Mizzou graduate, St. Louis native Matt Sydal returns to Missouri with All Elite Wrestling

Matt Sydal didn't have much time for a social life while a student at Missouri.

He spent most of his free time traveling the country as an independent professional wrestler, trying to establish his in-ring career to the point where he didn't have to work another job that didn't involve jumping off the top rope and landing on your opponent.

The St. Louis native stuck to his plan. Sydal graduated from MU in 2005 with a degree in marketing, where he learned how to cram for tests in between arriving in Nashville, Chicago or Indianapolis for shows he'd wrestle in.

Sydal is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling, a relative newcomer to professional wrestling, with a national television deal with TNT since 2019 and backed by Tony Khan, co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Pro-wrestling: Every year, my friends stay up all night to watch a Japanese wrestling event. This year, it meant even more.

A longtime passion for wrestling

Sydal might not have a better example of his passion for professional wrestling than skipping his college graduation, trading in walking to get a diploma for strolling down the entrance ramp on a show aptly named "Nowhere To Run."

His hand was raised in victory that evening.

Sydal also had two part-time jobs as a Tiger, making sandwiches at the Center Hall Subway and filing papers for one of his professors.

Most of that money went to his wrestling career — buying new in-ring attire and gas money to make it to his next event, not on Shakespeare's Pizza like a lot of MU students.

The grind paid off. In 2007, he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment, the long-standing company owned by Vince McMahon, and spent nearly seven years with them under the moniker "Evan Bourne" and has won titles with multiple promotions in Japan.

Returning to Missouri with AEW

This week, the 38-year-old Sydal, whose real name is Matthew Korklan, has a homecoming of sorts, with his return to the Show-Me State.

AEW starts its Missouri road trip with "Dynamite" on Wednesday from Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence and finishes with "Rampage" from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis.

Sydal hasn't performed with AEW in his home state yet, as the last, and only, previous occasion the promotion ran a show in Missouri was in late February 2020, weeks before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sydal signed with AEW several months later.

AEW originally planned to come to St. Louis in April 2020 and its shows were postponed three times before landing on Friday's date.

Who Sydal with grapple with at either show hasn't been announced. Also wrestling for AEW will be Mike Sydal, Matt's younger brother, who also attended MU.

"For me, it's full circle kind of thing," Matt Sydal told the Tribune in late October. "I started out backyard wrestling in the suburbs of St. Louis and coming back to the Chaifetz Arena is great. 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 is now based out of Clearwater, Florida and only gets a few trips back to Missouri every year.

More: Former Mizzou wrestling All-American Tyron Woodley to fight Jake Paul on Aug. 28

Memories of Mizzou

The Sydal brothers lived at the Holiday Arms apartment complex as MU students and Matt said he plans to make a stop in Columbia while driving down Interstate 70 between the shows. Sydal's uncle and cousin still live in Columbia.

Despite not having much leisure time in mid-Missouri, Sydal did attend one of the most memorable MU football games of this century, when the Tigers ended a 24-game losing streak against then-No. 7 Nebraska in 2003.

"My close friend who I also wrestled with, his brother was the third-string ticker for Mizzou. But we got free tickets. And this was the greatest college football game that I've ever witnessed," Sydal said. "It ended with Mizzou winning and everyone rushing the field. And my close friend shimmied eat up the goal posts and was on top of one of the high parts, swinging it around and pulling it down.

"And we were part of carrying the goal posts through the field, through downtown. It was just epic. And I said 'I never need to go to another football game again for the rest of my life.' Definitely peaked right here. That was peak college experience to me."

More wrestling news: Former Missouri wrestler J'den Cox after Olympic Trials fiasco: 'I'm here to tear up the world'

'Performing in St. Louis is a thrill'

Sydal's in-ring style may be described as a high-flyer, utilizing moves from off the turnbuckle and top rope to evade and attack opponents, as well as other aerial maneuvers.

The 5-foot-9, 185-pound Sydal's signature move is the shooting star press, where he jumps toward a downed opponent from the top rope and does a mid-air backflip before colliding on the canvas.

The Parkway West High School graduate plans on giving his best to his home-state fans.

"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."

On Saturday, Matt and Mike Sydal are hosting a training seminar for up-and-coming wrestlers in Troy with World League Wrestling, the independent promotion founded by pro wrestling legend and mid-Missouri native Harley Race.

"It's just getting in the ring with some of these guys who much like me, were just looking for anywhere to get a ring and wrestle," Matt Sydal said. "We got to learn things the hard way, a lot of wrestlers find out, trial and error. It's a lot of getting beat up and then getting yourself up and dusting yourself off. I really think I can help a lot of young wrestlers in Missouri and hopefully I've inspired them to go for it."

Contact Eric Blum at eblum@columbiatribune.com. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.

Follow Mizzou athletics with the Tribune’s Tiger Extra newsletter. For more of the Tribune's Missouri athletics coverage, purchase a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: AEW wrestler Matt Sydal returns to Missouri for 'Dynamite,' 'Rampage'