![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/cardona.jpg\")
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I can\u2019t say that I was ever a Zack Ryder fan.\u00a0 The whole internet schtick, the fist pumps and self-aware but still over-the-top broeyness of his character, he was pretty much no better than Santino Marella, as far as caricatures of wrestlers they were.\u00a0 I cringed when he had a US title run, and I winced even harder when he actually got a Wrestlemania Moment™ when he won the Intercontinental championship in a ladder match against way more worthy opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n When he was released by the company, I didn\u2019t think anything of it, other than the fact that I figured he\u2019d probably end up in AEW, because at the time everyone who was leaving the WWE whether it was a forced release or future endeavored, was usually bound for AEW at some point.<\/span><\/p>\n And as expected, he did show up in AEW, under his real name, Matt Cardona.\u00a0 However, after a fairly uninspired program where he teamed up with Cody Rhodes, he was quietly gone.\u00a0 Scuttlebutt said that he was only brought in for a temporary program, but for the most part was not #ALLELITE™<\/span><\/p>\n A few months later, Matt Cardona\u2019s name came up again, as he apparently had a massively gruesome deathmatch in a fed that I\u2019d just begun hearing about, GCW, since Vice\u2019s <\/span>Dark Side of the Ring<\/em> had just done an episode on GCW godfather, Nick Gage.\u00a0 And despite Gage\u2019s cult-like popularity in the ultra-violent GCW, he had still done the job to Matt Cardona, and made him the GCW champion.<\/span><\/p>\n What was pretty astounding though, was how Cardona introduced himself to GCW, which was under a mask, and pretending to be Jon Moxley, which royally enraged the fans, and GCW fans are already maniacal enough in the first place, but Cardona manufactured a perfect heat bomb that got fans nuclear hot about his existence, and the number one rule of professional wrestling is to elicit a response at all, be it cheers or jeers.<\/span><\/p>\n But Cardona became the GCW champion, which I shrugged off, seeing as how GCW would probably rank as like the sixth or seventh noteworthy promotion in North America, so it really didn\u2019t seem like much of a big deal.\u00a0 However, I did take amusement of this new persona of his where he was apparently feeding off of the hate for Zack Ryder, fans like the ones of GCW were, and basically trolling the entire promotion by doing shit like declaring himself king of death matches, and switching their belt for an obnoxious John Cena-like spinner variant.<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, he\u2019d lose the GCW title to the actual Jon Moxley, who supposedly showed up to an event to watch it, but was somehow roped into performing and then going over as champion, which kind of disappointed me since I was beginning to curry favor with Matt Cardona.<\/span><\/p>\n But then he shows up in Impact weeks later, to get involved with a program with their champion, Moose, and the guy who used to be Big Cass in WWE.\u00a0 Next thing you know, he\u2019s in a world title program on Impact, even if he would eventually lose in a triple threat against Moose and Morrissey, but it was more of the same.\u00a0 Fans someone have become conditioned to dislike Cardona, for what I\u2019m guessing is because they all still see the obnoxious Zack Ryder character.<\/span><\/p>\n Somewhere along the way, Cardona also shows up at an NWA event, to jump their champion, Trevor Murdoch.\u00a0 When I find out about this, I am salty, because this was actually an event that I had tickets to go to, since it was taped in Atlanta, but due to the rise of omicron, my tickets were cancelled and I didn\u2019t get to go, but again, same story, unexpected appearance, jumps a world champion, gets nuclear heat from the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m a big fan of what Matt Cardona is doing, and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any wrestler out there that\u2019s capitalizing on a career post-WWE than he is.\u00a0 Sure, he touched AEW like most guys do, but when that didn\u2019t work out, he didn\u2019t quit and go get a job at Walmart like his old tag team partner did. \u00a0Instead he got extremely creative, and is low-key blazing an entertaining trail in lower promotions, but raising his stock all the same.\u00a0 This is some Chris Jericho-like creativity in reinventing himself; he might not be making WWE money anymore, but he\u2019s definitely in world title pictures in three different promotions, with nobody really being able to predict where else he\u2019ll show up next.<\/span><\/p>\n Just a week ago, he was back in GCW, where he defeated Rhino; and because Rhino was the last ever ECW TV and World champion, Cardona declared himself the new ECW TV champion, and I have no fucking clue to where he procured the blet, but he still celebrated with it, all the same.<\/span><\/p>\n At this point, I\u2019d lose my shit if Cardona shows up at a New Japan Pro Wrestling show, seeing as they\u2019re currently touring North America right now.\u00a0 Or maybe he\u2019ll lay low and then show up at Ring of Honor in Dallas in April when they start their shit back up again.\u00a0 Frankly, I\u2019m surprised he didn\u2019t show up at Final Battle in December.\u00a0 Hell, maybe he should wander down to Mexico and appear at a AAA event, and mix it up with their Mega Campion.<\/span><\/p>\n Nobody is embodying the potential for fun and excitement in this current wrestling atmosphere like Matt Cardona is.\u00a0 The industry isn\u2019t just the WWE and AEW, and their insufferable tribalistic fans.\u00a0 There are so many other options out there, and with the sheer volume of talent that was cut loose from the WWE primarily, the indy scene is ripe with potential for all sorts of creative, fun and new possibilities, and there\u2019s nobody capitalizing on all this potential than Cardona is.<\/span><\/p>\n I never really cared much for Zack Ryder, but I absolutely love what Matt Cardona is doing these days.\u00a0 He’s trolling fans in promotions left and right, but staying relevant and at the tops of cards everywhere he goes.\u00a0 And I hope he keeps it going and finds some real success doing it, because I think what he’s doing is awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I can\u2019t say that I was ever a Zack Ryder fan.\u00a0 The whole internet schtick, the fist pumps and self-aware but still over-the-top broeyness of his character, he was pretty much no better than Santino Marella, as far as caricatures of wrestlers they were.\u00a0 I cringed when he had a US title run, and I … Continue reading I love what Matt Cardona is doing post-WWE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[151,83,54,55],"class_list":["post-48391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-blets","tag-observations","tag-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48393,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48391\/revisions\/48393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}