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A former WWE Superstar and currently one of the most well-known free agents in pro wrestling, Matt Cardona surprised audiences with his recent appearances in ROH and AEW. The Indy God, who will soon be challenging for a major world championship, recently opened up on a match he had earlier this year of great personal importance for him.
With his years as Zack Ryder behind him, Cardona has elevated his stock greatly through his work in the independent circuit across promotions like The Wrestling Revolver, NWA, GCW and Impact. The New York native has even made multiple appearances on AEW programming over the years, initially having a brief stint in 2020 before returning earlier this year on Collision to unsuccessfully wrestle his former mentor Adam Copeland for the TNT Championship.
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Cardona was recently on Hey!(Ew), where host RJ City teased him about his reportedly "limited deal" with AEW in 2020, asking him if a four-year absence from the company was stipulated by the aforementioned agreement for a match with The Rated-R Superstar. The Deathmatch King responded by claiming that he would have taken such a deal, stating that facing Copeland was his dream match.
"No, but in retrospect, if they would have said that, 'Hey, go away, and we'll bring you back to wrestle Adam Copeland,' I would have done it because it was my dream match," said Cardona. [H/T - Fightful]
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Although Matt Cardona has featured on All Elite television recently, he is at present in pursuit of the ROH World Title.
Matt Cardona will face a former AEW World Champion at an imminent ROH show
Matt Cardona showed up in Ring of Honor earlier this month to issue a challenge to Chris Jericho to face him at Final Battle 2024 for the ROH World Championship. This led to The King of The Indies featuring in a backstage interview on Dynamite: Winter is Coming, and later defeating The Learning Tree's disciple Bryan Keith at AEW Rampage.
Cardona's feud with Jericho has seemingly even bridged the apparent gulf in the working relationship between Tony Khan's company and GCW, as The Nueve shocked fans at GCW Highest In The Room 3 by appearing at the event to lay out both Cardona and his opponent, Effy.
