Capitol Wrestling Producer On Losing Sonny Kiss & Nyla Rose to AEW, Talks Working With Seth Rollins’ School

– Capitol Wrestling co-creator and producer Matthew Ryan spoke with Wrestling Inc and discussed losing Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose to AEW, plus more. Highlights are below:

On why he decided to revive the name Capitol Wrestling: “The name ‘Capitol Wrestling’ came from myself and my co-founder, Marcus Dowling. He’s based out of Washington DC and I’m based out of New York City – that was the old northeast triangle for the New York territory, the original territory up here on the east coast. It was ‘Capitol Wrestling’, so we thought we would pay homage to that and see if we can bring back classic wrestling to the modern fan. That kind of ebbed and flowed over the past few years, where now, the new wave of professional wrestling shows a lot in our imagery, our roster, our iconography. Capitol Wrestling just kind of fit.”

On the promotion’s production schedule: “We’re one of the few independent companies that does weekly television. We produce thirty minutes at least a week for FITE Network UK, the FITE app, Impact +Plus, Nothing Else On, and also our Facebook and YouTube channels; I think that is a unique conceit in what we do. Also our style of production is very cinematic… We’ve been able to create something a little bit different in how you view and how you take in your wrestling in the modern age.”

On Capitol Wrestling’s relationship with Seth Rollins’ wrestling school: “It was really easy to work with [Seth Rollins’ Black and Brave Academy]. Ronnie Burton, who’s one of our wrestlers and also our lighting supervisor, came to us early this year, like right around New Year’s Eve, and said, ‘Hey Seth and Marek, they want to start doing seminars. They’re going to be in town in April, do you think we could co-brand something?’ It was like, bang, bang, boom – took less than a day to figure out. The seminar got sold out. Seth and Marek were great to every single person they dealt with in terms of the seminar and dealing with us. It was actually really cool, and they’re really great to work with. They trained some really good students.”

On Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose leaving Capitol Wrestling for AEW: “[Sonny Kiss’ success] makes me really happy. When I heard about it, I went, ‘Oh no! We lost our top guy.’ And then we lost Nyla Rose, I went, ‘Oh God! Two things we were trying to build are gone.’ But it’s the wrestling business and you deal with it, you alternate. I found out Sonny and Nyla got signed while having the initial conversation for our Nashville show, and I’m right in the financial district and I went, ‘Oh s–t! They signed Sonny and Nyla.’ I couldn’t be happier. I honestly couldn’t be happier. Two people that deserve the opportunity, that deserve to be on an international stage; you can see that from Sonny’s performances in and out of the ring with just as who he is as a person. Nyla Rose is one of the funniest, most entertaining, and engaging people that I’ve ever dealt with in or out of pro wrestling… She’s a star, she’s a TV star waiting to happen.”

On Capitol’s working relationship with Homicide: “It makes writing a little difficult [when talent can leave at any time]. It makes booking, and producing shows, and getting dates right with buildings a little hard but that adds to the challenge. You’re dealing with it in every single way and you’ve got to roll with the punches, and we’ve been able to develop a deep roster of people inside and outside the ring to help carry a lot of weight and a lot of the water. You know certain people are going to be there every time. We recently brought in Homicide who’s made a commitment to us to work with us and help build our brand,” Ryan said. “When Homicide says I want to work with you and I believe in you, you believe him! You take that and you run with it, especially as a kid that grew up watching Ring of Honor, and members of our team were there when they helped build the New York wrestling scene in the early 2000’s… You roll with the punches the best you can and you just try to find the next person that can step up and take the punch.”