Matt Cardona Details Talk With Nick Khan That Led To WWE Return
Matt Cardona has recalled how his return to WWE came together.
Following Matt Cardona’s return on the January 2 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, it was confirmed the former Intercontinental Champion was officially back with WWE. Having been away since 2020, the star made appearances for NXT as part of the crossover with TNA in 2025, as well as bringing back the Zack Ryder persona as part of the Last Time is Now Tournament, with his appearances eventually leading him back to rejoining the promotion full time. Now, Cardona has revealed more on how he came back to WWE.
Appearing on Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Want To Talk About?, Cardona discussed Nick Khan asked Chelsea Green for his phone number, noting he told the WWE President he wanted to come back.
“So I’m working for TNA but not technically like under contract. And TNA does the invasion of NXT, and they asked to have me. And I know I’m not under contract, but I’m like, I’m going to sneak in. Sure, I’ll do it,” Cardona said. I do that, leads to a match. And Chelsea was doing, I guess, media for [Royal] Rumble in Saudi. And Nick Khan was there. She said to Nick something like, ‘Did you see my husband wrestle on NXT?’ Nick said something like, ‘I’ve always wanted to meet your husband, talk to your husband, give him my number.’ She gave me Nick Khan’s number, you know I’m texting immediately. And then Nick called me right there, said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I want to come back.’ And the ball kind of got rolling from there.”
-Matt Cardona
Touching on his goals in the company, Cardona confirmed he wants to become WWE Champion.
“I mean, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be the WWE champ. That’s the title. I think you and I are alike. We didn’t just want to be wrestlers, we didn’t just want to be WWE Superstars — we wanted to be the WWE Champion. So, why not swing for it? That’s the goal ever since I was a little kid.”
-Matt Cardona
In his time away, Cardona was dubbed ‘The Indy God’ and was named the Independent Wrestler of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in both 2022 and 2023. He was most notable for his time in GCW, though he covered a wide range of promotions while trying to earn his way back to WWE.
Now he’s back, the star has settled into life as part of the SmackDown roster. He challenged Carmelo Hayes for the United States Championship on February 27, although he’s recently found himself in the crosshairs of Randy Orton following the former WWE Champion’s shocking heel turn on Cody Rhodes a few weeks ago.
You can find more WWE news on the road to WrestleMania 42 here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Matt Cardona’s WWE return as soon as we hear more.
H/T to F4WOnline for the transcription.
