A Major Tragedy Rekindled Matt Taven's Interest In Pro Wrestling

Matt Taven made his pro wrestling debut in 2008. Since then, the former Ring of Honor World Champion has performed for various promotions and has recently begun to appear on AEW programming with his longtime tag team partner Mike Bennett. Taven revealed in a recent interview that a tragic incident contributed to him pursuing a career in pro wrestling. 

"Weirdly, the murder-suicide of the Benoit family is kinda what got me back into wrestling," Taven said on the "The Undisputed Podcast." "It was one of those things where I hadn't seen a lot of my friends that I grew up with, that I used to watch wrestling with and all that stuff. I hadn't seen them in a while; we hadn't got back together. And some of us were playing basketball in a men's league together, and that news came down through friends of friends of friends started saying what was happening. We were like, 'Let's all get together. Let's watch 'Raw.' What the hell's going on? This is crazy.'"

On June 25, 2007, Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and his son Daniel were found dead at their home. That same night, WWE ran a three-hour tribute show on "WWE Raw," honoring the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion's life and career. However, not long after the show had concluded, it was determined that Benoit had committed the murders before taking his own life. The following night on "WWE ECW," Vince McMahon addressed the situation and revealed that Benoit's name would no longer be mentioned by the company.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Undisputed Podcast" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.