Buddy Matthews breaks silence after horrific injury at AEW Grand Slam: Australia

Buddy Matthews has broken his silence regarding his status after what looked like an injury scare last night at AEW Grand Slam: Australia. He confirmed that he did indeed sustain an injury, and mentioned other details about the match.

During the show, Matthews challenged Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental Championship, in front of his home crowd. There was concern that he had sustained an injury just before the bout when he rolled his ankle in a horrific manner, soon after entering the ring. Throughout the clash, he seemed to be clutching the affected area and was visibly hobbling up the ramp post-match.

Taking to his X (fka Twitter) account Buddy Matthews broke his silence and shared some information. He mentioned that he was not a fan of having to compete in a small ring. The Australian revealed that he had sustained an ankle injury, and blamed holes in the ring padding for this. Matthews also claimed that Okada escaped with a win as he used the smaller squared circle to his advantage.

"So thoughts after #AEWGrandSlamAustralia - If it wasn’t a 16x16 S**T wrestling ring! 1: Wouldn’t have destroyed my ankle on my entrance due to holes in the padding. 2: Okada wouldn’t have been able to out his foot on the rope & I’d be champion. S**t happens…," Matthews wrote.

See his full post here.

Matthews also did not disclose any other information regarding his injury or whether he would need some time off to recover from it.

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Buddy Matthews paid homage to his wife Rhea Ripley during the event

Buddy Matthews decided to take a page out of his wife's (Rhea Ripley) playbook when he wore an almost identical jacket to her's the last time she performed in Australia for WWE. This was during Elimination Chamber 2024 when The Eradicator had a match against Nia Jax for the Women's World Championship.

During her entrance, she wore a sleeveless jacket with her last name, along with the Australian flag at the back. Her husband did the same for his match last night, as he had a similar one with his last name on the jacket.

Unfortunately, Buddy Matthews' homecoming moment was spoiled by Kazuchika Okada employing any means necessary to keep his title. But if last night proved anything, it's that he has what it takes to keep up with the biggest names on the roster.

Fans are now on Matthews' side, and it remains to be seen whether the Jacksonville-based promotion will give him that title run he arguably deserves once he recovers from this injury.