IMPACT star Matt Cardona was a recent guest MCW Cast program to discuss his big I.C. title win at WrestleMania 32, and how his fiancee, recently released WWE superstar Chelsea Green, was asked to not use her Hot Mess character in WWE since it gained notoriety from IMPACT. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says they pitched for Curt Hawkins (now Brian Myers) to win the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35:
Brian [Myers] or Curt [Hawkins], whatever you wanna call him is in the middle of this huge losing streak. I think like maybe over 100 matches, maybe close to 100. That was the gimmick. I wasn’t doing anything on Raw and that was the story. Let’s put them together and sort of likewise, maybe they’ll get each other out of each other’s funks, you know? And my pitch and Brian’s pitch, I think it was the week or two weeks before ‘Mania [35], we went to Vince [McMahon’s] office and we pitched for Brian to win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Our pitch was like, ‘We’re gonna be the last few guys in the ring and I almost sacrifice myself. He wins in our hometown, breaks the streak, WrestleMania moment’ and Vince is just like, ‘No.’ Well that was fine. He’s not gonna go for every idea but it’s totally fine.
How WWE did not want Chelsea Green using the Hot Mess character from IMPACT:
I think we will see that [Hot Mess character] again. Unfortunately, WWE did want her [Chelsea Green] to do the Hot Mess and maybe that would have come eventually, I don’t know, who’s to say but now, she’s her own boss. If she wants to come to MCW [Maryland Championship Wrestling] and be a Hot Mess, she’ll do it, she wants to come MCW and just be regular Chelsea Green, she’ll do it. No one’s gonna tell her what she can and can’t do.
On being added to the WrestleMania 32 ladder match after initially being removed:
And then one day backstage, there was a piece of paper and it was a list of the matches for WrestleMania [32] and I’m in this ladder match. I’m like, ‘What? How am I in this ladder match?’ And apparently Vince [McMahon] was like eating a steak before Raw watching Superstars and whatever match I was having, he’s like — he must’ve looked at it and saw what I was doing and the next day in the meeting he was like, ‘Why aren’t we doing anything with this guy?’ And then that’s just how it happened and then I got added to this match, I’m on this list and then of course, the next week, I’m off the list. But I’m like, ‘You know what? It’s cool. At least I was considered. Maybe things will turn around.’
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)