Matt Cardona has big goals in IMPACT Wrestling.
Matt Cardona spent over a decade in WWE as Zack Ryder and now, after spending a year as a free agent, he's looking to continue writing his own story and he's hopeful he will punctuate that story with a World Championship victory.
Currently, Matt Cardona has chosen IMPACT Wrestling as his home but he's glad that wrestling has changed through the years and is not as reliant on exclusivity as he's hoping to continue working in multiple promotions and building his legacy.
Speaking with Steel Chair Magazine, Cardona emphasized that he loves the open relationship IMPACT Wrestling has with other companies and hopes to continue exploring the blank canvas that the company provides internally and the freedom that they provide to work elsewhere as well.
“I love being able to do so much. With IMPACT, they have an arrangement with AEW where anybody can show up at any time and I love that. That’s what makes wrestling so exciting. I think at Slammiversary, Kenny is actually in danger of losing that IMPACT World Title to Sami, so I wonder if you’re going to see like the Young Bucks or somebody doing a little run-in. What about the Good Brothers? Whose side are they on? I guess we’ll find out at Slammiversary.”
He later added, “We’re all artists, and we have this blank canvas now to just draw whatever we want, and that’s the best part about IMPACT, all this creative freedom, and all these opportunities, and I think the sky's the limit with IMPACT. I think it’s on the up and up. All the wrestlers there in that locker room are hungry, they all want IMPACT to keep getting better and better. I think we’re going to do it as a team but, at the end of the day, if we’re in the ring with each other, we’re going to beat the hell out of each other and have the best match possible for the fans.”
In WWE, Zack Ryder never won a World Championship. Matt Cardona is hoping that he will have the opportunity to rectify that in IMPACT Wrestling and says that at 36, he can still be considered “a baby” in wrestling years.
“It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve got a lot of opportunities, and I thank the IMPACT Wrestling management for those opportunities. That’s why I came to IMPACT Wrestling. Like you said, I’ve wrestled a lot of the top stars, but there’s also a bunch of people I haven’t been in the ring with, most importantly the World Champion Kenny Omega. I know he’s from the other company but, right now, he holds the title. It doesn’t matter if it’s Kenny or Sami Callihan or Moose. It doesn’t matter to me, if you have that IMPACT title, I want it.”
He would later add, “It’s not even a new chapter, I think it’s a new book, a whole new book, and that’s the best part about it. I’m very grateful for everything I’ve accomplished in my career so far, but I am not done yet. I’m only 36 and, in wrestling, that’s still being a baby, so I still have a lot of time left. Look at Dreamer, he’s like 50 years old, he got a World Title shot. If Dreamer can do it, I can do it. I mean, I retired Dreamer 10 years ago [and] he’s still wrestling.”
Matt Cardona does not have an official match for Slammiversary 2021 but is hoping to get his hands on the man he considers to be his best friend outside the ring, Brian Myers.
You can check out the full weekly results from IMPACT in our results section.
