Debuting in All Elite Wrestling on the October 14 AEW Rampage, The Kingdom trio of Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Maria Kanellis came into AEW immediately targeting FTR. Though they aren’t currently the AEW World Tag Team Champions, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are currently the doubles champions of ROH, NJPW, and AAA.
Criticism has been aimed The Kingdom’s way since their arrival in the Tony Khan-fronted organisation, with many feeling that the trio doesn’t necessarily fit into the picture that AEW is trying to paint. Those critics are wrong, according to Jim Cornette, who heavily believes that they can “work circles” around the majority of their newfound colleagues.
Speaking on the latest Jim Cornette Experience podcast, Cornette claimed that The Kingdom were better workers than some of AEW’s “self-trained f*cking imbeciles”:
“Matt Taven is very, very good, and I think very talented, and in this field could be used along with Mike Bennett as a top-level f*cking guy. They can both work circles around some of these self-trained f*cking imbeciles, but they can hang with the legitimate pros there are on the roster in AEW, what there are of them, they’re both very good.
So they’ve been here a week, so he [Tony Khan] brings Taven in and beats him. Not only does he beat him, but also to make sure that Wardlow doesn’t get over anymore, they have a really competitive match and then Wardlow beats him. So now that’s done neither guy any good. Because Taven is a nobody who’s had no wins in this environment, but he comes in and goes 15 minutes with Wardlow before Wardlow beats him flat with four Powerbombs and a foot on his f*cking chest. So Taven is now useless as a talent to the company.
We’ve been now indoctrinated that Matt Taven’s a guy that comes in and gets the sh*t kicked out of him and f*cking beat flat in the middle. But then, like the heels always do in this company, Bennett attacks him from behind and they start trying to get some heat on Wardlow. So here comes Samoa Joe, Wardlow’s weird tag team partner for no reason. He does the run in to save his partner carrying whatever championship belt he holds here, I can’t remember. And then he beats up both of the heels, he beats up both Bennett and Taven, and sh*t cans them both out of the f*cking ring.”
The Kingdom Vs. FTR Would Cause AEW’s “Best Tag Team Matches”
Elaborating, Jim Cornette explained how a feud between The Kingdom and FTR would result in the “best tag team matches” possible in the current era of AEW:
“So actually Bennett and Taven in a tag team program with FTR would probably be the best tag team matches we could get in today’s environment without employing Mark and Jay Briscoe. But they just got brought in to do a job and then get the sh*t kicked out of them and sh*t canned out of the ring. But nevertheless, he sh*t cans those good heels, here comes Powerhouse Hobbs’ music and entrance. Okay, what the f*ck? What does he have to do with anything here?
But as he’s coming down the ramp, a million other heels jump in the goddamn ring from behind. It’s the Ring of Honor heel crew with The Gates of Agony, the fat Samoans, and whoever the f*ck else is involved. And I get now Hobbs is going to be stuck in that, and the DVR froze because they were about 30 seconds from going off the air, but there’s 18 people in the ring and we still don’t really know who all of them are. And thanks for coming Bennett and Taven. Maria [Kanellis] didn’t get to do sh*t except jump up on the apron one time, glory hallelujah.
What is he [Tony Khan] doing? If you don’t have room to use these guys now, then don’t bring them in and just ruin their careers.”
As it stands, The Kingdom is yet to wrestle together in AEW. The match referred to by Jim Cornette – Matt Taven vs. Wardlow – remains the group’s only in-ring presence thus far. That saw the former ROH World Champion felled by ‘Mr Mayhem’, who retained the AEW TNT Championship, from the October 28 Rampage.
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit The Jim Cornette Experience and link back to this article with a H/T to Inside The Ropes.