Even before he landed in WWE, Matt Sydal had a decent career. From TNA to ROH, his high-flying style went down like Nutella. His WWE run might not have become Hall of Fame-worthy, but his stint as Evan Bourne and his Air Boom tag-team run with Kofi Kingston was electrifying. In many ways, he was an early prototype of Ricochet — in the sense that he was granted regular television time, but everyone knew he would never be world champ. In 2014, Sydal departed WWE, which was a shame since he would have been a perfect candidate for Triple H’s version of “NXT.”
For the next few years, Sydal toured the world and explored the indies before finally signing with AEW in 2020. Unfortunately, in his first match, he botched a Shooting Star Press and his AEW career never recovered after that — even if the company tried to get an angle out of it. At the same time, Sydal has reached the veteran stage of his career, so it’s highly unlikely that AEW would be carving out a long-term plan for him. That said, he’d probably have more time on WWE television as an enhancement talent than what he does in AEW now.