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 she’s in WWE, his ankle injury and AEW return status, Aleister Black’s 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: “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 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.”
On if he 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 as Aleister Black: “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.”
