Matt Taven’s vast collection of championships more than speak to his skill as a professional wrestler. As the 2nd-ever ROH Grand Slam Champion and the 2nd individual to carry titles in NJPW, ROH and CMLL, there’s little reason to doubt his ability inside the ring.

However, especially throughout his run as Ring of Honor’s top heel, it was rare to see Taven in a truly comedic role in the pro wrestling sphere. While certainly entertaining on-screen and inarguably a great guy outside of the confines of television, his comedic side wasn’t showcased all that often while leading the Kingdom.

Fortunately for wrestling fans and saxophone enthusiasts alike, Taven’s skills as a sheer entertainer have presented themselves on more than one occasion in the form of Sexual Taven, who I am unable to describe any better than Taven does himself below.

As we began to wind down our recent chat, I had to ask about his rarely-used but always-hilarious character.

“They’re not as much stories as some that may draw a groan or a laugh, hopefully,” I laughed as we got to the quick-fire portion of our upcoming interview for Love Wrestling.

“Please tell me about Sexual Taven!”

The former World Champion audibly laughed.

“Sexual Taven came from a mix of a couple of things,” he began. “When my hair was longer and I let it really free flow, I would have a Kenny G-ish look, which I heard a lot. Which, you know, kind of went up my ass sideways sometimes.

But then, you know, I started to get in the groove of it and I would start doing a like little saxophone kind of pantomime to just make people laugh because they would say I look like Kenny G. But the Sexual Taven story comes from – I don’t even know if I’ve ever told this story. This is a hilarious story. I was at Eddie Edwards’ wedding. I know his family, yadda yadda, and his brother was just kind of like asking me like ‘oh, who are you talking to,’ or what I was doing or something, and I was like, ‘oh, no one. Someone just asked me like a question.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know. Just everything you do just comes off so…sexual.’ I was like ‘what?!’ For the rest of the weekend, the joke was Sexual Taven.”

We both laughed before he continued.

“So, I don’t know what made me do it for the first time – I think it was at Beyond Wrestling. I started doing the saxophone thing, and it just felt like the name of that should be Sexual Taven. And, also, I’m pretty sure Eddie’s brother was there at that time probably screaming it, so that probably helped the rest of the crowd pick up on what I was doing. But man, when I got hurt and had knee surgery, thank goodness I could just go out and be Sexual Taven while I couldn’t wrestle! I’m pretty sure there’s a segment for Beyond Wrestling called In the Sack with Sexual Taven and that has over a million views on YouTube. So you know, it’s probably one of the funnier things I’ve ever done. Probably not my – you know, I won’t go back and have that as my film reel of my ‘here’s my depth as a character.

‘ I think that’s a very good shallow baseline one, but always a good laugh for everyone in the crowd!”

“That one’s not playing at the Hall of Fame speech?” I asked half-jokingly.

“Yeah, you know, and the funny thing will be is that someone will scream out for it,” Taven retorted. “It’ll be like, come on, not now! Not now!”

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

The name Stampede Wrestling is still one that inspires awe in the minds of Canadians. Whether you were a fan of professional wrestling or not, the promotion holds a special place in Albertan’s – no pun intended – hearts.

Throughout the long and storied history of Stampede, many of the promotion’s top stars, including Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Dynamite Kid, and more made their respective way at one point or another to the former WWF or current WWE. One of the final Stampede roster members to sign with the world’s biggest promotion is Natalya, who of course can still be found on national TV on a weekly basis with her work on Friday Night Smackdown.

Appearing on the Duke You Suck podcast hosted by former Stampede/PWA star Duke Durrango, Natalya described her early days in professional wrestling plying her trade for her family’s legendary promotion.

“It was such a special time,” she commented to begin the show. “We don’t realize how important those early years are. Looking back on it, they were so special. They were really the building blocks of my career that helped me to achieve everything that I have today. But, when we were living it, we were wrestling in the Ogden Legion and the Bowness Sportsplex and we were just scraping by, and we were happy to do it all for literally nothing. When I look back at what I was making and how much work I was putting into it, it really taught me so much about how much I wanted to do this.”

“When people ask me about getting into the industry, and they tell me they love wrestling and they watch me on TV, or they watch me on Total Divas, or they have followed my career, they don’t understand how important it is to find what it is that you love and to run hard with it,” commented the former WWE Women’s Champion. “When I found what it was that I loved, which is pro wrestling, being able to be given that opportunity in Stampede Wrestling was everything.”

Speaking of her introduction to the business, Natalya then went on to describe how the promotion not only affected her career in professional wrestling, but life itself, listing a number of ways that Stampede influenced her as a human.

“I kind of fell into it through the family, but then 20 years later realized how pivotal it was for me as a human being. It taught me a lot about resilience. It taught me a lot about work ethic. It taught me a lot about relationships. It taught me a lot about what matters to me. It taught me a lot about fighting for things that I believe in. I learned all of that those early years with [Duke] and [his] brother and TJ and with Harry and this motley crew of people that we worked with, from Bruce and Ross to the whole crew that we worked with, from Jamie and Anna and Harmony. I look back on it now and I laugh, but it was such a special time for me to really hone my craft.

“I definitely would not be where I am today without Stampede Wrestling.”

Please credit the Duke You Suck podcast with any of the above quotations, with an h/t to Spencer Love for the transcription.