Matt Sydal Quotes

I was 15 years old when I started wrestling full time, and I know what I had to go through to get here.

I've been involved in professional wrestling since 2000 when I started training and there hasn't been one day that I haven't put everything into it.

My first few years, I'd make maybe $10 for a match. Sometimes I wouldn't even get paid at all, but we were all in it because we loved it.

When I first started wrestling I knew that I wanted to work as long and as hard as it took to be able to have a great match with anyone.

When you lose your passion to be a WWE Superstar, there's no point in going back. It's a lot of work and sacrifice.

My WWE career has been amazing. It took a lot of time for me to get here, and you never stop paying your dues.

The fact that I'm still able to wrestle on the indies and yet still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver, and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild.

I became one of the top wrestlers outside of WWE in the world, and it all happened because I started giving it my everything.

I went from two-minute matches when I started with NXT to eight, to 10, to 12.

People try and make it a big deal, but a show's a show, work's work, if you haven't wrestled in New York in a couple months, it's always good to take a booking there because there's a lot of great wrestling fans up there.

To me, OVW was one of my favorite periods in my career. I felt like I was on the greatest adventure of all time. I was there five months before WWE developmental moved down to Florida.

I did a year and a half of independent wrestling before I got into the WWE. It was nothing really. I didn't make the towns. I don't even say I was an indy wrestler.

It's kind of a tricky subject because I had a great time in WWE. There were highs and lows, but I cut my teeth there. I met my wife there.

I obviously wanted to keep wrestling and stay in the business. The opportunity came up with WWE, and it's been an incredible experience.

I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.

Matt Hardy came into ROH with open arms. Matt came into ROH ready to learn.

It has been a difficult journey for me, which started where I used to live: in Virar. All credit to my dad, as he was the only one who took me everywhere. He used to take me to matches and practices, and they were all far away from my home in Virar.

When I began in Ring of Honor, I was very fortunate to get on shows and get looked at and get the experience. I was working with a ton of guys who had more experience than me at the time, like AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels.

William Regal is one of my mentors, and I had been talking with him the whole time I have been away from WWE.

Whether I ever become WWE champion in my career, I'm proud of what I've done.

It took me 16 years to get to the WWE. And the reason for that is that I did it - I don't want to call it the responsible way, but I'm going to call it the responsible way. I went to school, I worked multiple jobs, and yeah, I chased my dream.

The best way to describe 'Tough Enough' is to just call it an opportunity. In my opinion, it's best opportunity any aspiring wrestler could possibly have.

Back at the beginning of my career, I had to make all these sacrifices - sleeping in a car on nights where I'd wrestle in front of 20,000 people - because I wasn't making any money.

Dave Taylor, who was my tag partner in WWE, had a wrestling school close to where we both lived in Georgia for a while.

I think all The Shield boys will tell you we hold The Shield very dear to our hearts. That was our vehicle to where we are now, and to get out of developmental and out of that hot Tampa warehouse.