Matt Sydal is currently a member of the All Elite Wrestling roster, but he is a journeyman of wrestling who already has a full career and a lifetime of moments and memories to reflect on.
Whether it was his time in WWE as Evan Bourne, his time in IMPACT Wrestling as X-Division Champion and guru to Josh Mathews, or his time on the independent scene honing his craft, Sydal has been everywhere there is to go in wrestling, and at only age 37, he still has time to fulfill any wrestling dreams that may still linger in his heart.
Appearing as a guest on the ALL Real Wrestling Podcast, Sydal opened up about a possible return to New Japan, enjoying his current time in AEW, and his personal favorite match of his career taking place in IMPACT Wrestling.
Eric Novak sent the following quotes to Fightful
Will he Return to NJPW, Tagging with Ricochet, Young Bucks:
Yeah I’d love to go back there you know there’s nothing that works right now but NJPW is one of my favorite wrestling organizations I’ve worked for I love and respect what they do I think it’s one of the greatest places for junior heavyweights and yeah like I said the thing with where you wrestle is it’s made up of the wrestlers that are a part of the company so I don't really divide things up by companies it’s sort of like who’s in the locker room with me when I’m there and the NJPW locker room is just like their star-studded they’re hard-working honorable guys like the guy American guys I was working with at that time Kyle O’ Riley and Bobby Fish the Young Bucks that they’re absolutely the best tag teams in the world and I love tag-team wrestling if you know my history I really came into my own wrestling for Dragon Gate which is famous for tag and six-man tag matches so I really love tagging with Ricochet and really getting to stay in my wheelhouse because I wouldn’t say you know you keep trying to say that things are restricted or I’m held down but you can only wrestle the person that's in front of you and when you have the Young Bucks in front of you your options are a lot superior than what I was given in WWE the Great Khali wasn’t exactly the most agile big man to work with however I did have matches with Mark Henry that I think we’re badass and took.)
Thoughts on IMPACT Wrestling, Favorite Match:
The guys that I worked with in IMPACT were great like when I first started Chris Masters was there John Morrison came in Phoenix and Pentagon were there LAX Santana, Ortiz these guys are the best wrestlers and you know that's why things were going so good in IMPACT I think everybody that showed up at these shows nobody’s trying to take it easy everybody was showing up with something to prove Sami Callihan the OVE guys everybody wants to make a name for themselves I think that's what the Rascalz are doing right now to me they kind of represent the spirit the original spirit of TNA and I think that’s what you know Scott Demore and Sanjay those guys we’re really working towards. So my response to that is not one of my matches it’s John Morrison vs Phoenix it was the greatest IMPACT match I’ve ever seen in my life like one of the best matches I’ve ever seen live so that’d be the one I’d recommend.
Matt Sydal talks about AEW:
The guys that came out of PWG eventually started the company AEW and I mean it just goes to show you it took a little long for somebody to capitalize on it but I mean they’ve been putting their hearts into some really incredible work for some time and it’s just a matter of time before somebody wanted to utilize that and make it a giant international destination instead of just receive a little American legion Hall. I always feel like what AEW is going for is the PWG spirit that mentality is sort of is the heart in the right place, I believe in what they do and there’s a lot of good wrestling and I love being in AEW and there’s definitely benefits to being with these companies that are taking care of the wrestlers during this time.
You can check out the full interview in the video embedded above.
