The Matt Sydal saga has finally come to an end. After being arrested at Kansai Airport in Osaka for possessing 0.2 grammes of Marijuana in his vaporiser, Sydal was recently released and returned to the United States. He posted a tweet on Monday for the first time in months
Speaking to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Sydal said:
“It’s all finished. I received probation, which applies only if I’m in Japan. So no actual punishment. I was just held until they had the trial. I wasn’t ever in jail either, only police detention centres and the Osaka immigration detention centre.”
Sydal is barred from entering Japan for at least three years, which is his probation period as well. Regarding his job at New Japan Pro Wrestling, Sydal said “I’m no longer with NJPW. I still love the Japanese people, but I won’t be working there in the near future.”
Given the taboo status that Marijuana has in Japan, it is unlikely that Sydal will be employed by a Japanese promotion for many years. It is not known what his status with Ring Of Honor is, but he will likely be wrestling on the independents for a while.
He was suspended in WWE in the past, after failing the Wellness Policy for consuming synthetic Marijuana. In WWE, consuming marijuana leads to a fine and not suspension. As a result, many Superstars began to consume synthetic Marijuana. This led to synthetic marijuana being on the banned list by WWE and testing positive for it leads to a suspension.
Japan’s extremely strict laws when it comes to Marijuana is likely why they took strict action against Sydal and held him back until legal action was taken. It was reported by a Japanese journalist that someone tipped off the airport officials about Sydal’s bag, where the marijuana was spotted.
However, even manual checking of bags by security is not an uncommon occurrence in Japanese airports. Not long after Sydal was detained in Osaka, there was a tweet from his account stating that he was in Hawaii and had faced visa issues, which is why he had missed the Destruction In Kobe event a few days prior.
However, it was also reported that Sydal told his cousin to tweet that, presumably to divert attention held to his situation.
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