Matt Cardona Says Becoming WWE Champion Is Still His Ultimate Goal

Matt Cardona has opened up about the behind-the-scenes story of how his WWE return came together — and it started with a conversation Chelsea Green had with Nick Khan at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. Speaking on Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Wanna Talk About podcast, Cardona walked through exactly how a casual mention from his wife snowballed into a full WWE comeback.

“Chelsea was doing media for Rumble in Saudi. And Nick Khan was there. And she said to Nick something like, ‘You see my husband wrestle at NXT?’ And Nick said, ‘I’ve always wanted to meet your husband, talk to your husband. Give him my number.’ So she gave me Nick Khan’s number. I’m texting immediately. And then Nick called me right there, said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I wanna come back.’ And the ball kinda got rolling from there,” Cardona said.

Matt Cardona Says Being WWE Champion Has Always Been His Number One Career Goal

Despite having won tag team, United States, and Intercontinental championships during his career, Cardona made clear that none of those achievements satisfy the one goal that has driven him since childhood. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wanna be the WWE Champ. That’s the title. Every day I list my goals in my head, and that number one goal is be WWE Champion. You can’t be the WWE Champion unless you’re in WWE. So I had to get back there.” His return came after he appeared in the TNA invasion of NXT and subsequently worked on SmackDown as Zack Ryder during the John Cena Last Time Is Now Tournament. Now back on a full-time basis and already in the WrestleMania 42 storyline mix with Randy Orton targeting him, Cardona’s ambitions appear to have genuine momentum behind them.