Matt Sydal

Matt Sydal
Matt Sydal
Born	March 19, 1983; St. Louis, Missouri
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Lance Sydal; Matt; Matt Sydal
Billed height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Billed weight	177 lb (80 kg)
Trained by	Gateway Championship Wrestling
Debut	October 20, 2000

Matt Sydal (born March 19, 1983) is an American professional wrestler. He primarily works for Ring of Honor and is currently one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions with Christopher Daniels. He has also taped several matches for the MTV promotion Wrestling Society X.

Career

Matt Sydal was on his high school's wrestling team, and was named freshman wrestler of the year. 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. Upon graduating from high school, Sydal attended the University of Missouri - Columbia, while continuing to wrestle during the weekends, and graduated in May 2005 with a B.A. in business and marketing.^{[citation needed]}

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 between February and August 2003, and in January 2004 he was hired by the Independent Wrestling Association. 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 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.

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.

During TNA's first big time pay-per-view,"Victory Road", Sydal competed in their TNA International X-Division Gauntlet where the winner would receive a trophy. He entered at #12 and was eliminated by Alex Shelley. In August 2005, Sydal was included in an online poll to determine an opponent for Christopher Daniels at the August 14 Total Nonstop Action pay-per-view, Sacrifice. The poll was won by Austin Aries by a comfortable margin.

After wrestling A.J. Styles several times, they teamed up for matches against ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.

Sydal began touring Japan with Dragon Gate Pro-Wrestling in May of 2006. While there he aligned himself with Cima, Don Fuji, and Jack Evans forming the New Blood Generation International. Since his initial tour, Sydal returned in September 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 titles against SHINGO and CIMA on December 22, 2006.

Sydal will return to Japan for the January 2007 tour of Dragon Gate.

Sydal was featured in Wrestling Society X on the first episode losing to Jack Evans.