This weekend at the closed doors WrestleMania 36, Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens feud comes to a head with what is sure to be a physical encounter. But these two have had a rivalry long before either man joined the WWE Universe, going back to their days on the independents when Seth Rollins was Tyler Black and Kevin Owens went by Kevin Steen. Just days removed from the WrestleMania affair, Ring of Honor has announced they’ll be releasing their epic encounter from ROH Salvation in 2010 – and their final non-WWE battle – for free on their YouTube channel on Thursday night at 9pm EST.
Premiering TONIGHT at 9 PM ET exclusively on our YouTube channel – Don’t miss Tyler Black vs Kevin Steen FULL MATCH (Salvation 2010)
Watch here: https://t.co/DFwooizk2x#MonthOfHonor 🤝 pic.twitter.com/rVzJJMCm5n
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) April 2, 2020
Tyler Black and Kevin Steen actually first locked horns even prior to Ring of Honor, first meeting up in IWA Mid South at An Extreme Farewell on May 18, 2006. Black was barely a year into the business, while Steen himself had made his debut in the Canadian indies as a teenager in 2000. Tyler Black would end up defeating the “veteran” Steen in their first encounter.
Their next encounter was over a year later on the West Coast, when both men were on the same team in a 10-man tag team match with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) on the second night of Battle of Los Angeles. Tyler Black had been eliminated from the tournament by Alex Shelley on Night One, while Steen was knockout the same night by Necro Butcher. But when they met again a few months later in ROH, they were decidedly on opposite sides.
In 2007, both men made their debut with Ring of Honor, with Tyler Black joining Jimmy Jacobs in The Age of the Fall, while Steen entered alongside his best friend and tag partner El Generico (aka WWE’s Sami Zayn). At ROH Rising Above in December in New York City, Black & Jacobs were part of a four-way tag team match that saw Generico & Steen prevail over the Age of the Fall’s duo, as well as The Hangman Three‘s Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer and The Vulture Squad‘s Jack Evans & Ruckus.
In early February, the two would meet in singles action again, but it wasn’t ROH. On Canadian soil, Steen evened the score by defeating Black in Toronto, Ontario at UWA Hardcore Panic Attack. Back in ROH though, their feud was just beginning to take steam. For much of the summer of 2008, The Age of the Fall’s Black & Jacobs would feud with Steen & Generico over the ROH World Tag Team titles – AotF beat Steen & Generico for the vacant titles in June at ROH Up for Grabs, while Steen & Generico beat AotF for the belts at ROH Driven in September. Soon after, the two teams would drift apart. But the war between Steen and Black was still far from over.
In 2010, Tyler Black was the reigning ROH World Champion and that didn’t sit well. In July of 2010, Steen attacked the World Champion, sending a signal that he was coming for his gold.
That lead to a series of promos from each man, who continued to taunt each other before their scheduled World title match at Salvation later that month.
With the battle lines set, the two finally met at ROH Salvation on July 24, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois, for a physical affair far rowdier than anything in WWE. And to find out the result of that classic, you just have to set your reminder on the video below and watch it in all its uncut glory on Thursday, April 2 at 9pm! And then head over to the WWE Network this weekend as Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens continue their feud in the WWE Universe at WrestleMania 36.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch ROH replays at HonorClub.
