Matt Sydal Doesn’t Regret Giving Josh Mathews the Impact Grand Championship

– Matt Sydal spoke with WrestleZone Radio for a new interview ahead of his match with Taiji Ishimori on tonight’s Impact Wrestling. Highlights are below:

On Don Callis‘ calling him a “flake” and a “douchebag” during Impact Redemption: “Typical Canadian lack of insight. It’s not uncommon, it’s why I say, “think for yourself and question everything. Think for yourself and question authority.” Of course I am not going to be the favorite pick of everybody. That’s because some people don’t see things from my perspective. It truly is a lack of depth and measurement of what I am saying and doing. I think what Don Callis did when he called me a douchebag was clearly a poorly thought through statement. I do not exhibit douche qualities. I told Taiji Ishimori that I am not a douche and for some reason everyone keeps bringing it up and it’s truly a very impolite thing to throw my way. I am not taking the low road and saying Don is a douche. I am not taking the low road and saying that ECW on TNN tanked because of him. I am not taking the low road by saying everyone needs to get out of my way, give me the belt and give me the book at this company. What I am saying is that I am the X-Division Champion whether Don likes it or not. I think the commentary will evolve and start to see things from my perspective.”

On whether he regrets giving Josh Mathews the Impact Grand Championship: “No. Why would you ask that? First of all, I am not attached to that kind of stuff. Whether I am the Champion or not is irrelevant to me. I am not attached to it. I think that’s one of the laws of Buddhism, I practice non-attachment. I am glad Josh got the opportunity. You should have seen how happy he was. All his life all he wanted to be was be a champion. To really wear that belt around his waist. The moment I gave it to him, he was ecstatic. He went backstage and did the photoshoot. They had to have the photographer come back the next day because he wanted MORE PHOTOS! You should have seen how happy he was. The only thing that makes me sad is that Josh had to go and lose it to Austin Aries but a true champion loses to a valiant challenger. I hope Josh is truly happy with his remarkable career as the Impact Grand Champion. We really moved the business in the right direction.”

On being able to show off more of his personality in Impact than he has in other promotions: “I certainly feel I’ve got a lot to say right now and that’s just because I feel like I have earned the platform to say it. I want to make a big impact on this world and not just in pro wrestling. On a planetary scale there is no reason we can’t affect a billion people given the wonderful world that we live in and all of the wonderful things I have been afforded my whole life. A lot of what I am doing right now comes from this crazy debt of gratitude to humanity for getting to exist and live in this wild world. If you had the ability to do some of the things I have done, see some of the places I’ve seen and fly on jet planes from Tokyo to London to New York to Toronto and Mexico City. It’s a truly an amazing world we are living in and I am just trying to share with everybody that, no matter where you go on this planet Earth, people are all the same. We are all one, we care about our friends and our family and we just want to be happy. We all go through struggles and the way we handle our struggles is what makes us. Some people get scared and fearful of their neighbors. Others rise up and try to help our neighbors. I am on the side of letting everyone know that there is an abundance of everything. An abundance of resources, technology, energy and love. If we all work together we can have a more peaceful and harmonious world and not have to worry about nuclear attacks, Syria and the madness. We can enjoy this lovely game called life.”

On Petey Williams’ influence on his career: “What influence? He invented a move, his whole career is based around a move he used to try and break my neck. What am I supposed to do? I am going to make my name by beating him at Redemption. End of story. This story is about me, not Petey, it’s about Matt Sydal now. You have no idea how much physical therapy that I have to go through. How much physical therapy I was already going through before I could even wrestle this week. My neck is as fragile as it gets and if Petey is looking to snap it then that’s not a casual day at the office. Every time we go out there it is life or death. The stakes are extremely high. This is the X-Division, the division that has been what represents the greatest wrestling. I feel a little pressure and I am not going to give others credit when I feel like it’s time for me to get some.”

On whether Impact should ban the Canadian Destroyer: “I’ll be honest, to me, there is no point to having any rules. That’s non-sensical. I don’t believe in that. If there was a rule against using the Canadian Destroyer than it would make me want to do that. You know what? I would never reduce myself to that. I didn’t even give Petey one when I had the chance and that’s kind of inspirational. Maybe I should start doing the Canadian Destroyer. I bet I could do a pretty good Canadian Destroyer.”