Matt Cardona Reacts To Loss To Gunther: I Needed To Get My Ass Kicked By You, I Needed To Wake Up

Matt Cardona reacts to his WWE SmackDown loss to Gunther, noting that he needed an ass kicking from him.

In the opening segment of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, Gunther would interrupt Nick Aldis and Chelsea Green, with Gunther mocking Green. This would bring out Chelsea’s husband Matt Cardona, leading to a match between Gunther and Cardona that Gunther would win.

While speaking in a social media promo after the bout, Matt Cardona noted that he needed to get his ass kicked by Gunther.

“I’m seeing stars right now. I don’t know how many goddamn power bombs I just took, but Gunther, I feel alive. Thank you for waking me up. You’re the career killer. My career has been killed time and time again. And I always, I always, come back. Tonight was a fight, a fight you didn’t need, but you had to run your mouth. You had to disrespect Chelsea. Me, I needed that. I needed to get my ass kicked by you. I needed to wake up. I’m not here to be another guy. I’m here to be the guy. I’m here to be the WWE champion. That means I gotta beat guys like you. So whenever you wanna do it again, you know where to find me.”

Thank you @Gunther_AUT for waking me up! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/8nvkii0Yqi

— Matt Cardona (@TheMattCardona) August 15, 2026

In a recent interview, Cardona spoke about a potential dream match he has. You can read more about that here.

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