The November 3 episode of AEW Dynamite will be a homecoming for Matt Sydal.
This week’s edition of AEW‘s flagship show will emanate from the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, MO, and Rampage will be held at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Sydal’s hometown, on Friday. Sydal regularly competes on AEW programming, but he hasn’t wrestled for the company in front of his fellow Missourians because AEW’s only show in the state came in February 2020, more than eight months before Sydal signed with the company.
Now that AEW is back on the road, this two-show stretch in Missouri is a rare chance for Sydal to revisit his old neck of the woods, and in an interview with Eric Blum of the Columbia Daily Tribune, he called the opportunity “a full circle kind of thing.”
“I started out backyard wrestling in the suburbs of St. Louis and coming back to the Chaifetz Arena is great,” said Sydal. “When I was in college at Mizzou, I would come back and hang out with my friends who were at SLU and have a beer at Humphrey’s. And now I’ll be wrestling right there at the arena. So it’s pretty surreal.”
Sydal went on to explain how he feels like he can have more fun wrestling in St. Louis, though the experience also comes with more nerves because he’s performing in front of his friends and family. He called competing in his hometown “a thrill,” and in a moment of retrospection, he noted how he made a career out of chasing his dream.
“I really can have more fun in St. Louis because I know my friends that have been kind of making fun of me since I was a 17-year-old kid wrestling, they come to shows with signs that say ‘Don’t hurt my baby’ and the silly stuff like that,” Sydal said. “I’m able to have a lot of fun with it. I definitely feel more pressure and more nerves, but that like for me, is essential to the performance part.
“So if I don’t get all mentally wrecked, just a little bit, before I go out there, then something might be wrong. Performing in St. Louis is a thrill and I want to do it to inspire kids in St. Louis. I never expected to be on a grand stage. I was just chasing my passion. I was doing it for fun. And I ended up building a career out of it.”
It’s unclear whether Sydal will compete at either taping in Missouri, but if he does, he’ll aim to showcase his skills in the Show-Me State.
RELATED: FTR Issue (Mostly) Open Challenge For AAA Tag Titles On 11/3 AEW Dynamite
