Ring of Honor wrestler Mike Bennett has recalled scaring a Denny’s waitress as he sat with a blood-soaked Matt Taven after a war with the Briscoe Brothers.
The former WWE superstar is set for an emotional night at Final Battle as The Kingdom take on Jay and Mark Briscoe on the influential promotion’s last pay-per-view before their hiatus as part of a major reshuffle which has seen them release all talent from their contracts.
Reflecting on what tonight’s match means for him, he exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘Closure. I feel like that’s kind of what I’m going in there, my mindset is, “If you could have a match where it represented how you felt about Ring of Honor and how you felt about the Ring of Honor fans, what would you do?”
‘That’s how I look at this match, it’s my thank you.’
Ring of Honor has meant so much to Bennett over the years, particularly with this most recent run coming after his disappointing stint and release from WWE, which came just weeks into the pandemic.
‘At the end of the day, Cary Silkin and Joe Koff, Ring of Honor, the Ring of Honor fans, they changed my life for the better and I owe it to them,’ he smiled.
‘And the Briscoes changed my life because they were the first people that really gave me that stamp of approval that, oh, these two are actually legitimate wrestlers. This is my thank you to everything in Ring of Honor.’
The Kingdom and Briscoe Brothers know each other very well, although one of Mike’s enduring memories wasn’t actually an in-ring moment but rather a bizarre moment that sums up wrestling’s camaraderie.
He revealed: ‘There’s this ongoing thing in wrestling that when you’re in there with your friends, you always tend to hit them a bit harder and you always tend to go a little bit more violent, because they’re your friends.
‘You know that, OK, we’re buddies so we can go beat the crap out of each other. I remember we wrestled in Atlanta one night, it was the Two out of Three Falls Armageddon match.
‘They busted Matt Taven wide open by just throwing a chair at his head. IT’s not even the match – that match was one of my favourites of all time. But that night probably brought The Kingdom together more than ever, because me and Maria and Taven and [Adam] Cole all went out after.
‘Before we even went to the hospital, we went to Denny’s and ate and the waitress is coming over looking at Taven with the blood all over him, “What is wrong with you?” We’re just trying to get food so we can eat.’
They eventually made it to the hospital where Taven ‘got stapled up’, and Mike explained how nights like that help form a bond on the road.
‘The reason why me and Cole and Taven and Maria are so close is because we did things like this. We sat in a hospital waiting room all night as our buddy got stitched up, and went to Denny’s,’ he smiled.
‘We’ve done the long tours of Japan and the long fights and the car rides. We’ve been next to each other as we’re fighting with our significant other or having problems at home, and carried each other through it.’
It’s those moments that have added to Bennett’s bond with Ring of Honor, and he finds that ‘the hardest part’ about saying goodbye at Final Battle.
‘These are the things that people don’t see that I’ll always remember about Ring of Honor. I think that’s the hardest part, reflecting on that is the hardest part,’ he admitted. ‘A lot of people go to college to grow up – I went to wrestling and Ring of Honor to grow up. That was my teacher, that was my college.’
And despite the disappointment of losing a job for the second year running, Bennett feels a definite sense of loyalty to Ring of Honor, and he’d be happy to be involved in some capacity once the company returns as planned in April 20222.
‘I owe way more to Ring of Honor than I’ll ever repay,’ he said. ‘And if they wanted me back, I would do it in a heartbeat and without even missing a beat. I love that place.’
