The "Deathmatch King" Matt Cardona recently attempted to win the ROH World Championship from Chris Jericho but was unsuccessful. Cardona has now made several appearances for Tony Khan's ROH and AEW promotions dating back to 2020, and fans have stayed confused as to why Cardona has not signed full-time by the company. Cardona joined "The Ariel Helwani Show" and commented on the lack of an AEW contract.
"In the very beginning I came in, I helped Cody [Rhodes]. We had a tag match which we won; a pay-per-view match. I had like three shirts, two matches. Never got a call," Cardona told. "I don't know. To this day I don't know. I was told the contract's coming. After a while I'm like, 'It's not coming,' and I went to (TNA Wrestling)."
Cardona made a surprise return to AEW in March of last year, answering an open challenge Adam Copeland put out for his TNT Championship. This was Cardona's dream match as he looked up to Copeland growing up. The two were paired up in WWE in late 2007 when Cardona (then known as "Zack Ryder") became a henchman for Copeland (then known as "Edge"), even being involved in Copeland's main event World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 24. Cardona was very happy with his match against Copeland, but he received no follow-up call until a month or so ago to wrestle Jericho at Final Battle.
"We do the weeks of TV, getting great reactions in-house, social media, best-selling shirt of the week, killer match at Hammerstein Ballroom.. nothing," Cardona said revealinghe never received a contract offer. "Maybe it got lost in the mail, I don't know. I loved my time there, even this past time in December, I love it there. I think it's a great company. I think it's great for the business. I think everybody is working their ass off there but everything has to be the right situation, but I wasn't offered anything."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
