Matthew Joseph Korklan is an American professional wrestler signed with AEW. He is best known for his work on the independent circuit as Matt Sydal and in WWE as Evan Bourne. He is a former WWE Tag Team Champion, Impact Grand and X-Division Champion, ROH Tag Team Champion, and IWGP Junior Tag Team Champion.
In 2000, Korklan began his professional wrestling career by wrestling for various independent promotions. On the independent circuit, Korklan went by Matt Sydal. Sydal rose to prominence during his time with ROH. In 2006, Sydal won the ROH Tag Team Championship with Christopher Daniels. Sydal spent his final year wrestling for Dragon Gate and Wrestling Society X where Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Championship.
In 2007, Korklan signed with WWE and began working at OVW, where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship. A year later, Korklan moved to ECW as Evan Bourne. Bourne was a babyface and faced Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship and lost. At WrestleMania XXVI, Bourne took part in the Money in the Bank ladder match which Jack Swagger won.
In 2010, Bourne defeated Chris Jericho at Fatal 4 Way. Bourne spent the year teaming up with Mark Henry. In 2011, Bourne feuded with Jack Swagger and won. In August, Bourne and Kofi Kingston won the WWE Tag Team Championship. In 2012, they lost the titles to Primo and Epico. Bourne spent the next two years as an enhancement talent due to an injury and was released in 2014.
After his release, Sydal returned to the independent circuit. The highlights of his independent run were on NJPW and Impact Wrestling. In NJPW, Sydal won the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Ricochet.
On Impact, Sydal became a double champion when he defeated EC3 to win the Impact Grand Championship and Taiji Ishimori to win the X-Division Championship. At Slammiversary XVI, Brian Cage defeated Sydal to win the X-Division Championship. Sydal had a very successful run on GFW, PWG, and Evolve promotions.
Sydal made his AEW debut at All Out as a surprise entrant in the Casino Battle Royale. Sydal is heavily featured on Dark, Dark Elevation, and Rampage. Brian Cage, CM Punk, and Kenny Omega are just a few of the people that Sydal has faced. Mike and Sydal worked together in the tag team division.
