| Matt Sydal |
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| Matt Sydal
Height: 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) Weight: 177 lb (80 kg) Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri Pro debut: October 20, 2000 Finishing move: Here It Is Driver / Here We Go Driver (Pumphandle half nelson driver), Trigger Effect (Gory driver) Other aliases: Lance Sydal, The Jester, Ski-Mask Malloy II, Matt, Evan Bourne (WWE) Career highlights: Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Champion, IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Champion, NWA Midwest X Division Champion (2), OVW Heavyweight Champion, ROH World Tag Team Champion (w/Christopher Daniels) Trained by: Gateway Championship Wrestling In the late 1990s Matt Sydal honed his collection of skills (martial arts, gymnastics, athletics) and combined them to his newest interest, professional wrestling. Along with a motley crew of neighborhood friends, Sydal constructed a professoinal quality wrestling ring. As Lance Sydal, he won fans over with his high-flying, fast-paced matches. Matt Sydal was on his high school's wrestling team. While he was a senior in high school, Sydal began training with the St. Louis, Missouri-based Gateway Championship Wrestling promotion. After three months's training, Sydal began wrestling for GCW on October 20, 2000. Sydal formed a stable in GCW with several other wrestlers, known as Operation: Shamrock. In addition, Sydal and fellow stable member Billy McNeil formed a tag team. Operation: Shamrock feuded with the heel Ministry of Hate faction, lead by Nikki Strychnine. Sydal made some appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) between February and August 2003. He debuted in IWA Mid South in November of 2003. He won his first title, the IWA Light Heavyweight Championship, on January 17, 2004, in Highland, Indiana, defeating J.C. Bailey. Sydal lost the title to his recurring nemesis, Delirious, on June 26, 2004 in Oolitic, Indiana. Sydal joined National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Midwest that same year, and on July 30 in Rock Island, Illinois he defeated Justin Kage for the NWA Midwest X Division Championship, which he also lost to Delirious after holding the belt for over a year. Sydal wrestled several top indepedent stars during his time as a regular in IWA. He lost three matches against A.J. Styles. He also faced men like C.M. Punk, Chris Sabin and Nate Webb. On September 24, 2005, Sydal won the fifth Ted Petty Invitational tournament. He beat El Generico, Tyler Black, and Sabin before eliminating Kevin Steen and Arik Cannon in the finals. Since then, he has only appeared in IWA on a select few occasions. Recently, he has had two matches against high flyer Human Tornado. On April 23, 2004, Sydal (along with Daizee Haze) debuted in Ring of Honor, defeating Delirious. Following a brief feud with Trent Acid, Sydal teamed with Fast Eddie Vegas as the Air Devils (a name voted on by the ROH fans). They only teamed once, after which Eddie turned on him on February 25, 2005, joining forces with The Embassy. On August 12, 2005, Sydal was inducted into Generation Next. In late-2005, Daizee Haze also turned on Sydal, leaving him and Generation Next to join The Embassy. Generation Next fought The Embassy in numerous multi-man tag matches, culminating in a Steel Cage Warfare match on December 3 at Steel Cage Warfare that was won by Generation Next. After wrestling Styles several times, they teamed up for matches against ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. Sydal also teamed up with Samoa Joe and Jack Evans to try and win the Tag Team title. Sydal went to the finals of the 2006 Survival of the Fittest event, before losing to Delirious. Sydal and Delirious brought their rivalry back to ROH as they engaged in several matches during the summer and fall of 2006. On November 25, 2006, Sydal teamed with Christopher Daniels to defeat the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Sydal and Daniels successfully defended their title against Shingo and CIMA on December 22, 2006. The duo dropped the title on February 24, 2007 in Chicago to the Briscoe Brothers. After coming up unsuccessful in attempts to win the title back along with Claudio Castagnoli, Sydal has gone on to join Larry Sweeney and his stable that also includes Chris Hero, Sara Del Ray and Tank Toland. He lost a match against Mike Quackenbush in the first round of the ROH Race to the Top Tournament. Sydal began touring Japan with Dragon Gate in May of 2006. While there he aligned himself with CIMA, Don Fuji, and Evans to form the New Blood Generation International. He also became a part of CIMA's Typhoon stable. During Dragon Gate's Wrestlejam event, Sydal teamed with Generation Next stablemate Roderick Strong to win the $10,000 Tag Team Challenge. Since his initial tour, Sydal returned in the fall of 2006, the spring of 2007, and will tour with Dragon Gate in the fall of 2007. |