Details On How Matt Taven’s Surprise Northeast Wrestling Appearance Happened

Northeast Wrestling held their Prison Break this past weekend, which featured ROH World Champion Matt Taven making a surprise appearance to successfully defend the title against JT Dunn. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Taven was a last minute replacement for Rey Fenix, as there was a misunderstanding regarding Fenix’s itinerary. Fenix and Pentagon were sent their itineraries at the same time and Fenix thought Pentagon’s was his, so he missed his flight. NEW found out at 9:30 on the day of the show. The only way they could get him from Mexico to New York was a flight that would arrive so late he’d never make it in time.

Promoter Mike Lombardi made calls to AEW and ROH in attempt to get a suitable replacement. AEW tried to help, but since Taven was going to be backstage anyway (he usually helps backstage at NEW shows), Lombardi called Joe Koff to make a deal. All Koff asked was that NEW not announce that Taven would be there ahead of time, so it wouldn’t seem like they were using the ROH Champion to sell tickets. Taven has an exclusive contract for the US market to ROH, so the company would have to approve him appearing for another promotion and advertise his matches as title matches.

ROH hasn’t allowed talent to work other independent shows except for NWA in some time, with the exception of PWG, which was a deal the Young Bucks set up because the talent loves working PWG.