Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder)
Woo, woo, woo, you know the former Zack Ryder would love to get one last shot at his old friend, who he last faced in a US Open Championship Challenge over a decade ago.
Cena and Cardona shared 22 matches in their career, largely as teammates. After Cardona’s run in the Rated R entourage came to an end, the Long Island Iced-Z as he called himself, found himself with reduced TV time. So Cardona took matters into his own hands and introduced his own YouTube series that led to an increase in popularity. WWE took notice of the sold out t-shirts and “We Want Ryder” chants on TV and PPV/PLE and made Cardona the Assistant Raw General Manager. At this time, Cardona was also seen with Cena a lot given the two had a real life friendship. Cardona credits Cena with helping him come up in the business and that relationship was explored on TV as Cardona and Cena began teaming up. Cena even helped Cardona get an opportunity to win his first WWE championship, which he was successful at doing defeating Dolph Ziggler at TLC in 2011.
In 2012, Cardona entered a story where he began romancing Eve with Cena helping him. At the same time, his friendship with Cena led him into direct conflict with Kane. The Big Red Machine targeted Cardona, storyline injuring him again and again. Kane and Cardona’s feud resulted in one of Cardona’s infamous and memorable WWE moments, when in a wheelchair, he saw Eve kiss Cena after he saved her from Kane’s kidnapping. This led to Kane pushing the wheelchair-ridden Cardona off the stage. While he was out of commission, Eve revealed she never liked Cardona and was only using him for his popularity. Talk about adding insult to injury.
In all, Cardona and Cena teamed up on 15 occasions while only wrestling each other in singles matches twice. As noted on the prior page, Cena mentioned Cardona in his pipebomb and Cardona did the same at an independent show. Plus, Cena also shared a post when Cardona returned to a WWE ring during an episode of NXT. While Cena and Cardona have buried any resentment between the two, Cardona still blames Cena for getting him pushed off the stage and kicked in the nuts at WrestleMania so when asked his thoughts on getting to face John Cena in a final match during his retirement tour, Cardona didn’t hold back on his wishes.
“John, I’ve looked up to John for a long time,” Matt Cardona said in an interview with SEScoops last year. “We did get close during my WWE run, but he is just a pro’s pro. What a way to go out. What a smart way to go out, huh? A whole year plus, because he’s hyping it up in July? I’m just thinking the merch, he already had the merch ready. John is such a great guy, somebody who’s definitely helped me in my career…Those posts I’ve been making on social media, they’re not BS. I would love to wrestle John Cena one last time. I think, with the way WWE is now, I think it’s something that could happen, where I could just walk in, whether it be for one day or make a return.”
