Buddy Matthews On Rhea Ripley, Ankle Injury Update, AEW, Aleister Black

On his WWE release:

"It was weird, because I think I touched on it [in the last interview]. It was like this weight came off my shoulders. It was like this instant freedom. I remember people would tell me and go, it's like this weight comes off and I never really understood until it actually happened. I was like, Oh, yeah. And then I was like, what happens with my green card? What am I going to do? I'm here on a visa, I own a house, I have dogs, then I went into panic mode. So that was more of the I was unsure about how to handle all of that, especially being an Australian. I'd been over here for a few years, but I don't know that stuff. We had WWE do all that for me. So then I had to become an adult very quickly and figure out how to do all those things. But got through it, got my green card. It all came through and the rest is history."

On being on a different schedule to his wife Rhea Ripley:

"Sometimes it becomes a bit of a pain in the ass. But we just kind of lock in that well, she's definitely on a Monday, whether she's on live events or not, depends. But then if I'm on a Wednesday or a Saturday, then we get a couple of days in there. But we learn to work it out."

On making things work:

"Absolutely. But she's also, I get kind of emotional talking about it, I've married my best friend. There isn't anyone that I'd want to spend any more time with. I only need her. That's it. I don't need a massive group of friends. I don't need approval. As long as I have her I could be the clown too, and we can just be chilled. I don't need to go out. Give me a pizza, my wife, a horror movie, and we are good. I'm on cloud nine, and then generally, I'll fall asleep, but that's because I'm comfortable. That's a good thing for a guy, if a guy could fall asleep. So yeah, but she's my best friend, and now I'm very lucky."

On photobombing fan’s photos with Rhea Ripley:

"I've started to try and make it a bit of a thing. So let me get this straight. All right. The first one, I get the photo, but I go into very protective mode of her, because I don't know if they're just going to come up. If they're just coming up to her quickly, and I’m kind of her repellent, right? I'm constantly looking mad. So they [might think], oh maybe we don't interrupt them. I'm not a very good repellent, apparently. So this one time, I was in the Publix’s line in the deli trying to get a sub, roses in my arm. I'm in my line, and it was a pretty busy line. While I'm in the line, someone gets a photo with her. I'm not losing my spot, I'm not moving, I'm getting that sub. So there's a photo of me in the background just staring at him with roses in my hand. The next one I think you're talking about is Walmart. We were in the pet section, now [they’re] following us. It was a weird interaction, because to me, we're people, right? If you're gonna ask for a photo, ask both of us for a photo. 'Hey Buddy, hey Rhea, can I get a photo?' Yeah sure, that's fine. You want both. But if you're gonna go up to one of us, go, 'Hey, can I get a photo?' Doesn't necessarily mean both of us. So he didn't ask me for a photo. So I just kind of back out, that's just like my thing, made sure that I was in it. And then it went pretty viral. I know what he was doing, the way he captured and the way he took the photo was pretty obvious, but now I just made my thing. I'm just in the background."

On being one of the first male Australian wrestlers to make it in WWE:

"Yeah, so Tenille moved over to Canada I believe. She was trained with Lance, so that was kind of her in. I think Tyler Breeze [was there] and there was a pretty big class that came from Lance's school at the time. Then they had FCW in Tampa at the time was mini developmental, but yeah, she was the first one. She ended up moving over doing that. She actually gave me a little bit of a pep talk before she left. I did a show, and she goes, 'What are you doing? You’re just going to stay here?' Because everyone talked to me, 'When are you going over? When are you going over?' And just, oh, yeah, soon. But I didn't want to take that leap in case I failed, because I was never really good at anything. I wasn't good at school or anything like that. So to think that was my quick, oh, yeah, soon, soon, soon, because I didn't want to be told that I wasn't good at it. Then she gave me this little bit of pep talk. She goes, 'You're too good to just be sitting here.' I was like, Alright, I gotta do something. So I ended up seeing a tweet from Bill DeMott at the time, who said that there was a try-out in Florida. I started working with my stepdad at this time, doing construction, so I had a steady job for the first time in my life, because the wrestling dream was always number one. I couldn't hold a full-time job because I needed to wrestle on the weekends. So after that, I just told him, 'Hey, there's this try-out here. If you have to fire me, fire me, I have to take this opportunity.' He goes, 'No, that's fine.' So I ended up dropping like 10 grand, everything that I had, I put in. I paid for my try-out, I paid for my flight, paid for my accommodation, and just gave it my all. It was four days. I say it was like four days of hell, there were like 86 people, and at the end of the four days, they said, 'Yeah, thanks everyone, the contract will be given to Matthew Adams.' I just stood there and went me? There was NFL football players collapsing on us, it was hell, and I wasn't going to let him break me. But I was so zoned in, and I remember I got it and then everyone's like, yeah, clapping. Then they look back at them and they go, that's it. And then they all looked at me like it was a comic book, they're all happy and once there was no more contracts, they still turned on me, all heel. I was like, oh God. Then yeah, the whole process of doing the medical and then I moved over in 2013 came over."

On his current relationship with wrestling:

"It's tough. Because like you said, I've seen a lot of it, and I've done a lot of it. I've wrestled on WrestleMania. I've had dream matches. I think that where I'm at with wrestling now is I really as a performer, and to scratch my interest, what I feel like I need is I want to dive more into the storytelling aspect of things. I think that people know that I can wrestle and I can have good matches with pretty much everyone. I do put my hat on if Buddy's in it, it's going to be good, and I feel like I really haven't dropped the ball when it comes to that. But I always try and find a way to hopefully scratch that itch that I want. So in every match, if you can kind of go back with what I've done recently in AEW, in every match, I try and put a little something that's going to stand out in that different way, but something that I can hopefully build something off. So for instance, Adam Cole, when I wrestled Adam, he came back and they put a lot of faith in me to work with him, because he just had all the injuries, and he needed that come back and have a good match, good performance, but he was probably a little bit off himself. Can I do this? So I was very lucky to be put in the situation and work with him, and I love working with him. But I want to create a story in that match, well I could just go for your ankle, but what can I draw out of that 12-15 minute match that's just not wrestling moves? How do I create a story in that? I don't want to work his ankle until then he starts hitting a flurry on me, and then I have to go to the ankle to slow him down, because I think I called him fragile in that little match. It was just one match, but build it up. You're fragile. I just want to prove that you're fragile. Okay, well, I'm not fragile. Prove that. Then he goes, gets taken away. No, this is what I said. You're fragile. I'm not fragile. Comes running back, tries to put it on me. I resort to the ankle, I know that he's got it in him. I use it like Dragon Ball Z, he's going Super Saiyan. I know that he's good, but now he's better than I thought that he was, and I'm bringing too much out of him. So I have to resort to try and do what I didn't want to do. But when I worked Adam [Copeand], we hit a double cross body, I start coughing up blood. So now I've got cracked ribs, so that slows me down. It gives me a bit of I'm hindered. Then he hits the spear, okay? So then that goes into the thing with Brody. Think Brody actually got a little bit of color with Edge. So it was like, then it went into Malakai. So he's spilled blood with all of us but Malakai, and then they go into a cage. So it's just like one little thing with me coughing up blood, getting hurt, that then I've spilled blood with this person, spilled blood with this person, then it goes, it's just a small, minor detail that we can stretch like with Andrade. Did the match. He just came back from the torn pec. Okay, well, what do you want to do? You got a 15-minute match, can you go 15 minutes? He doesn't know. He hasn't wrestled in a year. So let's do a commercial break where it looks like you've hurt your pec, but you've hurt it yourself. But then maybe I get hurt too, and then we'll use that into the finish. So then he hits the figure eight on me, and I tap out. We create the little story elements and those little details that can play out throughout the match, and that's what I've been sinking my teeth into. But I want more than that. I want to do like the MJF’s that are killing the storytelling, like the Hangman’s killing the storytelling. I want to be in that."

On his ankle:

"It's okay. Rolled it pretty bad. Had an X ray, MRI. There was no break, but there was partial ligament tear and cartilage damage. [I’m] Walking. I haven't ran, I haven't jumped, I've just started implementing cardio, but then it kind of stiffens up. And, you know, we're working through it, but the docs was were telling me I've never seen an ankle roll that much under someone without completely destroying, smashing, disintegrating the bones. So I didn't break a bone, which was incredible, but then I had to wrestle 15 minutes after it."

On knowing something was wrong:

"So as soon as I rolled, jumped off, and it went, you actually see me go f*ck. Then I go sit in my corner, I'm watching Okada, and then I could just feel my boot tightening up and I'm like, oh. Obviously I don't know how bad it is. So I'm wrestling, and that was the first time. I've shattered my jaw in a wrestling match, I've had injuries before, but that was the first time in the ring that it got to me in the head. I remember doing the thing at the start, and then it started to really sink in, the pain. Then I remember Okada comes up to me and grabs me to whip me to the corner, rather than just going and listening and being in the moment I'm like, can I get there? So then when I got there, I'm like I made it what's next? Then he just runs and just hits with this elbow. Now I'm two steps behind, because I'm just worried about whether I can even do it. Somehow I did, and we got through it, and pretty happy with how it came out, considering how hindered I was." 

On whether anything was cut out of the match:

"I don't remember I did a step-up rana, and I was running somehow. Because I remember the doc afterwards. They had some trainer who did some soccer or rugby over there, who was in Australia when I did it. They were pulling on it, and you could kind of tell that they were like, yeah, I think you've ripped the ligament off the bone and pulled bone off. When I wiggled it, when we did the test, he was like it’s going to fall off." 

But you didn't need surgery?

"I partially tore the ligaments, it didn't even completely rupture it. So when he redid it, he was like oh God. When I touched that last time, it was like it's gonna fall off. I went on my honeymoon afterwards, the next day. I was miserable, and I'm not letting it get me down. She goes, 'Do not get injured in that match.' I go, 'Well technically, I didn't get injured in the match, it’s before the bell.' Then we spent a week in the Gold Coast, and I wasn't letting her win. She wasn't going to be able to throw that in my face and go, 'Remember our honeymoon? You couldn't walk?' Well, I was hobbling around."

On being on crutches:

"Yeah, I had started off with two, then it moved to one, and then I braced it up and taped it up so it was so thick that I was just limping around. But yeah, we got through it. It was a great time."

On when he hopes to return to the ring:

"I’m hoping sooner rather than later. I'm obviously gonna have to get in the ring and suss it out and get back in ring shape. But I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed."

On what’s next now that Malakai Black is back in WWE:

"So Hounds of Hell have started. Obviously, we rebranded as the Hounds of Hell. It's still House of Black, it's just not under that name. We're just adding a little bit more color to it, and just doing a bit more talking ourselves. We don't want to just be House of Black under a new name. We need to change a little bit, new coat of paint. So we started that, obviously. Then I hurt my ankle, unfortunately. So then that kind of takes me out of the picture. Brody has been killing it, he's having these f*cking blinders with Takeshita. Brody's a big man that can do a lot of stuff and is killing it. But yeah, hoping we can get back to the Hounds of Hell, maybe have to a bit of a reboot just to kind of tell us that we're all back together and stuff with Julia and stuff like that. But yeah, I'm sinking my teeth to get back in. I need that creative outlet to start going again."

On a possible WWE return:

"I think that's the big question. So I would love to do something with her. I think that story and our chemistry, just the way we are, would be good television. That's definitely something, an itch I'd like to scratch. But the good thing about her in WWE and me and AEW and us both being in the business is that I would never want, and I don't think I'd ever get there, I'd never want to be jealous, or get jealous of her in her position. She's a megastar, she's John Cena of women right now, and if I'm lowered, let's just say I'm doing enhancement matches or whatever. I don't want to be like, well, you're doing that, you get this special treatment, and I get this and then kind of resent her for the position. Like I said, I don't think it would ever happen, but I wouldn't even want that to be an option. Then also, if something happens at work, I want her to be able to vent to me without me going, 'Yeah, no, but this is how you play that game.' I can kind of be that in the back seat, go, Yeah, I understand what you're talking about, you know you deserve whatever, or you know you should do it like this, or whatever, or just let her rant, and I can do the same to her. I can say I did this and did this. We can talk about the positives. We talk about the negatives. What upsets us and all, and it's just like we're on the same team. It would never become a competition. That was definitely something I thought about at the start. Would I love to work with her? Absolutely. I don't think there would be anyone from any wrestling company or any part of the world that wouldn't want to be doing something with Rhea Ripley. Whatever she touches turns to gold." 

On being chopped by Rhea Ripley:

"We were streaming. I like the little Twitch community, it is fun. It's all positive. It's never really negative, very rarely negative, and we just kind of go on there to kind of chat. They're all there to see her anyway. And there's this thing called the hype train. So when you get a certain thing, it's like catch the train, it's a hype train. It goes by levels and I said, if we get to level 10, I'll let her chop me. Never thinking, I didn't know it went to 10. Then it gets to level 10, she chops me. We went tanning by the pool, and I'm like, I'm redheaded, doesn't take me long to get burned. I was like, Man, this is a work, there's no one else in the house. You could have just slapped your leg. No, that's the competitiveness in her. She said, No, I get a shot at you, I'm taking my shot. So she did not hold back, and I had a handprint on me. Now everyone's like, yep, chop him. Chop him. So yeah, she'll take her shot when she can. But I tried to put her to sleep. She told it on Logan Paul. I put her in a triangle choke, and remember I’m an MMA fan. So I put her in a triangle, just tap. She goes, No, and I go just a little bit tighter, a little bit tired. I go, just tap, just tap. She goes No. I am squeezing a full triangle choke on it. She's not tapping. My legs gassed out and then she just held me down. Scariest woman of my life. Why do you think I married her? I will be the most faithful man ever. Because if I ever upset this woman, she would kill me."

What is Buddy Matthews grateful for?

"My wife, life and my wrestling career."