Matt Cardona lays out his goal.
Matt Cardona was released by WWE in 2020 after a 15-year run with the company. Cardona briefly popped up on AEW television during the pandemic and worked for IMPACT Wrestling, but he's become the King of the Independents by making towns all across the world and collecting gold along the way.
Cardona sat down with Swerve Strickland and Monteasy on the Swerve City podcast and asked what his ultimate goal is moving forward.
"I was talking with Chelsea [Chelsea Green], and I'm going to name drop John Cena. John was asking Chelsea, 'what is the difference between this run and the last run?' Chelsea said, 'Now, I can turn it off. I can go and do Raw and when I'm home, I'm home.' As opposed to last time, when she was in NXT, the PC was with her brain. A couple of days later, I'm pitching some spot for an Indie show, and she said, 'You used to be able to turn it off.' 'Yeah, you're right.' In WWE, there are only three things I can control. Now, I can control everything. My brain is always going. These past three years, I don't care how you define success, accolades, money, happiness. In my opinion, which is the only one that matters, I've been the most successful in my career. If Tony Khan or Triple H called me today, of course I would have the conversation. I'd be lying if I said, 'I never want to wrestle on pay-per-view again,' or wrestle Madison Square Garden again or walk into Target or WalMart and see my action figure on the shelf. I'd be lying.
"At the same time, I don't want to go to AEW or WWE just to be a guy on the roster. Nothing against that, but I've been there and done that. Back in the day, when I started the YouTube show, as it got further along and I realized what I was trying to do, I kind of wanted to prove that you bet on yourself, you can get yourself over, you can get yourself noticed. Now, I want to prove, AEW and WWE, number one and two, it's debatable which is one and two, I'm not saying they're not, but I want to prove you can be a successful pro wrestler without them. At the same time, I'm not saying if Tony Khan called, I wouldn't pick up. Of course not. Tony! What's up man!? You need me for Collision? Or if Triple H called or Vince [Vince McMahon] called. Right now, my goal is not to get back there. My goal is, how big can I make this? I don't know. I hate to say the sky is the limit, but it kind of is. I didn't have handcuffs on me before, but if I did, they're off. I can take this and whether it be with my podcast or a wrestling figure company, how high can I go? We'll see. That's the challenge and that's the fun part."
Cardona did return to IMPACT Wrestling for a one-off appearance in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at IMPACT Bound For Glory.
Cardona is also part of MLW and works for top independent promotions like GCW and House of Glory.
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