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Matt Sydal Praises ROH’s COVID-19 Protocols, Discusses WWE Purchasing EVOLVE

September 19, 2020 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Matt Sydal

The Wrestling Inc. Daily recently interviewed Matt Sydal, who discussed WWE purchasing EVOLVE and his thoughts on ROH’s COVID-19 protocols. Below are some highlights from WrestlingInc.com.

Matt Sydal on EVOLVE: “I mean that was all EVOLVE had left. It wasn’t very successful, and it was the lowest pay that I’ve ever gotten in five or six years. I just did it because I didn’t have work that weekend, and it would have been cool, like there’s good wrestlers there. At that time, I was running the WWN training school while co-running it with some bum, but yeah, it just was easy. It was good work, and I really like Leon Ruff and AR Fox’s guys. So I just wanted to go in there and work with them. I wasn’t trying to get anything out of it or do anything. It was just a match. People try and make it a big deal, but a show’s a show, work’s work, if you haven’t wrestled in New York in a couple months, it’s always good to take a booking there because there’s a lot of great wrestling fans up there.”

Sydal on WWE purchasing EVOLVE: “I’m just glad for EVOLVE to get that deal. We were talking earlier about how indie guys want to get a contract now, like that’s sort of the goal. When I started, there was no hope of getting a contract. There was no hope of doing anything. The only hope you had of becoming a star was taking your own organization and growing it to be the next ECW or something like that, which for example, PWG got started around the same time, and they grew their own things so big that it basically expanded to its own TV deal with TNT through AEW.

“So I always respected the guys who were trying to do it on their own without taking a handout from a big organization. They were trying to create their own thing, the DIY style, which is sort of always been my style, kind of a makeshift survival mode and really just kind of forging your own path. I mean, right now, that’s exactly what I do. I kind of do my own thing. It may not be the most popular thing online, but I believe in what I’m doing. I believe in what I’m creating at my dojo. I believe in what I’m creating and sewing in our sewing room right over there, where I’m working on a new pair of tights for myself for my upcoming ROH stuff and making my own ring jacket and just really having my hands in every stitch of everything that I do.”

Matt Sydal on ROH’s COVID-19 protocols for TV return: “That’s what you have to do to run a show, and I’m not going to release the entire Ring of Honor protocol, but there is no company that is taking this more seriously than Ring of Honor. And also the Maryland State Athletic Commission is really holding them to the highest of high standards. Crazy things from like changing the canvas between every match at their upcoming tapings. To only allowing two wrestlers in the in a locker room at a time. Coronavirus tests, I took one on Friday, and then I’ll take one when we fly out on Monday and one when I depart on that Sunday, so I’ll be doing three tests for Ring of Honor just to really make sure that we’re safe and everything’s going good. That way, we can really just let loose and wrestle without any kind of thing in the back of our head, but it’s disappointing to not wrestle in front of fans because I don’t wrestle for myself. I really do wrestle for them, and so I’m just glad that the Ring of Honor stuff we’re doing will be on TV so that way everybody can see all the hard work we’re putting out next week.”

article topics :

EVOLVE, Matt Sydal, ROH, WWE, Jeffrey Harris