Matt Cardona Open To Returning To WWE As Zack Ryder

In an interview with Bleacher Report, Matt Cardona spoke about his career after leaving WWE and said that he would be open to going back as Zack Ryder. Here are highlights:

On reinventing himself after WWE exit: “I’m not living in the past. Back in the day when somebody left WWE, they’d go to the indies and do the same old shtick, Honky Tonky Man-it-up and sell some gimmicks, but not me. I’m proving you don’t need WWE and you don’t need AEW to be a successful pro wrestler, and I don’t just mean wins and losses. I mean money! And I would argue success should be defined by happiness, not so much by money. Of course, we need money to live and I’m making a lot of it, but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and I’d argue I’m the hottest I’ve ever been.”

On being a heel: “When I went to GCW, I was hated. They were flipping me off. I wasn’t used to that. Then when I won the championship, they were throwing bottles at me, pizza cutters at me. There were people in the crowd with my action figure being hung with a noose. I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ Independent wrestling has really taken off to new heights because of social media, there’s Fite TV, there’s streaming. If you go to Atlantic City to see GCW, it’s not just the couple of hundred people in attendance. People all over the country and world are watching. If there are people who genuinely hate me, that’s great. I don’t care. I’m not trying to to prove doubters wrong. I’m trying to prove myself and my fans right, and if I get some new fans, great, glad to have you, but I’m not trying to prove anyone wrong. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. This is me.”

On returning to WWE: “I’d be lying if I said I never wanted to wrestle in Madison Square Garden again or never wanted to wrestle in a big stadium for a WrestleMania. Of course I would. I’m not saying that. But I’m also not saying that I’m doing everything I’m doing now thinking, ‘What can I do to get back to WWE?’ or ‘What can I do to go to AEW?’ I don’t give a sh*t. Sorry, I don’t. If Tony Khan or Vince McMahon or Johnny Ace or Bruce Prichard called me, of course, I’d pick up the phone and have a conversation, but that’s not my goal right now.”

On if his current character could work in WWE: “There’s certain things I’d have to tone down like the cursing, but other than that, I absolutely think it would [work]. It’s just a different side of me, it’s the evolution.”

On returning as Zack Ryder: “I wouldn’t be opposed to coming back as Zack Ryder. I love my ‘Always Ready’ music. It would basically be me, just with the old Zack Ryder name. No more ‘Oh Radio,’ none of that stuff, even though Downstait did make the harder version of it. I would love to come back as me, Matt Cardona, but I think realistically, the WWE has that IP and they’ve invested a lot in that name, so I would have no problem [doing it], even if it was a one-off at the Royal Rumble or something like that. I think it’d be interesting. If I were to come out, I don’t know if the people would boo. I think I’d get a huge pop! I think I’d be a babyface again.”