During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated IMPACT star and new GCW champion Matt Cardona spoke about his epic deathmatch with Nick Gage at last weekend’s Homecoming pay per view, and how he knew he was out of his element, but will treat the win as one of the biggest in his career.
On the GCW championship being his first world title:
All my life, I wanted to be a pro wrestler. Ever since I was 18, that’s what I’ve done with my life. But I didn’t just want to be someone on the card. I wanted to be a superstar, a champion. This title is a big deal. I was fortunate in WWE to win the tag team title twice, the intercontinental title and the United States title, but the GCW title is my first world title. So people are absolutely crazy if they don’t think I’m going to treat this as the biggest thing in the world. I took the title to Disneyland and posed in front of the castle.
Talks about the match with Gage, saying he knew he was out of his element because he had never done a deathmatch:
Going into this match, I knew I was out of my element. I’d never done a deathmatch before. I’d never even seen a Nick Gage match from start to finish. I tried to watch the Dark Side of the Ring [episode on Gage], but it was just too gory and too gross. But I give Nick Gage all the credit in the world. I respected him before the match, and I respect him even more now after the match. I knew I was going to get cut up. I knew there were going to be light tubes, I knew I was going to bleed. That’s why I wore all white. I wore pants, I taped myself all the way up. I tried to be as safe as possible. I didn’t want to get involved with glass or pizza cutters, but when you’re in there with Nick f—ing Gage, things happen. I went through two panes of glass. I took the pizza cutter. When you’re in there with Nick, anything goes.