During this past weekend’s AEW Grand Slam Australia, fans were hyped to see Buddy Matthews challenge Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental Championship. Yet, while the match still delivered in the ring, it was overshadowed by the fact that Matthews landed badly on his ankle when entering the ring, leading to speculation he had actually broken it. And now, he has taken to X to say he has “destroyed my ankle” while also mocking the fact that AEW used a smaller ring than usual, which has become such a big talking point online.
36-year-old Matthews broke into the wrestling business in 2007, and after six years on the Australian indie scene, he signed with WWE and was assigned to NXT. From there, he formed a successful tag team with Wesley Blake on the developmental brand, although his most memorable run in the company came on the main roster when he became a disciple of Seth Rollins during his Monday Night Messiah run. And while he was released by the company in 2021 as part of budget cuts, he wouldn’t be out of the spotlight for long as AEW signed him the following year.
