Matt Cardona's list of accomplishments may not measure up to all-time greats like Ric Flair, or John Cena, but it's certainly nothing to be scoffed at either, and there are many WWE Hall Of Famers who accomplished far less. During his 15-years in WWE, Cardona -- who performed in the company under the name Zack Ryder -- won multiple Tag Team Championships, the Intercontinental Championship, the United States Championship, and three (3!) Slammy Awards. Needless to say, when Cardona was released by WWE in 2020, he would have been well within his rights to hang up his boots for good. But he didn't.
How Zack Ryder Ended Up On The Indies
Instead of calling it a day to focus on streaming/podcasting/toy collecting, Cardona waited for his 90-day no-compete clause to expire, and leaped headfirst back into the world of professional wrestling. He made a few sporadic appearances in AEW, and later started showing up on IMPACT Wrestling regularly. But Cardona was no longer content with just wrestling on television every week. He wanted to get his hands dirty.
The former WWE Intercontinental Champion did just that when he attacked deathmatch legend, Nick Gage, following the main event of GameChanger Wrestling's Zombie Walk event on Sunday, June 6.
Gage had just defended his GCW Championship in a match against Jimmy Lloyd which ended in a no contest. As Gage was in the ring smashing light tubes, a hooded figure entered. The figure moved like Jon Moxley and hit Gage with Moxley's finisher, the Paradigm Shift. The crowd was pumped. Moxley had attacked Gage at a previous GCW show, so it was entirely plausible that the person under the hood was the former WWE Champion. The crowd was not happy when Cardona removed the face covering to reveal that he was the mysterious assailant, not Moxley.
Matt Cardona Establishes Himself As A Heel
Immediately and to great effect, Cardona had solidified his status as a heel in the eyes of the GCW audience. Nick Gage is the biggest babyface the promotion has ever seen, and he was champ for a reason. GCW fans can tolerate someone like Moxley jumping Gage because the two men have history and Moxley's deathmatch resume speaks for itself. But Zack Ryder? Who does he think he is? Chants of "f**ck you Ryder!" rang out around the venue and Cardona was all too happy to let the GCW crowd know what he thought about them in return.
Gage and Cardona's feud began on Twitter -- as many great modern wrestling feuds do -- so Cardona's debut GCW appearance wasn't completely out of the blue. Following the initial encounter, the two men continued to get under each other's skin with smartphone promos and social media digs. Gage even showed up to one Cardona'a live podcast recordings and tried to beat him up. Cardona put in the work and was determined to create something special, even though he could have easily phoned it in to make a quick buck. Cardona and Gage were booked to face each other at GCW's Homecoming pay-per-view at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, July 24. Gage's GCW Championship would be on the line.
Cardona Vanquishes Deathmatch Legend Nick Gage
The match itself was a brutal and bloody as any match in which Nick Gage is a participant. The crowd's intense hatred for the corporate stooge Matt Cardona, who had done nothing but disrespect them for the past month, was palpable. They wanted Gage to hurt Cardona real bad. And he did. Eventually, though, Gage's longtime GCW nemesis Ricky Shane Page interfered, which allowed Cardona to snatch the win. Much to the chagrin of seemingly every single fan in the building.
The footage of Cardona being pelted with copious amounts of garbage following his GCW Championship victory is astonishing and has been the topic of much discussion in the wake of the event. Wrestling fans are split between those who believe that Cardona received the exact reaction he had been aiming for and those who think that hurling objects at entertainers is bad. The truth is somewhere in the middle, as is often the case with controversial professional wrestling moments.
Nuclear Heel Heat For GCW's New Champion
In the moment, it was tough to tell whether Cardona was legitimately perturbed by the trash-throwing or whether he was just selling it like a pro. His subsequent reactions to the moment seem to imply the latter. Most heels in wrestling dream of generating the type of nuclear heat that Cardona received that night and the character Cardona is portraying in GCW almost certainly got what he deserved. That being said, if you watch the footage, there are clearly some unopened cans of beer and other sharp and/or hefty objects being lobbed in Cardona's direction. It's all fun and games, but it seemed like people were actually trying to legitimately hurt him, even though he'd just had his head sliced open with a broken light tube followed by a pizza cutter.
Fans throwing trash in the ring to express their displeasure at the outcome of a wrestling match is nothing new, but it's usually limited to light items like half-empty Solo cups and scrunched-up flyers. The GCW audience is admirably passionate, and it plays a pivotal role in making the product as enjoyable as it is, but throwing heavy objects at a performer's head might be crossing a line just a tad.
We're A Long Way From WWE
It was definitely an ugly moment, but so many of wrestling's most memorable moments have been ugly. When Matt Cardona signed on to feud with Nick Gage in GCW, he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. He wanted to bathe in the mud show muck and prove that he was more than just a cookie-cutter WWE product, and he did just that as he flayed about on the glass and blood-covered ring mat dodging tallboys and unopened bottles of smart water.
Few people would have predicted that the first major feud of Zack Ryder's post-WWE career would be with Nick F'n Gage. Cardona spent almost his entire professional wrestling career in WWE and its developmental systems. By the time he was released, Cardona hadn't wrestled a match outside of WWE in 13 years. With wrestlers like that, wrestlers who have committed the bulk of their careers to one promotion, it can be difficult to imagine them in a ring owned by any other company, especially an indie company like GCW. Which is part of the reason Cardona's recent post-WWE achievements feel so special.