Capitol Wrestling's Matthew Ryan Talks Losing Talent To AEW, Working With Seth Rollins' Academy

As previously mentioned, Capitol Wrestling Executive Producer and Co-Creator Matthew Ryan was a guest on Wrestling Inc.'s very own WINCLY Podcast on Wednesday. Ryan took some time during the interview to reveal why he and his co-founder, Marcus Dowling, decided to revive the name "Capitol Wrestling".

"The name 'Capitol Wrestling' came from myself and my co-founder, Marcus Dowling," Ryan explained. "He's based out of Washington DC and I'm based out of New York City – that was the old northeast triangle for the New York territory, the original territory up here on the east coast. It was 'Capitol Wrestling', so we thought we would pay homage to that and see if we can bring back classic wrestling to the modern fan. That kind of ebbed and flowed over the past few years, where now, the new wave of professional wrestling shows a lot in our imagery, our roster, our iconography. Capitol Wrestling just kind of fit."

Ryan pointed out that Capitol Wrestling is unique in how they produce thirty minute wrestling shows each week for the various internet platforms that they're on.

"We're one of the few independent companies that does weekly television," Ryan continued. "We produce thirty minutes at least a week for FITE Network UK, the FITE app, Impact +Plus, Nothing Else On, and also our Facebook and YouTube channels; I think that is a unique conceit in what we do. Also our style of production is very cinematic... We've been able to create something a little bit different in how you view and how you take in your wrestling in the modern age."

Ryan expound a bit on the working relationship between Capitol Wrestling and Seth Rollins' Black and Brave Academy. After the two companies worked together to conduct a seminar, Ryan was impressed at how well Rollins and his affiliates ran their wrestling school.

"It was really easy to work with [Seth Rollins' Black and Brave Academy]," Ryan said. "Ronnie Burton, who's one of our wrestlers and also our lighting supervisor, came to us early this year, like right around New Year's Eve, and said, 'Hey Seth and Marek, they want to start doing seminars. They're going to be in town in April, do you think we could co-brand something?' It was like, bang, bang, boom – took less than a day to figure out. The seminar got sold out. Seth and Marek were great to every single person they dealt with in terms of the seminar and dealing with us. It was actually really cool, and they're really great to work with. They trained some really good students."

Arguably Capitol Wrestling's two biggest stars, Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose signed contracts with All Elite Wrestling earlier this year and have been featured as a part of the company's initial shows. Ryan looked back at when he first heard the news about Sonny and Nyla leaving Capitol, as well as how he feels about it now.

"[Sonny Kiss' success] makes me really happy. When I heard about it, I went, 'Oh no! We lost our top guy.' And then we lost Nyla Rose, I went, 'Oh God! Two things we were trying to build are gone.' But it's the wrestling business and you deal with it, you alternate," Ryan stated. "I found out Sonny and Nyla got signed while having the initial conversation for our Nashville show, and I'm right in the financial district and I went, 'Oh s–t! They signed Sonny and Nyla.' I couldn't be happier. I honestly couldn't be happier. Two people that deserve the opportunity, that deserve to be on an international stage; you can see that from Sonny's performances in and out of the ring with just as who he is as a person. Nyla Rose is one of the funniest, most entertaining, and engaging people that I've ever dealt with in or out of pro wrestling... She's a star, she's a TV star waiting to happen."

Ryan recognizes that the threat of talent moving up to more financially dominant companies is very real. Nevertheless, he looks towards the future and is excited about Capitol's current working relationship with the former member of LAX, Homicide.

"It makes writing a little difficult [when talent can leave at any time]," Ryan admitted. "It makes booking, and producing shows, and getting dates right with buildings a little hard but that adds to the challenge. You're dealing with it in every single way and you've got to roll with the punches, and we've been able to develop a deep roster of people inside and outside the ring to help carry a lot of weight and a lot of the water. You know certain people are going to be there every time.

"We recently brought in Homicide who's made a commitment to us to work with us and help build our brand," Ryan said. "When Homicide says I want to work with you and I believe in you, you believe him! You take that and you run with it, especially as a kid that grew up watching Ring of Honor, and members of our team were there when they helped build the New York wrestling scene in the early 2000's... You roll with the punches the best you can and you just try to find the next person that can step up and take the punch."

Capitol Wrestling presents it's first iPPV "Capitol Wrestling At Skankfest NYC" tonight at 7 pm CST via FITE. Advertised so far Homicide makes his Capitol Wrestling debut against the Colossal Mike Law, Deranged of Special K battles Colby Corino, The Mr. Entertainment Scramble, and Luis J. Gomez battles Mike Harrington for the Ellismania championship and Harrington's job with GAS Digital. New Episodes of Capitol Wrestling can be seen Monday's at 6pm on FITE and Fridays at 12:30 am on Fight Network UK. Capitol can be viewed on-demand via Impact+, YouTube, Facebook, and Nothing Else On.

Ryan's full interview with Wrestling Inc. was included in the 7/10 episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Ryan discusses the history of Capitol Wrestling, Capitol's upcoming international TV tapings in Nashville, working with Kevin Nash and Wrestling For Innocence, WWE hiring Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in creative roles, working with Seth Rollins' Black & Brave Academy, Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose being signed by AEW and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.