back in the days because you're a big dude.
The other one like, Hey, yo, we got beef over here.
You know what?
Let's go call up Shane to grab a few dudes up, you know, because he could, you know, he
could fight all four guys.
So now let me ask you, because I'm a big hip hop head.
Right.
Are you a hip hop guy?
I am.
And this and I'm, yeah, give me one second here.
You got to feed the baby.
I'm curious because leave lens.
Hey, family man.
This is what it is for real life.
Oh man, I dig that.
I dig that.
Yeah.
Like people think like, Oh, you know, you're doing this and that life must be like this,
man.
This is every day.
I live no differently than anybody else.
I just have, you know, some extra commas in my back account.
But hip hop.
Yes.
I, I as a person, right?
I'm usually behind when it comes to music, right?
I'm the guy that while I love hip hop, you know what I mean?
I'm always the guy that like a year after a song is popular.
I'm like, Hey, did y'all hear this?
And they're like, yeah.
That's where I fall at.
Right.
So a lot of the newer stuff.
I don't really catch on.
Not because man, these, man, these new cats, I just, I can't keep up with it.
You know what I mean?
I don't have a lot of weight till something catches me and then I roll with that.
But you know, lately as I've been seeing sort of the trajectory of hip hop and learning
more about myself, culture, different things.
And there's a whole rabbit hole of stuff that we can get down the more I feel as though
hip hop needs a reset.
It needs something to get back to the original feeling of what it was supposed to be.
Because now it's this like corporately pushed.
Okay.
It was a struggle, wasn't it?
Yeah, man.
It was a struggle.
Right.
It seems more like a tool to keep the status quo going than it is about art.
So when you say a reset, are you talking like Curtis blow and them or are you talking like
the Nas, the jiggers and like whatever are we talking about taking a reset?
So yeah, I'm talking about like back in the New York, you know, back in the New York ciphers,
that type stuff like that, those that that tallib quality feel that most that, you know,
getting back to the essence of what this, this was supposed to be.
And they're large.
And you take a look at the commercial power and the pop culture influence that hip hop
has imagined, right?
Imagine if it wasn't about creating haters around you, glorifying every destructive aspect
of the culture and instead promoted unity, promoted consciousness, promoted business
acumen, promoted things that uplifted the community, imagine where things would be if
hip hop stayed in that direction.
Thanks.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So to me, that's what I think about when I think about hip, when I think about hip hop,
and now that as I'm getting older, what I try to listen to, what I make sure my girls
hear me listening to, you know what I mean?
Because I'm setting that first example.
You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
I had this and she's pulling out every noisy toy that she can find.
My poor butcher.
I took us into a different direction.
What you got for him?
So I'm listening.
I'm not sure butcher looks like he got frozen over there.
So like when it comes to hip hop and when you said that, I was like, damn, the first
thing that made me think of it, and I'm a little older than you are was when Queen Latifa
did that you and I T Y joint.
Right.
And it's like if more people and I'm not saying everything got to be a positive, but at this
point, the message has to be real clear.
You know what I mean?
And we do got to come together.
What was the first title that you won that made you say, you know, Shane Taylor's in
the fucking building?
It was the ROH TV title.
You know what I mean?
Up until that point, there had only been two other African American males to win it, which
would be Kenny King and Jay Lethal.
And then you have me, you know, and I remember that night after I won 90% of the crowd was
standing there shocked.
Some were booing.
Some had, you know, miles all open.
And I looked to the back and there was about 30 maybe 35 fans there in Toronto who happened
to be black and they were just absolutely losing their mind.
And it wasn't until that moment that I realized what I had done and the sort of inspiration
that I could bring.
You know what I mean?
And what I always knew.
What I was going to represent, it didn't hit me until right at that moment exactly how
I could inspire people.
You know what I mean?
So at that moment, once I had that and I saw the reaction and I raised that title, that's
when I was like, okay, now we're we're starting to get to where we need to be in order to
leave the sort of legacy that I want to leave.
Okay.
See?
And that's the answers I love here.
You know what I mean?
Like also, now I know you're a boxing guy.
We can touch on that with a second.
But I did hear that you're about to start a wrestling show.
Like I don't know if it's real, but I heard that you're going to be a promoter for a wrestling
show.
I'm going to be a promoter for a wrestling show.
Yeah.
That's like something that some random we put on our Facebook page.
Oh, like we're going to talk to somebody like St. Taylor and they were like, oh, he's
going to be a wrestling promoter and I was like, get out of here.
I was like, I've never heard of none of that.
No, no, most of my business stuff I play pretty close to the vest.
There's a lot of things that I want to do, but promoting wrestling is not one of them.
There's a lot of stress that goes in that goes into that.
I'm more of someone who would rather work creatively with people than run my own wrestling
promotion.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
The things that I do now with St. Taylor promotions is about promoting talent, not promoting a
wrestling company.
You know what I mean?
So that's what this is about.
St. Taylor promotions is about giving people keys to success, keys to merchandising, keys
to building your own brand, keys to creating your own spot, no matter where it is you're
at in the wrestling world.
That way, when it comes to these business to business talks that you have with companies,
because that's what they are, it's a business talking to an independent contractor, another
business, and when you sit down at these negotiation tables, if you can build your own spot, secure
your own brand, when they come to you instead of the other way around, you now have leverage
in this talk.
It's no longer, hey, well, you're lucky to be here, so we can just tell you any number
and you better take it because there's a million people behind you who wish they had this.
You're going, no.
You called me for a reason.
I'm sitting here for a reason.
That reason is to be able to, for you to utilize my talent and for me to have your platform.
That's what this is.
So that's what St. Taylor promotions is all about, finding people of like-minded individuals
with like minds and showing them how to do that and create that no matter where they're
at in the sport.
That's what's up.
Puts a welcome back, my brother.
First thing I said to my son was, if you're going to borrow my laptop this morning, if
anything pops up, click OK.
Click OK.
So update for Skype.
Oh, cancel that.
I just popped my head in his door.
I said, you know what's going to be funny in about 10 minutes?
He said, well, I said, when your route of resets.
Right.
Why would I do it?
You just messed up the interview with Shane Taylor.
Oh, man.
It's been going through.
I've been running.
I've been running, trying to turn off the noisiest toys that my, that my baby has, but she's
playing them.
I've been like, man, every possible toy.
Listen, kids are a blessing.
Oh, 100.
Kids are a blessing, man.
100.
What's your got?
What's your got for the big homie, baby?
Well, 2007, you debuted on the Indies.
Yeah.
Now I can't find a lot of stuff on you in the Indies.
Go to your wiki.
It's like a big red writing.
It's like, no, you can't see it.
I found a few things.
But I know you were trained by one Raymond Rowe.
Yeah.
Tell me a bit about Raymond Rowe because I hate the Vikings.
I love war machine, but I hate the Vikings.
I mean, it's, it's, it's the same guys, man.
Like, I could literally talk for days about Ray Rowe, about what he's meant to me, to
my career, my family, our families couldn't be closer.
I mean, you're talking about a guy, you know, blood couldn't make blood couldn't make us
any closer.
You know what I mean?
He's the Godfather to my kids, my, my, my big brother, trainer, rival, friend.
He is responsible for me being in this sport.
You know what I mean?
It's a man to think about everything he's done for me and the sacrifices he's made
when he didn't have to.
You know what I mean, because a lot, a lot of people will call you brother in this sport
or try to be friendly.
And there are very few real people, real genuine people that you find, right?
So to be able to have a guy like that who was already making his name in Cleveland and
brought me with him, you know what I mean?
Was moved down to Texas, brought me with him.
You know what I mean?
He went to Ring of Honor, brought me with him.
You know what I mean?
You're talking about a guy who they would say, hey, we can fly you from Houston to Nashville.
And he said, no, I'll drive the 18 plus hours because I'm going to ride with Shane and hopefully
I get an opportunity to show them what I can do.
That's the kind of guy he is.
So you know, my hope and all I've ever wanted to do since I got into the sport was make
him look like Nashtradamus when he told people about me for them to go, damn, he is every
bit as good, if not better than you advertised and sit back and watch the grin that he gets
on his face that that cheesy rose smile where you can't see their eyes.
It's a weird one, you know, because I've seen interviews with the guy.
Yeah.
You know, I've seen him and Hanson backstage and the way the way they do things in a WWE
and I see him having fun with the other guys.
And then like I said, I came across them as war machine.
Right.
And like you say, no facial expression is still and you watch them just do their business.
And I don't think I've ever seen a tag team so intense.
Man, they're hard hitting.
They are just strong style.
And everywhere they've gone, they fit exactly where they needed to be.
Right.
In ROH, they fit in perfectly to the tag team spots that they were in matches with the briskos
matches with weather matches with me and Keith Lee.
You know, they're they're incredible.
Right.
And then you see their run in New Japan.
Right.
And from all the intensive purposes, the stories that I've been told that wasn't necessarily
them going to Japan wasn't necessarily supposed to happen.
It ended up happening and look at what they did with it.
You know what I mean?
They made the most out of that opportunity.
And that's what they do.
You know what I mean?
They're one of the best tag teams I've ever seen.
They're one of the most dominant tag teams, I think, in at least the last decade plus
that we've seen.
I would say that.
I would say that I was gutted when they went to WWE.
I was.
I was really gutted because I think not particularly for them because I think, you know, if the
pay is good, then they should go and get it, you know, and things like that.
But I think when I was watching them, obviously, go through ROH to New Japan, I just felt that
them to then two promotions solidify do they work?
You know, the hard hitting in New Japan.
Right.
But the thing about that is the companies don't solidify who they are, right?
They solidify who they are, right?
So any style that they have, they can translate to any company.
Right, but when you're talking about WWE for them, I think they reached a point in their
careers where they had checked every box.
They done everything.
You know what I mean?
Like it would have been great to have them in ROH for another 10 years or whatever the
case may be.
But they've been there.
They've done that.
And both Ray and Todd are both very goal oriented guys.
So they look across the landscape and go, okay.
We've won everything there is to win, except over here.
It's like full circle, isn't it?
Absolutely.
They're coming back home.
You know what I mean?
It's going, hey, there's this one last mountain that we have to climb.
Let's go climb it.
And they did.
You know what I mean?
So I got a question.
Yeah, man, I got a question because I'm more curious on when do we get a block bully faction
from Shane Taylor, bringing in a bunch of street guys and just running over people?
I want, I want like a, not a gang culture, but I want a bully like, but it's got to feel
like it's from the block.
And I really want that so bad.
And I think that the other guy who could not only cut a promo on talk, but you'll mean
dude.
And I think it'll look official.
So when do we get a block bully faction?
That's the West.
I mean, here, here, here.
Here's the thing, right?
We're going to have, there, there are different elements to STP, right?
There is that element because that's where most of us are from, but we're also all college
educated men.
We're all intelligent.
We're all, we all have, you know, we all have a savvy business acumen.
We all have grown and progressed to the point where it's not being from the block isn't
scary.
And it's not scary because people assume that's who you are already, right?
That doesn't scare them.
They know how to handle you in that frame of reference from that perspective.
What's scary is guys like Jay-Z now.
What's scary is guys like Diddy now who have money, who have power, who have influence,
who are able to move the masses with their words.
Those guys are scary now because those are guys that you have to be on a level playing
field with.
You can't put them in a box.
You can't say, Hey, these guys are from the block.
So they're here.
No, you have to look at them as peers.
You have to look at them as a threat because that's what they are, right?
They're a threat to the status quo.
So for me, I think in, again, going back to the same message that I'm trying to deliver
and my argument with where hip, where hip hop is, I have to look at who's watching us.
Not only my peers, not only my contemporaries, but the generations after us, what are they
seeing?
Right?
I want them to know that we're from where you're from.
And there's nothing wrong with being from there, but you don't have to stay there.
You don't have to have the same mentality.
I think it should shift.
Right?
Now, when it comes time to getting down and doing what we got to do, that's always going
to be there because that's who we are.
You know what I mean?
But to establish that growth, to establish that path, I think is the primary concern and
responsibility.
I couldn't.
You know what?
I don't even want the BlockBully group no more.
What he just said was absolutely phenomenal.
That was some real freaking gems out there.
You know what I'm saying?
Real talk, that was fly right there.
I want to know.
Do you pronounce it Khan?
Yeah.
Khan and Moses.
Who came up with SOS and these two?
I look at these and I'm like, holy shit, man.
These two look bad.
I saw them in Maryland.
They had already come up with the name.
They were already doing their thing.
I saw them at Maryland Championship Wrestling, Ron Hunt pointed them out to me.
Saw them at the ROH Dojo.
For me, I knew especially after I had left the rebellion, I had been mentored by Kenny
King and Rhett Titus and Caprice Coleman.
I knew the next step, the next evolution in my career and how I was going to grow was
to be able to do for somebody else what they did for me.
You know what I'm saying?
Once I started to take those steps, I'm like, okay, this sport is a numbers game.
You have to have the numbers on your side, but synergy is everything when you talk about
building a championship team.
That's how I see STP.
I don't see this as guys who work for me or me being better than them or anything like
that.
This is my team.
I just happen to be the quarterback of the team.
When it comes to having guys like that who have similar goals, not only career goals,
but outside of the ring when dealing with the community, understanding how they want
to represent themselves, who they want to be seen as, what they want to build their
legacies to be, all of that stuff is very important when you're building a team to have
not only similar short-term goals, but long-term goals.
That's what I saw in them as well as being immensely talented.
I'd been saying it for almost a year.
Then finally, I was able to make that plan come together.
We walk out in Columbus ready to rock and roll and immediately put the ROH roster and
the rest of the wrestling world on notice.
Then fast forward one year later, they went from being guys at the dojo that people knew
were talented, but they didn't know what to do with, to guys that now everybody is damn
near universally recognizing as the future of the ROH tag team roster.
They should be because that's exactly how good they are.
I think they're real.
I watched you all walk out in them, the jackets, and I was like, oh, shit.
It was a powerful move.
That was a powerful move.
I was like, wow.
I ain't seen anything like this in wrestling in a while.
It was weird because it was funny because I was saying to others, I've been working
with Rob for a few months and with the last people I worked with, I was saying that for
a while, we really need a group.
We've got the new day over here.
No, I don't like the new day.
I don't even like it.
When I want a more kind of, you can relate to us type of thing, and that is the kind
of like the way you put yourselves across to me.
I was like, wow, this is kind of like heartfelt, light felt, you know, we're from this place
and we're going to make everyone's life miserable until we get what we want.
I mean, and that's the thing, right?
Like where I'm from, the nice guy stuff doesn't work.
You know what I mean?
It simply just doesn't.
If you're nice, people think you're soft.
If people think you're soft, they think you're weak.
If they think you're weak, they try to get over on you, right?
And in a lot of cases, that means you're getting robbed.
You know what I mean?
Or you die.
You know what I mean?
Like it's none of those options are good.
So where I'm from, you have to make your point clear.
You have to make your point often, and you have to make your point with as much sincerity
and as much intensity as possible, right?
Because you have to let people know from the gate, this is not going to be something that
they want to mess with, right?
So that's what we did, you know?
And we took some of those aspects that we just talked about, that bully block mentality.
We took some of that and applied it to who we are now and transition that into wrestling.
Because again, this is business, right?
So my thing has always been, okay, this is a dirty game.
But I'm going to learn the rules of the game.
I'm going to master the rules of the game.
I'm going to play the game better than you.
I'm going to make those rules work for me.
I'm going to change the game, and then I'm going to make the rules.
So you basically, you're playing chess while the other people are playing checkers.
I think a lot of people are trying to play chess.
I'm just trying to be a grandmaster at the game.
You know what I mean?
Like we can both be playing chess.
I'm just going to play chess way better than you.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think that's the dopest part of it is, like me, obviously, like I said, I'm older
than you.
So I want to watch on TV something that brings me back home.
You know what I mean?
Like I don't have, listen, I got two kids once in college with the wife, 21 years, like
I'm going to older G you're ready.
But like I enjoy watching home, you're home, you represent home.
So I was like, man, I'm really going to dig this guy and have him talk his shit.
So when you started talking about changing the game and then being a boss, I think that's
the dopest part about this is you're saying, yeah, I've been through that.
You know what I mean?
Like, and you do know, you know, back in the days where if you looked at somebody and you
caught a nice girl real quick, it's on a pop it.
But right at this point in life, you talking about starting your own promotion stuff, helping
people out in business, you know what I mean?
Your focus.
Right.
You're 10 steps ahead of people and I think that's freaking phenomenal.
Like real talk, I salute you on some real shit.
No, no podcast gimmick stuff.
Like everything you're doing, I think is nothing short of amazing.
It's looking after life.
Yeah.
Think about it.
He's winning.
Like people like St. Taylor don't win.
They don't.
You know what I mean?
Like it's it's such a small number and I don't want to use the word statistic, but that's
what it is.
And right now we're talking to a guy who we're watching on TV.
We're talking to a guy who's strapped up.
We're talking to a guy who's doing his thing and starting his own businesses.
Like we're talking to a man that's beaten every challenge and they're still going to
be Roblox and he's still going to knock them down.
And I think that's so sick.
Like on some real shit that's it is fire.
Amen.
I that that means the world to me.
You know what I mean?
And that's that's all I wanted to do because a lot of people, right?
And I've heard this from a million different people and they all have every right to think
this way and they say, you know, wrestling is supposed to provide an escape for fans,
right?
And that's true in a lot of aspects.
But when I think about every demographic of fans, right, especially from where I'm from,
we don't get to escape anything.
At the end of the day, at the end of that two hours, we're still back in the same stuff
that we were in when this came on, right?
There really is no escape.
And especially when you're an athlete, an African American athlete in the sport, there
really is no escape because now you're dealing with it 24 seven.
So for my thing was I don't want to provide an escape.
I want to provide inspiration.
I want you to know that I know exactly what it is that you're going through because I've
been there.
I've seen it.
I've done it.
And while you're watching me, you can see yourself overcoming everything that I'm overcoming.
You know what I mean?
And if that allows even one kid, even one of my peers, anybody who's older to get through
one of their issues because they saw me do it, then that's that.
Then I've done my job.
It's not about providing an escape, at least in my opinion.
For me, it's about providing hope.
And that's what I'm trying to do.
That's what we are all collectively trying to do.
And again, like you said, there's going to be a million roadblocks still that we still
have to crash through.
And with me and my guys, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
So we're going through everything.
I don't even know how to ask any more questions after that.
I just want to know two years, two years between 2017 and 2019, that elusive television title
evading you for so long.
And then one of the worlds, I seen the way that that match was put up on the card and
I was like, holy shit, dude, this is going to be smashed from out.
We got Shane Taylor, we got Goat, we got Jeff Cobb.
And I'm like, oh my God.
I was just, I'm like, he's going to come out with the bells.
Man.
I have a journey like that.
And I have some of the people you went up against.
And I was like, please God.
Man, and the thing is coming off both losses to Cobb, right?
And really, I feel like ROH didn't want me to have another shot, but I had been running
my mouth for so long that they were like, okay, shut up, we'll give you the shot.
Just don't say anything else.
You know what I mean?
Like just shut up.
But that's all, I mean, it's all a part of the plan.
You know what I mean?
Like, I knew, okay.
If I want to get this done, I'm going to have to be strategic.
I'm going to have to be as, you know, just as intelligent as I am violent.
So you watch the match go, you look for your spot, you look for your opening, you capitalize,
boom, new TV champion.
I make history, you know, in a match with, you know, three of the best performers in
the world.
I mean, most of them are 100%.
100%.
And, you know, I mean, and that again, and the crazy thing is I've lost singles matches
to each of those three guys.
Yeah.
But somehow we were all in a ring together and I came out on top, you know what I mean?
So that just goes to show, you know what I mean?
On any given day, as long as you put the plan in, this is what I tried to do now.
I mean, I could say 40 year old man, watched wrestling, you know, 38 years.
Right.
And I think the last 15 years, I've taken a completely different direction in wrestling
from watching, you know, only WWE, WCW.
And I literally just ventured away from all that I knew into places that I was just unknown
to, you know, our awaits have been watching since 2004.
Coming in and out mostly because of, you know, we couldn't get it in the UK.
We had to rely on certain channels to get it.
New Japan was relatively new to me.
2010, I started watching that.
But it opened so many avenues.
And, you know, your mindset just changed, you know, these big giants over here.
That doesn't represent just wrestling.
Right.
There is so much to them letters and that name.
And, you know, I think all I've got to say is, you know, is really thank you to people
like you, you know, and that is it in a nutshell.
You know, when I see people like you and, you know, be a Brodie Kings, you know, Rick
Kings, Mark Haskins, it just kind of like makes you just go, wow, you know, you don't
have to be John Cena, you know, and I've all this big money put behind you to actually
stand out, you know, I mean, it's it's it's that.
But I mean, let's, Cena's put in work, man.
You know what I mean, so let's let's not, and I'm not saying you are, but to anybody
that like tries to discredit what he's like, he put in work and earned the machine doing
what they did, but that's 99% him, you know what I mean?
But, you know, I mean, I what I love most about ROH is kind of what you just hit on,
right?
I love that spirit of professional wrestling that there is more out there than just one
big company, right?
And there was and there is a lot of pride, especially when people like to talk about
the golden era of of ROH and you're talking about your Danielsons, your Joe's, your punks,
your McGinnises, all these guys, right?
There was a era of sort of rebellion with with them with the fan base to go, look, y'all
may be the biggest names, but we're the best wrestlers.
Yeah.
I mean, we, regardless of size, body type gear, move set, whatever it is you want to
judge wrestling on.
A lot of times if you were Ring of Honor World Champion, you were synonymous with being the
best wrestler in the world.
That's it.
Yeah.
And for me and a lot of the guys now and the ladies as well, that's what we are striving
to get back to.
And for me, I think I embody that spirit because I'm all for I'm all for growing the company.
I'm all for it being as big as it can possibly be as long as we stick to the essence of who
we are and we keep the soul of what we are, and that is to continue to be that rebellious
group that knows that we put out the very best product possible, put on the best shows
possible.
And I would argue again, you could take any company's top 10.
I don't care who it is, line them up with our top 10 in the ring or out of it.
And we're the best.
You know what I mean?
So, yeah.
Like that's so, so thank you guys for continuing to support us.
Thank you guys for, you know, reaching out to guys like myself and and and allowing us
to have these platforms to speak to you guys and get the messages out that we want to get
out.
Because that's that's that's what this is all for, man.
You know, I mean, we all work collectively together to help build something that people
can, you know, use to get through their day and just trying to help, you know what I
mean?
Shane Till, man.
I know for Butch, for myself, for everyone listening, man, we want to say thank you for
your time.
True.
I mean, real talk.
This to me was probably one of the dopest interviews I've ever been a part of.
And your message is such a special point of it.
Is there any please plug social media is how they can find your promotion stuff like so
we can get up out of here, but have all your stuff done right?
Yeah, man.
Twitter and Instagram at Shane to one six Taylor Facebook dot com slash notorious Shane
Taylor.
If everybody's if anybody's in the merch buying mood, I know it's been a crazy 20 20 and the
New Year's not any easier.
Go wrestling tease dot com slash Shane Taylor or our wrestling dot com.
Check out the Merchant Dye Store plenty of great merch there.
Shane Taylor stuff, Shane Taylor promotion stuff, soldiers of savagery stuff, all kind
of great stuff there.
Again, it's been an incredible 13 years that I've been doing this so far.
Looking forward to, you know, another 10 20 more knows.
But just thank you, thank you, you're going that way, you're going all I'm looking forward
to is our ways bringing their asses back to the UK.
Amen.
We're trying.
With the front row with the biggest banner.
It's coming.
Hopefully I'm hopefully I'm hopefully I'm carrying that world title when we do.
Yes, you will be.
2021, last the last and Shane Taylor.
Yes, sir.
Ladies and gentlemen for myself, the champion, the baddest heel in the business.
We out of here one.