AEW star Matt Sydal was the latest guest on the AEW Unrestricted podcast to discuss a variety of topics, including how he felt about his run with WWE and what advice he gave to rap legend Snoop Dogg prior to his big dive on AEW New Year’s Smash. Highlights are below.
Says he told Snoop Dogg to wear knee pads before performing his dive:
“My advice was very explicit – wear knee pads. That was my main advice, but I don’t think he did. I think he just went freestyle. He just wanted to do the ‘Superfly’ Snuka that he remembered from The Garden, and he got to hit a Snoop Splash. It was awesome. It was a beautiful television moment for me. I’m really, really proud to be there. To watch him go off, there was a moment of you get to the top rope and you look down and you realize how high it’s going to be when you stand up. And I’ll tell you what, Snoop Dogg has a lot of courage, and he’s a special guy. He stood all the way up and launched himself and did the best splash he could. Me and Snoop, we get high. Fly high, not get.”
Says he tricked WWE into booking him on a show:
“I was not a favorite. I was not a chosen one. I was not a favorite of the coaches or anyone ever, but I tricked WWE into booking me at a show because I told them I was coming to it. They told me, ‘No, don’t come to it.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna go home. I’m gonna see my family,’ and it just so happened to be on the days of these shows in Kansas City and St. Louis. So, maybe I could just go backstage. I’ve never been backstage. This is all prompted from a random indie wrestler who called me and said, ‘Hey Matt, can you get me a dark match?’ I thought to myself, I’ve never had a dark match. I’ve never been backstage. I’ve been under contract for like eight months at that time. So, I took it upon myself to get backstage.
Talks his run and how it led him to getting work in many places including AEW:
“I wrestled Jamie Noble – just wrestled around before the show – and then the next night, they made me the dark match against Jamie Noble, and then they took that momentum, and on that Tuesday night, I debuted on ECW as Matt Sydal. Shelton Benjamin powerbombed me onto Kofi [Kingston] through the announce chair. It was wild, but when I get the momentum going, people feel it. People jump on, and I just had to find a way to spark that momentum because I knew it wasn’t going to come through the system. I always have to work from the outside in, and so that was my way of virtually calling myself up to the big show and saying here I am, let’s see what happens. I had a great successful run there, and it’s only led to more things because WWE kind of showed me how powerful wrestling is as a vehicle, and I’ve been able to kind of harness that and have all these opportunities in AEW.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)
