Big Name Indy Star Wants To End Career In WWE
A wrestler who held multiple championships in his WWE career wants to end his career with the company run by Triple H.
During his run as Zack Ryder in World Wrestling Entertainment, the “Indy God” Matt Cardona had plenty of success as a former Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, and a two-time Tag Team Champion. However, there were also long periods when Ryder wasn’t being featured on television very much.
In April 2020, Cardona was released by World Wrestling Entertainment after spending 15 years there and has spent the last four years proving himself to be a valuable commodity on the independent wrestling circuit.
Since leaving the only major wrestling company he ever knew, Cardona has appeared on AEW television several times, he was on TNA Impact as recently as this week, he’s a top star in GCW and appears all over the world. In addition to that, Cardona is a successful podcaster and is heavily invested in the action figure world.
Matt Cardona Interested In A WWE Return
Regarding his future in pro wrestling, the 39-year-old Cardona made it clear that he wants to end his career in World Wrestling Entertainment. That’s what Cardona told Fernando Quiles Jr. of Sports Illustrated in an interview.
“I think right now in summer 2024, being released from WWE for four years, I honestly feel like I’m closer to the WWE World Title than I was when I worked for WWE,”
“I’m proud to be the ‘Indie God,’ I’m proud to be the face of GCW. But when it’s all said and done, I want to end my career in WWE.”
“I want to have another WrestleMania moment, I want to be in Madison Square Garden, but as Matt Cardona. Zack Ryder is dead.”
“I am so fortunate for Zack Ryder for the highs and the lows, the good and the bad because it set me up for this. It prepared me for this.”
Cardona is married to WWE superstar Chelsea Green, who was re-hired by WWE in early 2023 after Paul “Triple H” Levesque started running the company as the Chief Content Officer.
This wasn’t the first time that Cardona said he wanted to come back to WWE using his real name because he has said many times that Zack Ryder is “dead” and he would only come back if he got to use the Cardona name.