Matt Cardona speaks on his success since being released from WWE back in 2020.
The Indy God has been one of the hottest names on the circuit while still occasionally popping up for bigger brands like IMPACT, NWA, or AEW. During a recent interview on the Swerve City podcast Cardona admits that he would happily take a meeting with Triple H or Tony Khan for another full-time run with a major company, but that he is greatly enjoying the freedom and money he is currently making.
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.
Cardona continues, stating that he wants to be the blueprint for how wrestlers can make a lot of money without WWE or AEW.
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.
You can check out Cardona’s full interview below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)