Matt Taven On His Innuendo-Laden Finisher Names and Sexual Taven Gimmick, Says He Had to Tone Down His Gimmick For ROH TV

Matt Taven spoke with Chris Van Vliet for a new interview and discussed the sexual nature of his finishing move names and how he had to tone things down for ROH TV. Taven’s finisher is the Climax, with his “Just the Tip” also being a trademark maneuver. Taven talked about who came up with the latter (finding inspiration from The Wedding Crashers, of course) and talked a little about his “Sexual Taven” gimmick that briefly appeared in Beyond Wrestling:

On his innuendo-heavy finisher names: “Yeah see, like — I think it was always best when it could ride that line. And I can remember one, and I feel like I’m name dropping now. But at Tommaso Ciampa’s wedding, he had this guy Arch Kinkaid, who is a guy from — if people from New England, they know him from the local scene. And Arch Kinkaid’s just one of those characters that doesn’t really care who’s around. He talks loud, everyone can hear him. So here’s all of Tommaso’s family, and Arch Kinkaid wants to break down why I named my finishing mood The Climax and how great it is. And I’m like, ‘Can we just pump it down a little bit right now? I don’t think Tommaso’s grandma needs to hear why this move’s called the Climax.’

“But Just the Tip came from Colt Cabana, I have to give him all the credit from there. He came up with Just the Tip because he wanted to say, ‘Just the Tip [pause] of the Knee.’ And I was ‘Absolutely, in fact the name of the movie is now Just the Tip. So thank you, you’ve named it, I appreciate it.'”

On his Sexual Taven gimmick: “The Sexual Taven gimmick is floating around, because it only happened a couple of times. I haven’t really, truly been able to wrestle as that gimmick. It was a gimmick I was doing when I was hurt last time, and trying to stay on shows and stay relevant. So Beyond Wrestling — thank you — let me do Sexual Taven a couple times there.”

On having to tone down his sexual gimmick for ROH TV: “I’m sure if I was to wrestle under that name more — if you thought The Climax and Just the Tip were [sexual], that’s me living in a PG world. Because Hoopla, our first thing that we did in Ring of Honor was going to have a lot more risque stuff until Sinclair Broadcasting saw the very first segment and said, ‘You guys gotta relax.’

“The very first thing, when I pulled the belt out of my pants and it kind of dangles in front of me. I found that to be very funny, but [TV] stations around the country thought that that was a little absurd, and so they blurred it. But when you saw it blurred out, it looked like it was just me blurred down to my knees. So I need to send a thank you and fruit basket to all those stations I think in like, the Bible Belt and the Midwest that wanted to blur it out, because you guys made me look like an absolute champ. But after that we were told we had to calm down.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.