Matt Sydal Recalls His Time With Wrestling Society X, What Led To Its Demise

Matt Sydal recalls his time in the short-lived Wrestling Society X.

The show, which saw insane matches that included constant high spots, explosions, extreme wrestling and more, aired on MTV in 2006 and featured a number of notable wrestlers from X-Pac, Seth Rollins, Vampiro, Jack Evans and more. One such wrestler that also competed in Wrestling Society X was Matt Sydal, who actually competed in the first televised match in WSX history.

Speaking on the ROHStrong podcast, Sydal spoke about what got him to sign up for the show and any notable things he remembered from his time at the show.

“What attracted me to the project was getting to work on TV. It was just a really cool concept. I was actually involved in the pilot episode so I was honored to be a part of it. It did feel like a slimy TV show with the contract stuff. Me being a young kid, I thought I should just sign this and it was completely backwards and insane and locked me down for five years. I was able to work with them and was able to add a few amendments to my contract. It was filmed in LA. We got to go there for a week. They put us up in a really nice hotel. They had a pretty well organized show structure. My first match there was against Jack Evans… We might have been the first match out of the gate. Looking back, I realized how important it was that they believed in us and how much they bet on us,” Sydal said.

The promotion never had the first season air in its entirety on MTV as the show pulled the plug before the finale. Sydal was asked what led to Wrestling Society X’s demise and Sydal it was mainly that the network’s higher ups did not fully back it and not the quality of wrestling that led to the premature end.

“I tell you what, the reason it failed was not because of the wrestling nor the wrestlers. The reason it failed was because MTV wasn’t behind it. It wasn’t a project they were in or promoted. I don’t believe they even aired the last episode. I think they just aired eight and then just canned the show. That’s how TV shows are. We didn’t take it personally. There was nothing guaranteed that it was going to succeed so we just did it and we just put our hearts there and go. I don’t hold on to any matches or thought MTV should have given us another chance. I believed it was the Executive VPs at MTV got shuffled around and if wrestling isn’t their cup of tea for the next Executive, then no one is going to push that through. They were blind to see how brilliant and I think that got rehashed, worked through a little bit better, got better production and upgraded into what became Lucha Underground,” Sydal said. 

You can check out the full podcast at this link.