Buddy Matthews On Making Marriage With Rhea Ripley Work In Different Companies, Ankle Injury & AEW Return Status
Buddy Matthews appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the wildly popular INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, The Hounds of Hell member from AEW spoke about making his marriage with wife Rhea Ripley work despite being in AEW while sheâs in WWE, his ankle injury and AEW return status, Aleister Blackâs WWE return and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On being on a different schedule to his wife Rhea Ripley: âSometimes it becomes a bit of a pain in the ass. But we just kind of lock in that well, sheâs definitely on a Monday, whether sheâs on live events or not, depends. But then if Iâm on a Wednesday or a Saturday, then we get a couple of days in there. But we learn to work it out.â
On making things work: âAbsolutely. But sheâs also, I get kind of emotional talking about it, Iâve married my best friend. There isnât anyone that Iâd want to spend any more time with. I only need her. Thatâs it. I donât need a massive group of friends. I donât need approval. As long as I have her I could be the clown too, and we can just be chilled. I donât need to go out. Give me a pizza, my wife, a horror movie, and we are good. Iâm on cloud nine, and then generally, Iâll fall asleep, but thatâs because Iâm comfortable. Thatâs a good thing for a guy, if a guy could fall asleep. So yeah, but sheâs my best friend, and now Iâm very lucky.â
On photobombing fanâs photos with Rhea Ripley: âIâve 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 donât know if theyâre just going to come up. If theyâre just coming up to her quickly, and Iâm kind of her repellent, right? Iâm constantly looking mad. So they [might think], oh maybe we donât interrupt them. Iâm not a very good repellent, apparently. So this one time, I was in the Publixâs line in the deli trying to get a sub, roses in my arm. Iâm in my line, and it was a pretty busy line. While Iâm in the line, someone gets a photo with her. Iâm not losing my spot, Iâm not moving, Iâm getting that sub. So thereâs a photo of me in the background just staring at him with roses in my hand. The next one I think youâre talking about is Walmart. We were in the pet section, now [theyâre] following us. It was a weird interaction, because to me, weâre people, right? If youâre gonna ask for a photo, ask both of us for a photo. âHey Buddy, hey Rhea, can I get a photo?â Yeah sure, thatâs fine. You want both. But if youâre gonna go up to one of us, go, âHey, can I get a photo?â Doesnât necessarily mean both of us. So he didnât ask me for a photo. So I just kind of back out, thatâs 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. Iâm just in the background.â
On his ankle: âItâs okay. Rolled it pretty bad. Had an X ray, MRI. There was no break, but there was partial ligament tear and cartilage damage. [Iâm] Walking. I havenât ran, I havenât jumped, Iâve just started implementing cardio, but then it kind of stiffens up. And, you know, weâre working through it, but the docs was were telling me Iâve never seen an ankle roll that much under someone without completely destroying, smashing, disintegrating the bones. So I didnât break a bone, which was incredible, but then I had to wrestle 15 minutes after it.â
On knowing something was wrong: âSo as soon as I rolled, jumped off, and it went, you actually see me go f*ck. Then I go sit in my corner, Iâm watching Okada, and then I could just feel my boot tightening up and Iâm like, oh. Obviously I donât know how bad it is. So Iâm wrestling, and that was the first time. Iâve shattered my jaw in a wrestling match, Iâve 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 Iâm like, can I get there? So then when I got there, Iâm like I made it whatâs next? Then he just runs and just hits with this elbow. Now Iâm two steps behind, because Iâm 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.â
On whether anything was cut out of the match: âI donât 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 youâve ripped the ligament off the bone and pulled bone off. When I wiggled it, when we did the test, he was like itâs going to fall off.â
On if he didnât need surgery: âI partially tore the ligaments, it didnât even completely rupture it. So when he redid it, he was like oh God. When I touched that last time, it was like itâs gonna fall off. I went on my honeymoon afterwards, the next day. I was miserable, and Iâm not letting it get me down. She goes, âDo not get injured in that match.â I go, âWell technically, I didnât get injured in the match, itâs before the bell.â Then we spent a week in the Gold Coast, and I wasnât letting her win. She wasnât going to be able to throw that in my face and go, âRemember our honeymoon? You couldnât walk?â Well, I was hobbling around.â
On being on crutches: âYeah, 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.â
On when he hopes to return to the ring: âIâm hoping sooner rather than later. Iâm obviously gonna have to get in the ring and suss it out and get back in ring shape. But Iâm hoping in the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed.â
On whatâs next now that Malakai Black is back in WWE as Aleister Black: âSo Hounds of Hell have started. Obviously, we rebranded as the Hounds of Hell. Itâs still House of Black, itâs just not under that name. Weâre just adding a little bit more color to it, and just doing a bit more talking ourselves. We donât 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, heâs having these f*cking blinders with Takeshita. Brodyâs 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 weâre all back together and stuff with Julia and stuff like that. But yeah, Iâm sinking my teeth to get back in. I need that creative outlet to start going again.â
On a possible WWE return: âI think thatâs 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. Thatâs definitely something, an itch Iâd 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 donât think Iâd ever get there, Iâd never want to be jealous, or get jealous of her in her position. Sheâs a megastar, sheâs John Cena of women right now, and if Iâm lowered, letâs just say Iâm doing enhancement matches or whatever. I donât want to be like, well, youâre doing that, you get this special treatment, and I get this and then kind of resent her for the position. Like I said, I donât think it would ever happen, but I wouldnât 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, âYeah, no, but this is how you play that game.â I can kind of be that in the back seat, go, Yeah, I understand what youâre 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 itâs just like weâre 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 donât think there would be anyone from any wrestling company or any part of the world that wouldnât want to be doing something with Rhea Ripley. Whatever she touches turns to gold.â