Former ROH World champion re-signs, current one injured

After their Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view (PPV) event in the venue on Friday (Sept. 27), Ring of Honor was back in Las Vegas’ Sam’s Town Casino for a television taping last night. It was noteworthy for the presence of a former World champ, and the absence of the current one.

Even though he lost the belt the night before, Matt Taven appeared alongside his stablemates in The Kingdom, Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan. Taven, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the month, cut a babyface promo putting over the company and the fans. It featured this announcement:

“I want to tell each and every one of you that I am going nowhere. I am here to stay. The story of Matt Taven is far from done. I have a lot more to prove to everyone here. I have a championship to get back -- and this Kingdom will rise again.”

Wrestling Observer reported ROH had made Taven a sizeable offer to stick around, and company COO Joe Koff indicated keeping him in the fold was a priority. So this isn’t a huge surprise.

There’s a lot more intrigue around the man who pinned Taven on Friday, new World champ RUSH. After winning the strap, El Toro Blanco declared himself a free agent in his native Mexico, and CMLL announced they were releasing he and his brother Dragon Lee a short time later. RUSH & Lee were supposed to team up to battle Villain Enterprises’ PCO & Brody King at the taping, but ROH announced before the show the champ wasn’t medically cleared to compete.

He was there and spoke to the crowd, so hopefully it’s just a minor injury - and not related to any issues between RUSH, ROH, and CMLL.

Bandido was also pulled from the Final Battle #1 Contenders Tournament due to an injured knee. He was replaced in the semifinals by PJ Black.

PWInsider and Fightful both have bullet point spoiler reports, if you’re interested.