Matt Cardona has provided more details regarding his journey back to WWE, and how he took a pay cut to make it possible.
Cardona’s story is very familiar among wrestling fans. The former Zack Ryder was part of the many rounds of releases during the pandemic, and went on to reinvent himself on the indies. Competing under his real name, Cardona took part in deathmatches and competed all over the world before finding his way back to WWE in early 2026.
Looking back on his release while speaking with Jeremy Jacobowitz, Cardona said that being let go from WWE was “the greatest day of his life.” The former Intercontinental Champion then elaborated on what his options could have been from that point, and how he made his decision:
“So, when I got released, fired from WWE, it was the greatest day of my life. And I knew then I had three options because I’m a student of the game. I see what happens when people leave WWE. You could fade into obscurity, which I wasn’t going to do. You can, you know, just be bitter, negative, fade into obscurity, or you can like just coast off your WWE name forever. I don’t mean like the literal name. Like Honky Tonk Man is still doing the shake, rattle and roll, and I love that and it’s great and I love Honky, but I didn’t want to still do the woo woo woo on the indies.
I wanted to create something new. And that was what I decided: okay, I’m going to reinvent myself and I’m going to change the Matt Cardona game. I’m going to reinvent myself in a way that, like, yeah, hopefully WWE wants me back. But if they don’t, that’s fine.”
“I Technically Took A Pay Cut”: Matt Cardona
Cardona then stated that compared to what he was making on the independents, he is now on less money since returning to WWE. However, Cardona noted that with the amount of opportunities available while in WWE, there is much more potential while with the company:
