Matt Cardona on Chelsea Green Putting Him in Contact with Nick Khan for WWE Return, His Goal of Becoming WWE Champion, Backup Plans If WWE Return Run Doesn’t Pan Out, Being Proud WWE Saw More Value In Him as “Matt Cardona” Than as “Zack Ryder” For His WWE Return, & More

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Matt Cardona as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Cardona’s thoughts about his return to WWE as “Zack Ryder” in the The Last Time Is Now tournament in 2025 and how his wife Chelsea Green put him in contact with WWE President Nick Khan for his return to the company.

“So from September to when I redebut in January, it’s like a mindf*ck for me. It was such a whirlwind of things. I’m definitely gonna mix up the timeline a bit. But it starts in September, I believe. I’m doing TNA, but I’m not signed to TNA. I’m asked if I want to participate in the NXT invasion, go invade NXT. I’m like, well, if they think I really work for TNA — I went there and I got paid, right? But I didn’t have a contract. I’m like, I’ll sneak my way in here. So I did the invasion, which led to a match with Josh Briggs. I said, all right, that’s cool. I texted Triple H, ‘Thank you for the opportunity.’ He texted back. It was all good. Shortly thereafter, maybe within that week, Chelsea (Green) was in Saudi Arabia doing media for the Royal Rumble, and she was there with Nick Khan and said something to the effect of, ‘Did you see my husband on NXT?’ He said something like, ‘I’ve never met him. Give him my number.’ So she did. I called him or texted him immediately. ‘Hey, it’s Matt Cardona,’ blah, blah, blah… I think it’s that day or the next day he calls me, and he’s very straight to the point, which I love and respect. He said, ‘What do you want?’ ‘I want to come back.’ It was as simple as that. He’s like, ‘Okay, well, we need to set up a call with you and Triple H.’ I’m like, ‘This is great. Here we go.’ That week we have a FaceTime with Triple H, or Zoom call, whatever, and it was a good call, but it wasn’t a good call, you know what I’m saying? I’m like, there’s nothing here. There was no offer to come back. It was just a very friendly, civil, respectful call. I’m like, alright, well, I guess back to being the Indie God, whatever.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about him having a video call with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque telling him that he was interested in coming back full-time to the company.

“I definitely said I was interested in coming back, but there was no, ‘Yeah, we want to have you back.’ There was no, here’s your offer. There was none of that, right? A couple of weeks go by, and he texted me, ‘Hey, do you have time to talk today?’ I’m like, ‘Yep,’ and that’s when he pitched me the Cena tournament thing. I said I’m in, and I’m assuming that I’m going to do this representing TNA as Matt Cardona. So SmackDown films Fridays. You fly out Thursdays. Tuesday of that week, I get a text from John Cone from WWE Talent Relations, and he’s like, ‘Hey, we got some t-shirts for you to approve,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s cool, but how do you guys have my Matt Cardona logos?’ It’s like, ‘Oh no, you’re Zack Ryder.’ I’m thinking, oh f*ck. Not that I don’t want to be Zack Ryder. I don’t have any gear, because what am I gonna wear? Everything else I sold off, so everything that I had was either one-off, like WrestleMania title (ring) gear or stuff that was all falling apart because it’s years old. I’m like, oh no, luckily always ready. Got gear made in 24 hours, and then did the Cena tournament as Zack Ryder.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about his goal of wanting to become a WWE Champion and him feeling that he’s the closest he’s ever been to achieving that goal.

“I feel like I’m the closest I’ve ever been, especially now being back in WWE. I certainly felt on the indies that I was closer to being the WWE Champion as Matt Cardona on the indies than I ever was as Zack Ryder previously. This is what I said to Triple H — I said before I got re-signed, ‘I can’t hit a home run if I’m not in the game.’ I honestly believe that. You look at my win-loss record, okay, I lose a lot, but when I win, I win big. It just takes one win, and I’ve been counted out so many times throughout my career by the office, by the fans, by myself, and I just always come back. I always find a way to come back. I’m like a cockroach; you cannot kill me.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about his backup plans for his wrestling career if he doesn’t manage to achieve his goals for his return run in WWE.

“I feel very blessed that I’m in the win-win situation, where I feel like I’m the top of my game. I’m 40 years old, 41 now, but I feel better now and look better now. I wrestle better now at 41 than I did when I was 21. You look at the landscape with WWE, the two current champions are my age or older, right? But then again, there’s all these young up-and-comers, so I gotta be on my toes to keep up with them, and hopefully this all works out and we do an interview in a couple years, and I could talk about my WWE Title win, right? But if it doesn’t, I found my place outside WWE, and I could always go back there, which is great, a good backup plan. But I don’t want a backup plan. This is the plan to be the WWE Champion.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about him being proud WWE saw more value in bringing him back full-time as Matt Cardona than as his previous Zack Ryder character.

“Okay, so then I think it’s a one-off. I get the Triple H point, which is great. I sold some 8x10s with that. Thank you, Triple H. He’s like, ‘We’ll keep in touch,’ and they did. About a few weeks later, I was at WrestleCade, so I guess after Thanksgiving, I’m eating dinner with the boys after signing all day and a match, and I got a call like, ‘We wanna sign you.’ I’m thinking, okay. I’m just assuming it’s as Zack Ryder so I get all this new Zack Ryder gear made, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then a week or so before my debut, I hear through the grapevine, ‘You’re gonna be Matt Cardona.’ Now I’m like, Oh sh*t, I need new Matt Cardona gear.’ But I am very proud that they thought there was more value in Matt Cardona than Zack Ryder. Because who else has left? Okay, Razor Ramon leaves, and he comes back as Scott Hall. He went to WCW. I did this all in the indies. No one’s ever done that before. Gone to the indies and come back as their indie persona. It was a crazy gift. It was a crazy couple of months because Chelsea (Green) and I were moving into a new house. It was the whole contract negotiations, and not like I want more money. Nothing like that. It was more like because I have all these outside things that I’m involved with, and WWE is so cool about me keeping my podcast, my toy line. But there was a couple of things legally that we had to work through. It wasn’t just like okay, here’s the contract, sign it.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about how he was “pissed” over comments made by Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens in an episode of Rhodes’ What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast. These comments revolved around Owens talking about how Cardona had always talked about how much he loves the indies but at the same time constantly talked about wanting to be back in WWE and both Owens and Rhodes laughing about it.

“Oh boy. Honestly, I was pissed! Because they made it seem that all I would say is I want to be back in WWE. Blah, blah. I’d only talk about it when I’d be doing things like this, and you ask me a question. So it bothered me, but I’m over it now. Yes, it wasn’t malicious. I just did not appreciate that I didn’t get a chance to come on and tell my version until I got re-signed.”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about how he had felt at one point that he was holding back Steph De Lander on the indies.

“At one point I thought there’s no way I’m getting back (to WWE) because I was doing everything. Indie Wrestler of the Year, cover of PWI, I was with Steph De Lander at the time because Chelsea (Green) had gone back, and I texted Steph, I said, ‘You need to get away from me because I’m holding you down. There’s no way I’m ever going back, because if not now, when?’”

Cardona also gave his thoughts about him feeling ready for a heel turn for his current career in WWE.

“Not maybe, definitely, because I’ve said, and I said it on TV too, like ‘I left and I reinvented myself, blah blah blah’ but who you see right now is not who I was on the indies like the heel Ultimate Opportunist, no redeeming qualities, Matt Cardona. That’s what I feel WWE needs to see from me.

I’m not exactly sure how we’re gonna get there but I’m always ready. And I’m in the game. So if the opportunity presents itself, I will capitalize.”  

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6, F4WOnline.com