If you’re a fan of All Elite Wrestling, then there’s little doubt you’re a fan of the Ian Abel Band. Ian’s songs “Shoes” and “Not Afraid to Die” have been the soundtracks to some of All Elite’s most iconic moments, including the classic Cody vs. Dustin ‘Brother vs. Brother’ match at 2019’s Double or Nothing and the Full Gear tilt between Cody and Darby Allin that saw the latter win his first title with AEW.

Ironically, though Not Afraid to Die was the song selected for the Full Gear pay-per-view, the track was actually the one that Abel believed would be used at Double or Nothing. Though that didn’t turn out to be the case, Abel admitted as part of our upcoming chat for Love Wrestling that it was the right decision in the long run.

“Yeah, I think that it was used better at Full Gear,” he began with a laugh.

“I had been talking to Cody and Brandi, and Michael Cullari was in the conversation and then a few other emails, I have no idea who they are. They’re behind the scenes people. Here I am talking to these people, and I’m thinking we’re talking about the song Not Afraid to Die,” he said referencing the initial discussions for Double or Nothing. “I’d went in after – I sent them Shoes and I sent him a couple of others to show what kind of sound like. I went in that weekend with my friend John Graber and another buddy Reid. I’d written the chords, I’d written the melodies, I’d written the lyrics, everything was there. We just went in and said, ‘okay, let’s figure this out.'”

“We pretty much laid everything down and what you hear on Not Afraid to Die we did in one day, which is pretty cool,” Abel reminisced on the song’s recording. “To get in there, I mean, my friends are incredible engineers and mixers. I got lucky there. We just laid down the acoustic, sang a vocal that I thought was gonna be a scratch track to then re-cut and John was like, ‘nah, man, that’s it, dude,’ and I was like, ‘okay, cool.

‘”

“[It’s] the Georgia Satellites theory, right?'” I laughed, calling back to another excellent scratch vocal.

“Yeah!” Ian affirmed. “I was like, ‘oh, okay, crap, I wish I would have sang better, I don’t know.’ And so then we mixed it, and I sent it over Sunday. Monday we start talking more, and that’s when we were leading up to Double or Nothing. I’m thinking the whole time that we’re talking about Not Afraid to Die, and then actually, Cody [emailed] me in all-caps and said, ‘I want Shoes.’ And I said, ‘oh, okay, this is different. I’m not prepared. Brandi wants some shoes!'”

We both laughed. “Whatever you want, boss!” I commented.

“Yeah, that’s totally fine. That’s interesting,” Abel chuckled. “And, it worked out better. But, what was cool about it at Full Gear is that I think the song thematically, not only – because I wrote it with Cody in mind. I spent one evening, I was like ‘screw it, I’m gonna write this new song, I’m going to send it to them, show them what I’ve got right off the bat.’ And so I’m writing it thinking about Cody and the Rhodes family, and now you got Darby in it, too, in the promo, and in the match, and you’re like, it worked.

“

“I think it worked better to me than it would have at the brother- versus-brother match.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotations.

While I’ve been a fan of Matt Taven for damn near a decade, my first experience watching him wrestle live didn’t come until May 5th, 2019, when the then-Ring of Honor Heavyweight Champion made his way to Alberta for a pair of appearances for Real Canadian Wrestling.

As usually happens when I get the opportunity to chat with someone who’s recently been to Alberta, we began our conversation rehashing memories of their time in the province.

I was particularly excited to do so in Taven’s case, as his match in Edmonton against then-Alberta Champion Dylon Stone stands out as one of the best matches I’ve had the chance to watch live, whether independent or otherwise.

“You wrestled Dylon Stone in a title-for-title match [where] you [defended] your Ring of Honor Heavyweight Championship at the time,” I stated to start our chat. “Just give me a little bit on it [and] give me your thoughts on Dylon Stone, because it’s always nice to hear from someone who doesn’t wrestle him a ton or wrestle in Alberta a ton [and] when they get to speak highly of our professional wrestlers – at least I would hope!”

Taven’s eyes lit up at the mention of the match.

“Man, I can’t tell you how excited I was during the match with Dylon, because especially when you’ve never met another wrestler before, you don’t really know what you’re getting into,” Taven commented. “We had some good kind of interactions with one another. But, until you’re in the ring, it could be completely different than you thought it was going to be.”

“I almost think that probably halfway during that match, I just have a big smile on my face. I’m like, ‘oh, this kid’s really good.

This is gonna be great.’ It’s one of those things where it grounds you again, you know what I mean? And not to say I’ve done anything, but when you don’t get a chance to really wrestle in certain places a lot, you’re not really aware of what the talent could be there.”

Before continuing the conversation, the former ROH Champion finished with some kind words for the man known to Albertans as Mr. Saturday Night.

“When you see someone so good, who, frankly, to me, I hope more people – I hope he gets out more. I hope more people know who he is, because to me it’s like there’s this hidden gem there and to think of how many hidden gems are all over the place. It just goes to show you how good the wrestling talent is across the board these days.

”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotations used.