IMPACT Wrestling: 5 challengers for Eddie Edwards' World Championship

#1 Matt Cardona

Matt Cardona is currently free to sign with any promotion after his WWE non-compete clause expired on July 18, 2020

Matt Cardona is currently one of the hottest free agents in all of professional wrestling. Cardona is best known as Zack Ryder during his 15 year run with WWE. The former WWE Intercontinental and United States Champion was released in April of 2020 as part of mass budget cuts by the organisation due to the coronavirus pandemic and would certainly be a fine addition to the IMPACT Wrestling roster.

Although it's always sad to see anyone lose their job, many fans were glad that Zack Ryder may finally have the opportunity to truly show what he can do inside of a professional wrestling ring and meet his full potential. Perhaps Matt Cardona can reach his potential in IMPACT Wrestling?

At times, Zack Ryder was one of the most popular superstars on the WWE roster. However, despite Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship and Tag Team Championship reigns, from an outsider's point of view, it always felt as if WWE never truly had faith in Matt Cardona. Despite all of the momentum that the Long Island Ice Z character would generate for himself on Social Media, Cardona would consistently lose matches or be kept off of WWE television.

Therefore, now that Matt Cardona is longer with WWE, we may finally be able to see the very best version of him that there is. As of yet, Cardona has yet to announce which promotion he has signed with post-WWE. However, like many of the WWE Superstars released in April, Cardona continued to hype up his 90 day non-compete clause expiring on July 18, 2020, which was the same date of IMPACT Wrestling's Slammiversary pay per view.

Now that the date has come and gone, many are anxious to see where Cardona ends up next. Given that his former long time friend and tag team partner Brian Myers has signed with IMPACT Wrestling, many are assuming that Cardona could follow suit.

Debuting as the mystery opponent in Eddie Edwards' IMPACT Wrestling World Championship Open Challenge could be the perfect way to see the former Zack Ryder debut with IMPACT Wrestling.