To get back to the original posting, I have put paper matches in water overnight and then tried to dry them out. More often than not, the match head actually dissolves away and you are left with nothing to dry out but perhaps a slight residue embedded in the match head. I doubt very much it would be possible to strike them again; I imagine it would be the same for wooden safety matches as well. The match head seems to undergo some sort of physical or chemical change and becomes very crumbly. If there's enough of it left, you might be able to ignite it with a spark or a magnifying glass, but I don't remember if I've ever tried that.

I read that the older strike-anywhere could be dried out and then struck on the original striker paper, or any rough surface. However, I don't know if the author of that book had ever done it himself. (A lot of early survival manuals were compiled by people who hadn't actually tried the techniques for themselves, I suspect.)

It would be simple enough to experiment with some matches - drop them in water for varying lengths of time (1 minute, 5 minutes, 1 hour, overnight) and see if you can dry them out and strike them successfully.