Matt Cardona’s Perseverance Praised By Major WWE Champion
Matt Cardona is back in WWE, and a big name is happy to see it.
The start of a new year led to WWE officially signing Matt Cardona back to the company after he was released in 2020.
Since Cardona impressed WWE officials when he got a chance to wrestle as Zack Ryder in the John Cena Last Time Is Now Tournament, the company kept in touch and decided to bring him back full-time.
During his time away from WWE over the last five-plus years, Cardona became something of an independent wrestling megastar, wrestling in places like AEW, TNA, and the NWA, but he didn’t sign a contract with any of them.
Getting fired by WWE and returning to the company as a different version of themselves is something that Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes also did in their careers. Both of them became WWE Champions, while Cardona has that same goal.
In an interview with TMZ’s Inside The Ring, Drew McIntyre talked about his friend Matt Cardona returning to WWE. They both started in WWE around the same time, are about the same age, and got in the best shape of their lives on their way back to the company.
“I’m buzzing for Matt, he really took the ball and ran with it. When he got released he hit the ground running.
Myself, before I wrote my book, I was under the impression that I just left and hit the ground running myself and it all went perfectly to plan, but my wife reminded me, no I was a little worried, and it took a while of faking it ’til I made it and became the guy outside the company, and I carved my niche outside the company, who I was and made it on my own, and hopefully lifted everyone up around me, and they lifted me up at the same time.
Then you’ve got someone like Cody, who I give credit where it’s due, had a very similar journey. He followed my blueprint, and then he put his own spin on it, and with a few of the talented guys he was working with outside of the company had some great success.”
Then Matt, he went to the true independent level, I’ve said this to him himself, he’s very proud of it, the carny level. I was never good at selling merchandise and hawking t-shirts, and if I went to somewhere like PWG in Los Angeles, all the guys would go ringside, sell their t-shirts, it was kinda the hottest independent promotion in the world, I was the one wrestler who wouldn’t go ringside, you weren’t allowed to talk to me, so that I felt different, but also I wasn’t good at the carny stuff and the merchandise stuff.
He maximised that, he made the most of his time, he made his name even bigger outside of the company like myself and like Cody, now he has the chance to come back.”
Drew McIntyre Issues Warning To Matt Cardona
As the WWE Champion Drew McIntyre continued talking about his friend Matt Cardona, he also issued a warning of sorts because Cardona was constantly talking about wanting to be WWE Champion.
“The only thing I don’t like is he keeps talking about the world title. You ain’t getting it mate, it’s mine. Congratulations coming back, I’m proud of you, but sometimes there is a ceiling, and when Drew McIntyre is the champion, you don’t get past it.”
Looking ahead, Matt Cardona says he’s ready to be in the WWE Royal Rumble if he’s booked, and if he’s in it, he plans to make a huge impact.