Matt Cardona Sets Sights on Winning WWE World Title in Potential Return

Matt Cardona, formerly known as Zack Ryder during his WWE tenure, never fully reached his potential in the company before his release in 2020. Since then, he has reinvented his career, finding success on the independent scene. In fact, Cardona has now expressed a desire to win the WWE World Title in a potential return to the promotion.

In the four years since his WWE release, Matt Cardona has found renewed success on the independent circuit, earning the nickname “Indy God” for his achievements in various independent wrestling promotions.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Matt Cardona reflected on his journey so far, acknowledging how monumental this year has been, celebrating 20 years in the wrestling business. Despite doctors predicting a 6-8 month recovery from his injury, he managed to return in just four months. While acknowledging that time is not on his side, Cardona believes he has yet to reach his peak and feels his best years in wrestling are still ahead.

Cardona has thrived on the independent scene, collecting titles and gaining worldwide recognition. However, he’s starting to contemplate a return to a major promotion, questioning whether it’s time to go back to WWE or AEW. He mentioned how his recent experience wrestling Adam Copeland at AEW Collision, in front of a packed arena, reaffirmed his belief that his work is paying off.

“It’s been a wild year, celebrating 20 years in the business, 20 years since my first match, four years since I was fired from WWE. Now, I’m just coming back from injury. The doctors said six to eight months, I did it in four. Time is not on my side. I’m not getting any younger, but I feel like right now, I haven’t even hit the prime of my career. I feel like my best years are ahead of me. I’ve done it all on the indies. Winning titles, cover of magazines, all over the world, and it’s been fun, and I needed it, I needed to find myself, both as a performer and as a man. I did, I did it all. The time is now to go back. Where do I go? Do I go back to WWE? Do I go to AEW? Just having that taste even, earlier this year, wrestling Adam Copeland [on AEW Collision], just being out there, jam-packed, real arena, not the Ukrainian Cultural Center in LA or The Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, a real arena, and the crowd responded, just on my entrance. It made me feel like, ‘Okay, everything I’ve been doing, it’s working.”

Cardona also opened up about his long-term goal of becoming the top star in wrestling. As a child, he dreamed of being the top guy and winning the WWE World Championship, a goal he has yet to achieve. While he acknowledges he may never win the title, he remains determined to pursue it with everything he has. Though he loves working on the independent circuit and the experiences it brings, he knows that returning to WWE could give him the platform to make a significant impact.

“I didn’t dream as a little kid to just be a pro wrestler. I dreamed of being a top guy, the top guy. You have to have that goal to be successful in this business. I’m very fortunate in my career, 20 years, highs and lows. But I never got the big one. I never won the WWE World Title. That has to be the goal. Because if that’s not the goal, what are we doing? What am I doing here? What am I working towards? I might never achieve that goal, but I’m gonna die trying. I love the indies, I love everything about it. There are days, and we had a great show, made a lot of money on merch, and I’m thinking, ‘This is f****** awesome, I can do this forever. Then there are days where I’m like, ‘What the f*** am I doing with my life?’ When I’m at f****** GCW in LA and the locker room is a f****** alley, or if I’m in the middle of nowhere, I do the show, I don’t get a f****** tweet about it. Did this day exist in my life? It’s not just like, ‘I want to be back there.’ Everyone wants to be back there. But I know if I was back, I’d make a f****** difference.”

Matt Cardona had already made it clear he was interested in joining a major television company. He also stated that he wants to take part in TNA and WWE’s crossover, so we’ll have to see if Cardona will return to WWE eventually.