Matt Cardona reflects on the inspiration that Chris Jericho has been to him throughout his career and shares some of the advice that Jericho gave him over the years.
Matt Cardona wrestled Chris Jericho for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Ring of Honor Final Battle 2024. During his latest YouTube video, Cardona shares some of his thoughts before the match which included reflections on how Jericho has helped him throughout his career.
Cardona credits Jericho as being the master of character evolution and says that Jericho is the reason he switched to trunks from one-legged tights when he was working for WWE and reveals the advice Jericho gave him during his brief stint with AEW in 2020.
"Chris, whether he knows it or not, he helped me out so many times in my career," said Cardona. "A couple of examples, I was doing the one-legged tights for the 'Woo Woo Woo' Zack Ryder, because at the time, I wanted to be different from [Curt] Hawkins, different from Edge. I wanted to stand out and it worked. It really did. But one day, Chris pulled me aside, and I'm paraphrasing, [but he] basically said, like, 'You're too good to be doing this. It worked. But you gotta wear trunks to be taken more seriously.' The next week, trunks. All because of what Chris said.
"Fast forward, a couple years later, I get fired from WWE," he continued. "I had my AEW debut. I knew, 'Okay, Zack Ryder is dead. He's dead. It's gonna be Matt Cardona,' right? But I thought, 'Okay, I can still, throw up the LI [Long Island hand gesture] right? I did that. I helped Cody [Rhodes]. I throw up the LI. Chris pulls me aside, he's not mad at me, but he says, 'You gotta get rid of that shit. Everything about Zack Ryder has to die.' I'm like, 'Well, Chris, I just put out a t-shirt that says 'Strong Island, doing the LI.' He's like, 'I don't care.' He was right. Like, it all had to die. Chris, he's the master of evolution, everything he does, the reinvention, time and time again. He's an inspiration. Now, I feel like I am, too."
Matt Cardona recently revealed that he was not offered a contract with AEW/ROH following the event at the end of 2024. Read more here.
While Chris Jericho has reinvented himself many times over, nothing lasts forever. Fans can read Jericho's thoughts on retirement here.
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