Matt Taven has held the Ring of Honor world championship for more than 100 days since winning it in a ladder match during April’s G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. The New England native puts the belt on the line against former champion Jay Lethal at Manhattan Mayhem, streaming live on HonorClub starting at 8 p.m., from Hammerstein Ballroom on July 20.

Before he adds another chapter to his long-standing rivalry with Lethal, Taven found time for some Q&A with The Post’s Joseph Staszewski.

(Edited for brevity)

Q: Does Jay Lethal feel like the rivalry that doesn’t go away in your career?

A: It does and it doesn’t because Jay brings out the best in you that you never feel completely done. You never feel like you got the defining, very dominant moment over Jay. We went for 60 minutes to a draw [this year]. We’ve been in ladder matches, cage matches. We fought on platforms for many different titles.

It always feels like such a hard match, and you come out of it knowing that you’ve been in a fight. You never feel like you’re truly done, and to me at this point the rivalry has gone on for so long that I get so amped up when I see that it’s gonna be me and Jay Lethal because it always feels like there’s something to prove.

Q: You waited a long time to become Ring of Honor world champion. Has holding that belt, and the responsibilities that come with it, been everything you thought it would be, or have there been things that surprised you about being in that spot?

A: I mean, you get opportunities like throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park, which is pretty sweet. But it was such a long journey getting there — what, like, six years? More like seven years with Ring of Honor — and going through two different knee surgeries and just going through everything that I’ve been through and doing so much and always kind of searching after that one achievement that eluded me: the Ring of Honor world title. And you work so hard to get there, and all of sudden it happens at Madison Square Garden and it’s like: “Could it be a better ending to the fairy tale?”

You hang out with your friends and family afterwards. Then it seems like that is the moment you go riding off into the sunset and that’s how the story ends and everyone goes home happy, and then you turn around and the next week you are right back at it and we’re in Pittsburgh and Columbus defending the title.

Q: Is it more challenging to be a heel in today’s society that’s a little more PC and more careful about offending people?

A: I think I would be a fool to say it isn’t. Usually … characters know an easy way to get people upset and it’s on purpose. I think nowadays people take it offensively and it’s like, “Oh, you’re supposed to get offended, but now you’re getting real offended not just taking it as part of the show.”

So obviously it’s a challenge, but I think where I really try to be a little bit different is social media. Guys I personally feel pull back the curtain a little bit too much. If Matt Taven tells you you’re a human diaper and Matt Taven’s the world champion because he’s never gonna be a lowlife like you and then goes online and is like, “Here’s what my pancakes look like,” to me there’s a disconnect.

I think it’s especially hard today because fans want to engage with the person behind the character. I try to have, as much as I can, to have a good honest mix of, even when you’re getting the person you think, it’s still in the character’s form. Which might rub people the wrong way and people might take personal offense to it, but that’s what I want you to feel, don’t you get it?

Q: What advice would you give to a performer trying to be a heel today?

A: I always say the more genuine that people want to punch you in the face, the better, so you’ve got to take the parts of your personality that an ex-girlfriend didn’t like or people you didn’t get along with always mentioned when they said something negative about you. And you are like, “This is what makes people hate me. I’m going to bring it out to the public.”

Q: With the momentum AEW has and WWE beefing up creative, where does Ring of Honor fit now in this ever-changing landscape?

A: It is a place where people come and go and there will be transition periods, but in the end Ring of Honor will always get that momentum and have a feeling of this is where the evolution of wrestling takes place. Ring of Honor does a great job of keeping their eyes on the independents and what’s new and fresh and he’s the new guy coming in. And stuff like the top prospect tournament that’s happening this upcoming weekend in Lowell is something that keeps Ring of Honor on their toes and shows people, who is the next guy making waves? Who’s the guy coming up next?

I think with all the popularity of wrestling, that’s just a good thing for Ring of Honor because even if it’s a transition period right now, it’s not going to last forever. And if more people are watching wrestling than ever, they’re gonna stumble across Ring of Honor and find out the moniker “the best wrestling on the planet” is there for a reason, and it will regrow and rebuild the audience just like we always have in the past. Wrestling is all about cycles, and every once in a while, you’ve got to hold on and you’ll be right back to where you were.

Q: Is that history something that makes you feel like there doesn’t need to be this hotshot attempt to try to get momentum back or get a buzz?

A: We have such a talented locker room. And the fresh faces that are in there now and the moves that have been made by Ring of Honor since the beginning of the year are fantastic ones, and people will catch onto that as soon as they give it a chance to check it out. The Bandidos of the world, the Rushs of the world, PCO, Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams, PJ Black.

It’s an exciting time because things are just brewing right now. We just turned the crock pot on, and you just have to wait for that bad boy to simmer and it’s gonna be delicious.

Q: Is there one of those fresh guys in the company you are hoping to have a match with?

A: The one that immediately pops into my mind is Bandido just because we never worked a one-on-one match in the ring and I think he’s phenomenal. I watch him and find myself being a fan.

The other that’s definitely gonna be a challenge that is gonna be down the road — we have butted heads in Mexico a bunch, but never in the United States really — is Rush. Rush is really one of those guys that has brought out the best in me. A big reason why I made such a big splash in Mexico is because people got to see me and Rush go in there, and a different animal comes out of you when you are in there with someone like Rush.

Q: Before wrestling you worked in the Patriots organization for a little while?

A: I worked for Kraft Sports Group, which is the Pats and the [New England] Revolution.

Q: What did you learn from that?

A: You can be whoever you want to on the phone [trying to sell tickets]. It’s something that you’ll end up realizing really quick.

I can call from Joe Schmo from Idaho and put on a voice the whole time. It’s not like this guy’s gonna know the difference. So you really get a chance to let your guard down and get rid of stage fright and see what works when talking to people.

One of the biggest things that I learned — just being on the phone with strangers, coming from a place where it’s not a hard sell, the product or doing anything — you just have to convince someone to take out their credit card or open their wallet. So doing that on an individual basis prepared me to do it to a major crowd.

Q: Were you cutting promos on people?

A: Every once in a while those phone calls get monotonous, and you’re like, “I’m gonna cut this like Ric Flair would do.” And you call someone up all excited, “Woo, how you doing, baby!” Sometimes it doesn’t work. There have been many times it doesn’t work and sometimes it does.

Q: Were you sad to see Kyrie Irving leave the Celtics?

A: Not at all. I think that there’s a mentality here in Boston of what it takes to navigate the waters, and I think from a very early time, I feel like this is a very hard-hat city, like work-together, put-your-nose- down-and-grind, do-the-work-type city. And when someone comes in here with kind of the predisposition of “I’m so great,” it always seems to not work out in Boston.

Q: How does Flip Gordon joining Villain Enterprises change the Ring of Honor landscape?

A: I mean, does it? I beat Flip Gordon at Defy or Deny and made sure he never gets another (world) title shot again. It’s one of those things where it’s like, “Flip Gordon? I’ve scratched that one right off the list. And if I’m ever gonna be referred to as the intern or the understudy, forget it. I’ll just do it on my own.”

Q: Is there a moment or an image from that Madison Square Garden show that will always stick with you when you think back to it?

A: One of the best ones is being in the middle of Madison Square and Bobby Cruz says, “From Boston, Massachusetts” and just pauses and the place just boos me out of this world. It didn’t even take a second for the crowd to catch on. They said, “Ba,” and everyone just started booing. And I said, “Perfect.” I feel like guys and teams from Boston always feel like that hated underdog. Bring it. This is nothing that I’m not used to before.

Once I grabbed that title and I look up, and there’s a shot of me looking up at the jumbotron and the jumbotron just has me looking up with a huge smile on it. And I can remember looking up and seeing that they have inside monitors of what the jumbotron sees on the opposite side. So I’m seeing the live feed, and there is a big banner that says Madison Square Garden, and I’m just seeing this big poop-eating grin on my face in the middle of Madison Square Garden holding the Ring of Honor world title.

Q: You haven’t beaten Jay and he hasn’t beaten you by pinfall or submission this year. What would it mean for your title reign to get a clean win over him Saturday?

A: The title saying Matt Taven on it says I beat Jay Lethal, but being in there with someone that you know so well and someone who you’ve had such a good rivalry with, you really haven’t had that defining moment either way. We’ve pinned each other in the past, but it always feels unfinished. My goal at Manhattan Mayhem is to make sure at the end of the night it’s Jay Lethal looking up at the lights and Matt Taven with his foot on his chest holding the Ring of Honor world title.