Throughout its run in Ring of Honor, Shane Taylor Promotions became arguably the most impressive stable in wrestling today.
The group launched Moses, Kaun and O’Shay Edwards to new heights, as the trio, alongside Shane Taylor, defended the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship during their unmatched reign with the gold. Though the group lost the titles at ROH Final Battle: End of an Era, Shane Taylor Promotions’ excellence is undeniable.
Taylor has previously discussed his aim to keep the group together, though its members are hitting the open market in the wake of the news that ROH reportedly won’t renew the contracts of its talent roster at the end of 2021. No matter what happens next, STP’s legacy will go down in ROH history.
During an interview with WrestleZone, Taylor, Edwards and Kaun reflected on the group’s success. First, Taylor expressed his pride in the way each member of the stable has shined; though they were all talented, they took the ball and ran with it when they received the opportunities that they hadn’t been getting.
“To sit here and say I feel like a proud big brother would be an understatement,” said Taylor. “When I met every single one of these guys, they were already supremely talented, supremely confident, they just needed the reps. They just needed the opportunity. You could see that they were damn near miles ahead of anybody around, yet for some reason, people didn’t know what to do with them, they didn’t see it. They didn’t understand what they had. Seeing talent has never been an issue for me. So I knew that next to me, I could provide them the opportunities and the reps that they needed.
“All I had to do was step back and watch them do what I already knew that they could do, and we’ve seen it. With the growth of Kaun and Moses as a tag team, it’s undeniable. They went from guys that people just were like well, you know, they could be good. To now, you know, [they’re] universally recognized as pillars of any tag team division that they walk into it. That’s not an accident. They’ve always had that in them.”
Taylor then took a moment to praise Edwards’ confidence and his successful tendency to bet on himself. “The Baddest of All Time” compared Edwards to himself before he explained that, even though STP had to deal with a lot of “bulls—“, the work itself wasn’t a problem at all.
“…Even though O’Shay is older than me, I wasn’t about to let that slide, I’ve watched him bet on himself, own every stage he’s been on, whether it’s been on a Ring of Honor stage or every independent that he goes to, and dominated,” said Taylor. “The level of confidence that he has is scary close to mine, you know what I mean, and his ability to go out there just because he can, and just because he wants to.
“When you have these individuals all together at the same time with the common goal, while you still have to put in the work, and while it was still tough navigating all the bull—, the work is easy. Once we get out there and all we gotta do is fight, it’s easy.”
Edwards, a powerhouse who is fitting called “The Big Bad Kaiju,” went on to describe how he always sought to prove his stablemates they made the right choice by taking a chance on him, no matter where they happened to be competing on any given night. Given the way he thrived with the group, it’s safe to say he succeeded in this regard.
“It was the day that I linked up with Shane and Moses and Kaun, and they were the first group of people where I was never trying to prove them wrong, I was trying to prove ’em right,” said Edwards. “…It was just like, ‘Nah man, you’ve got the right guy. You want me, let me show you why you made the right choice. And every day I stepped up into that ring, it was to prove that you guys made the right choice, regardless of who’s signing checks, regardless of who’s in front of us, regardless of whose ring we were in. It was, hey man, we made the right choice here.”
As for Kaun, he stated that Shane Taylor Promotions collectively made six-man tag team matches important again, and the group’s dominance is unrivaled in the wrestling world.
“In the end, we should be talking about, we made trios wrestling relevant again,” said Kaun. “We are the most dominant six-man unit in professional wrestling today…and we’re the greatest six-man unit in Ring of Honor history, period.”
Moving forward, many fans are eager to see what the members of Shane Taylor Promotions do next. Whether they stay together or venture off on their own, the stablemates will continue to pursue the group’s goal to advocate for diversity in wrestling by thriving in the ring and being a shining example of excellence.
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