Booker T Wonders If Former Star Will Make Their Way Back To WWE
Matt Cardona, formerly known as WWE's Zack Ryder, has seen his fair share of highs and lows since being released in April 2020 as part of company-wide COVID-19 budget cuts. Cardona had a run with AEW for several weeks but didn't land a long-term contract, so he jumped back into the indie wrestling scene full-time and found success recreating himself in promotions like GCW and Impact Wrestling. Now that he's a notorious heel that can garner loads of heat from live audiences, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T questions if Cardona is WWE-bound once again.
"He's been out there doing a lot of GCW stuff, hardcore matches, deathmatches, stuff like that," Booker said on the latest "The Hall of Fame Podcast." He should have thought about that when he was in that wheelchair when they pushed him off the stage, when Kane rolled him off. That was the beginning of the deathmatch for Matt Cardona. I wish somebody would say something about that 'cause that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life."
It's been well-documented that Booker wasn't a big fan of The Hype Bros tag team, consisting of Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder, but he did like the earlier stuff that got Ryder over with the WWE universe initially. Booker also thinks his Internet Champion, goofy WWE character would fit perfectly in modern-day AEW. "I thought Zack Ryder had something when he had that YouTube channel. A lot of young people are still digging that stuff, and that's what – you know, he would have fit right into AEW. At right in the beginning of his 'Woo woo woo!' and coming in [with the] Long Island Iced Z thing, and I really think he would have fit right into AEW. You know, he would have started there."