Matt Cardona Discusses WrestleMania Weekend Confrontation With Greg Valentine

Impact Wrestling and independent star Matt Cardona, formerly Zack Ryder in WWE, is as well-known these days for his toy collecting as he is his work inside the ring, particularly in light of the success of his "Major Wrestling Figure Podcast." Arguably the crown jewel of his collection is a prototype of an unreleased Greg Valentine figure that was supposed to be part of Hasbro's second wave of WWF toys in 1991. Perhaps more than any other unreleased figure, this one fascinated collectors for decades because its release was canceled so late in the process that it was promoted in advertisements and on the packaging of other figures.

In light of this, Cardona has explained in the past that he paid thousands of dollars for the figure because of its status as a collectible, not because he's a fan of Valentine, who heard about the comment and misinterpreted it, leading to a confrontation two weeks ago at WrestleCon. "He came up to me, he's waving his f**king fist at me with his [WWE] Hall of Fame ring," Cardona recalled on "Busted Open Radio." "Like 'I HEARD YOU'RE NOT A FAN OF ME!' ... So I couldn't backpedal because I said it on multiple occasions that I'm not a fan of his."

"Not that I dislike Greg Valentine, I just didn't grow up wanting to be the third member of Rhythm and Blues [with Valentine and the Honky Tonk Man], you know what I'm saying? We smoothed it over, we took a picture, but ... yeah." Cardona latter added that "at one point, I thought for sure he was gonna swing at me, and even Brian Myers came over like 'What's going on here?' and kind of backpedaled when he saw how serious it was." Cardona also added that Valentine wouldn't be his mystery opponent tonight at Outlaw Wrestling in New York City.