Matt Cardona Explains WWE Comeback Under His Real Name

Typically, when former WWE talents return to the company after stints elsewhere under different names — or real names — they return under their previous, most famous identity. Most recently, we can see that in Rusev, who wrestled in AEW as Miro. If Cope were ever to come back, you’d best believe they’d call him Edge again.

Not so for Matt Cardona, who came to fame as Zack Ryder originally, first as an Edge-head, and then as the “Internet Champion” Long Island Ice Z. Once he was let go, however, he couldn’t use that trademarked identity, and reinvented himself as the Indy God Matt Cardona. He declared Zack Ryder dead, while admitting he could revive if WWE insisted on it. When he finally did come back, which was always the dream, He entered to a Ryder Titantron that quickly changed to Matt Cardona.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated‘s The Takedown, Cardona revealed why he didn’t have to be Ryder again. “They wanted Matt Cardona…I’m proud of that. That they thought the Matt Cardona I built on the independents was more valuable than Zack Ryder. And I’m grateful for Zack Ryder, because without him and my previous time in WWE, there’s no Matt Cardona. Everything I learned, and not just putting matches together, but how to do interviews like this, how to market myself, how to sell merchandise, I learned it in WWE.”

Still, Ryder may not be fully done yet, as an encounter with Danhausen, who still calls him Zack, has had Cardona experiencing some old familiar mannerisms.