Back with the second edition of the Indy series comes The Shooter to a computer screen directly in front of your damn eyes. This is the Shoot and I am The Shooter. This week’s shoot is about a popular WWE wrestler, who has lately fucked up. None other than Matt Korklan, otherwise known to us as Evan Bourne!

Matt began the road to his career in ­­­2000 training with St. Louis based GCW- Gateway Championship Wrestling. 3 months later Bourne would began competing on their match card making him the first ever person under the age of 18 to receive a wrestler’s license in Missouri. Before receiving his license Bourne was wrestling briefly under the name Lance Sydal in Saint Peters Wrestling Organisation. During his time in GCW Bourne formed a tag team with Billy McNeil dubbed Operation: Shamrock who would feud with Ministry of Hate.

In November 2003 Bourne would then debut in Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South combining two of his old ring names to make Matt Sydal. He would go on to win his first ever championship the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship on January 17th 2004 defeating J.C. Bailey. Sydal would hold the belt until June 26th 2004 when he lost to rival Delirious. Moving on Bourne would then join National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Midwest. A few months later on July 30th he would defeat Justin Kage for the NWA Midwest X Division Championship which he lost to Delirious after holding the belt for close to a year. Teaming with Daizee Haze in an intergender tag match against Delirious and MsChif he would win the belt back because of the stipulation that the male wrestler on the winning side would become champion. However, it was Haze who pinned MsChif to win Bourne the title. Around 4 months later Bourne would lose the title to Jayson Strife before leaving the promotion.

During his time wrestling on the Indy circuit Bourne would face several top stars such as A.J Styles, CM Punk and Chris Sabin. Bourne would become a part of the TNA roster during its first three hour PPV – Victory Road. Bourne was one of the 20 men in the X Division Gauntlet for the Gold match, which is a match where two wrestlers begin the match and are replaced whenever one is eliminated with the last person standing being named the winner. Bourne didn’t win but was entered into a poll to earn the chance to face Christopher Daniels for the TNA X Division Championship; however Bourne didn’t win the poll and was mainly used as a jobber for the rest of his TNA tenure.

Bourne moved into Ring of Honor’s roster along with his valet Daizee Haze. Debuting at the Reborn: Stage One show on April 23, 2004 he defeated his recurring rival Delirious. Following a brief feud with Trent Acid, Bourne went on to team with Fast Eddie Vegas as the “Air Devils” which isn’t any better than AirBoom in my honest opinion but also happened to be a name given to them by the fans. Only teaming once Bourne was shortly attacked by Eddie and Eddie would then join The Embassy at the Third Anniversary Celebration: Part 2 show. On August 12th 2005 Bourne along with Haze joined Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans as the fourth member of Generation Next who was in a feud with the Embassy. In late 2005 long time valet/team mate Daizee Haze would then turn on Bourne leaving him and Generation Next to join forces with The Embassy. The feud ended with a steel cage match between the two teams on December 3rd 2005 which Generation Next would win.

Bourne would then wrestle another one of today’s big stars A.J Styles before teaming  up with him to take on Generation Next stable mates Austin Aries and Roderick Strong for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Bourne would also team with Samoa Joe and Jack Evans in attempts to win the belts but were unsuccessful. In 2006 Bourne would take part in the Survival of the Fittest event going all the way to the finals before losing to his all time rival Delirious. This would bring back the Delirious-Sydal feud that so many had loved and resulted in several matches during mid-2006. Breaking away from Delirious, Bourne would team with Christopher Daniels in an attempt to win the Tag titles again, this time feuding against champions Kings of Wrestling who were made up of Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli who incidentally are now in FCW training to become full time on WWE. Bourne and Daniels would go on to win the titles at Dethroned. Bourne and Daniels would successfully hold off competitors to their titles before losing against the infamous Briscoe Brothers at Fifth Year Festival: Chicago. Showing a more villainous side Bourne would go on to join Larry Sweeney’s stable Sweet n’ Sour Inc which also included Chris Hero. Sara Del Rey and Tank Toland. At this point Bourne was receiving offers from WWE, TNA and Dragon Gate. When leaving for WWE it was said that Sweeney had “sold him up the river to Vince”. Bourne would compete in his last match for ROH at the Man Up event wrestling and losing against long time enemy Delirious.

Between 2006 and 2007 Bourne would also wrestle for Dragon Gate and MTV promotion WSX. Bourne would win the $10,000 Tag Team Challenge and the Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Championship during his time with Dragon Gate. Bourne would go on to compete in OVW and FCW before being called up to the main roster. Since joining WWE Bourne has went on to win:

  • WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kofi Kingston
  • Slammy Award for Best Finishing Maneuver (2008)

Although Bourne hasn’t won many titles in his wrestling career he continues to be one of the freshest, most interesting and spectacular performers inside of a squared circle and can definitely be recognised as one of the best highflyers seen in WWE.

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CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS!

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EXTRA: Evan Bourne Indy clips!

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To get some discussion with me on Twitter contact me at @Razor_WWE94 where I promise not to bore you to tears.

Oh and remember: If it’s not In-Ring Focus then you shouldn’t bother!

-Ryan