Matt Cardona

Cardona in September 2023

###

Merrick, New York, U.S.

**Matthew Brett Cardona** (born May 14, 1985) is an American professional wrestler currently working for the DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) and in the independent circuit. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name **Zack Ryder**.

Cardona debuted in professional wrestling in 2004, teaming with Brian Myers on the independent circuit. Both men were signed by WWE the following year, making their main roster debuts in 2007. In 2011, he launched a YouTube web series in which he proclaimed himself WWE's "Internet Champion"; this, along with his creative use of social media, helped him establish a substantial cult following.

After being released by WWE in April 2020, Cardona has made appearances in multiple major wrestling promotions such as All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Impact Wrestling (IMPACT), as well as in the independent circuit, most remarkably in Game Changer Wrestling (GCW). He has since won various championships including the DDT Universal Championship. During this time he received critical praise, being named Indie Wrestler of the Year in 2022 by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

## Early life

Matthew Brett Cardona was born in Merrick, New York, on May 14, 1985. While in high school, he overcame synovial sarcoma, which had started in his foot and spread to his lungs. He was forced to miss a year of school.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early Career (2004–2006)

Cardona was trained by Mikey Whipwreck. He debuted with New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) in 2004, using the name **Brett Matthews**. He began regularly teaming with Brian Myers and the duo of Myers and Matthews went on to defeat the NYWC Tag Team Champions Dickie Rodz and Mason Raige by disqualification, for which titles do not change hands. On the next event on June 4, they won a rematch decisively to become the NYWC Tag Team Champions. Later that month, they were attacked by The Dead Presidents (Lo Lincoln and Boog Washington) to set up a feud where they eventually lost their titles against them on August 27. On September 23, they were entered into a three-way match with then champions, but Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Ken Scampi) ended up with the championship. After continuing to win matches, they re-earned a match against Team Tremendous and won the titles for the second time on January 25, 2006. They held the championship until they faced the B.S. Xpress (Tony Burma and Mike Spinelli), who defeated them for the titles on March 26.

### DDT Pro-Wrestling (2023–Present)

Since the spring of 2023, DDT began teasing that a former WWE wrestler would be coming to DDT. On May 21, Tetsuya Endo called for DDT to reveal the big announcement that they were teasing regarding a former WWE wrestler challenging Endo. Afterwards, it was revealed, in a video package that Cardona would face Endo for the DDT Universal Championship at Wrestle Peter Pan. Endo was not impressed, as he expected a big name but the announcment exceeded his expectations in a bad way. At the event, Cardona defeated Endo to win the title. On September 24, at Who's Gonna Top? 2023, shortly after, MAO losing to Konosuke Takeshita, in a post-match interview, MAO confronted and challenged Cardona to a title match for the DDT Universal Championship, after he had successfully defended the title against Maki Itoh. Cardona accepted his challenge with a handshake, but then attacked MAO with a belt strike from behind. He lost the title to MAO on November 12 at Ultimate Party,

## Professional wrestling style and persona

Throughout his 15-year tenure with WWE, Cardona had several gimmicks as Zack Ryder, from his debut in 2007 as an Edgehead for Edge's La Familia to a social media influencer dubbed "Long Island Iced Z" that kickstarted the "Ryder Revolution" in 2011. During this period he would use a multitude of different signature and finishing moves such as a lifting inverted DDT, an inverted overdrive dubbed the *Zack Attack*, and currently a jumping leg lariat dubbed the *Radio Silence*.

After his departure from WWE in 2020, Cardona would reinvent himself as a super-fan of all things wrestling (mainly WWE) soon after appearing on the independent circuit. As such, he riles up fans through two major methods that fans would hate. The first is the celebration of things while thanking Vince McMahon for giving him the tools to become a superstar, even dressing up in McMahon's ECW World Heavyweight Champion outfit to one of his GCW World Championship defenses. The second is by putting his own spin on the things those same fans hold dear. Whilst some would see a wrestler wearing gear referencing some of the industry's greats as a loving tribute, Cardona's versions are twisted bastardizations that mix the hardcore fanbase's influence with a WWE-based influence.

In 2022, Cardona had taken on a "belt collector" gimmick, traveling around to various independent promotions, winning their top championships, and holding them alongside his Impact Digital Media, NWA World's Heavyweight, and self-promoted Internet Championships, holding as many as seven titles representing five different promotions at one point in April 2022.

Cardona is known for being one of the first wrestlers to become popular thanks to his online presence. British wrestler Drake Maverick claimed that, without him "your Twitter, Instagram, YouTube promo wouldn't exist."

In March 2023, Cardona began being accompained by Steph De Lander. Cardona and De Lander revealed that she met Cardona in a tour in Australia in March 2023. Cardona, a fan of the Macho Man Randy Savage, felt that he needed someone to accompain him due to his wife Chelsea Green leaving to resign with WWE, with De Lander being Cardona's ideal partner due to her blonde bangs, piercings and height. Cardona asked De Lander if she could be her partner, with De Lander accepting. Initally promoters were hesitant booking Cardona with her, with Cardona covering her expenses for a wrestling event. However, since their debut as duo, they made a huge success, with De Lander often being booked to every event Cardona was. De Lander stated that they met on a casual incident.

De Lander also revealed that they had a lot of the same ideas and goals. However, she was not able to afford the more extravagant items such event-specific gear or professionally shot promos every week; although once they were able to pool their resources, she began to afford it. De Lander also credits Cardona's determination and experience as the driving force behind their success. The pairing is often compared to highly remarkable pair of Triple H and Chyna.

## Other media

Cardona as **Zack Ryder** started a YouTube web series called *Z! True Long Island Story* in February 2011. The web series was a collection of short comments from Cardona, containing comedic allusions to wrestling and pop culture; it also featured cameos from his friends, family, as well as fellow WWE colleagues. The show's theme song "Just Take Care, Spike Your Hair (The Broski of the Week Song)" was written specifically about Cardona by The Luke & Duane Show. In April 2011, Cardona proclaimed himself WWE "Internet Champion" complete with a children's replica belt covered in stickers, as it was unsanctioned by WWE. In July 2011, Cardona defended his Internet Championship at a house show in Australia, against Primo. On an episode of *Z! True Long Island Story*, Nick Nemeth challenged Cardona to an Internet title match at WrestleMania 29 which Cardona accepted. Cardona soon replaced the toy belt with a $1,500 custom-made belt. The title belt's center plate features an engraved illustration of Cardona's head and spiked hair while the side plates display his logo and those of YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook but these social media logos were not featured in WWE video games due to copyright issues.

On episode 50 of *Z! True Long Island Story*, Cardona announced the show would be part of WWE's official YouTube channel. *Z! True Long Island Story* ended on January 11, 2013, which was the show's 100th episode. The show was "ended" by Nick Nemeth, who attacked Cardona with his Money in the Bank briefcase, setting up a dream sequence featuring cameos from people who had previously appeared on the show while Cardona climbed a staircase to "heaven". When Cardona woke up, he thought that the Cardona Revolution was all a dream until being told by his family and friends that it all happened. Overall, the series ran 50 episodes on Zack Ryder's YouTube channel and 50 episodes on WWE's official YouTube channel. Cardona later said that he regretted allowing WWE to move his show to their YouTube channel and that WWE had removed content from his videos. On March 10, 2014, Cardona uploaded the first episode of his new series, *Zack Ryder's Last ReZort*, to his own YouTube channel. In this video, Cardona (without his traditional glasses and headband) expressed his frustration regarding his dramatic plunge to the bottom of the roster, proclaiming his desire to have "lightning strike twice" and work his way back up the cards.In October 2014, Cardona and Nick Nemeth "took over" an episode of WWE's YouTube series, *The JBL (Not Cole) Show* for its 99th episode, making it in turn the 101st episode of Cardona's show, *Z! True Long Island Story*.

In July 2011, Cardona was featured in *Sports Illustrated'*s list of the 100 most influential Twitter users in sports. On January 16, 2013, Cardona released a music video entitled "Hoeski". The song amassed over 100,000 views in four days and was also posted on WWE's official YouTube channel. "Hoeski" peaked at No. 92 on the iTunes Pop Music chart on February 5, 2013.

Cardona has also appeared on Travel Channel's *Toy Hunter* documentary.

On March 18, 2017, it was announced that Cardona would be launching a new YouTube series called *Z! True Comeback Story*, chronicling his return to the ring after suffering a knee injury in December. In 2018, Cardona started a podcast with Curt Hawkins about wrestling figures called The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast. Ever since their WWE release, they began hosting the podcast under their current in-ring names Matt Cardona and Brian Myers respectively.

On August 20, 2022, it was revealed on Sirius XM's Busted Open Radio that Matt Cardona had joined the cast of The Last Match: A Pro-Wrestling Rock Musical as the fictional wrestling heel, Alexander Swagger opposite *Ramin Karimloo* and Amber Ardolino. On September 26, 2022, Cardona joined the cast for two live performances of The Last Match in Jersey City, NJ at *White Eagle Hall*.

On May 22, 2023, Cardona posted a new episode of *Z! True Long Island Story* as Zack Ryder. Steph De Lander would appear in the episode using her WWE name Persia Pirotta and stole the Internet Championship from him. Cardona would chase her into a limousine trying to get it back from her but was unable to do so as it would explode, in storyline killing both of them. This indicates he had gained the rights to Zack Ryder and had used this to permanently write the character off.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Diving elbow drop
	+ *Radio Silence* (Jumping leg lariat)
* **Signature moves**
	+ 450° splash
	+ *Broski Boot* (Running facewash, with theatrics)
	+ Corner elbow smash
	+ Double high knee from out of the corner, as a counter to an oncoming opponent
	+ Dropkick, sometimes from the top rope
	+ Facebuster
	+ Flapjack
	+ Flying forearm smash
	+ Inverted atomic drop
	+ Leaping clothesline
	+ Leg drop, with theatrics
	+ Multiple neckbreaker variations
		- Hangman's
		- Standing
		- Swinging
		- Neck snap
	+ Plancha, sometimes while performing a somersault
	+ Slingshot crossbody
	+ Spinning headlock elbow drop
* **Managers**
	+ Steph De Lander
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Alwayz Ready"**
	+ **"The Deathmatch King"**
	+ **"The Indy God**"
	+ **"The Internet Sensation"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ **"When the Lights Go Down"** by Downstait (Independent Circuit/DDT; July 17, 2020 – present)

## Personal life

Cardona resides in Orlando, Florida. He began dating Canadian professional wrestler Chelsea Green in January 2017, and they were engaged on April 4, 2019. They were married on December 31, 2021, in Las Vegas.

Cardona is an avid fan of *Ghostbusters*. He has periodically donned *Ghostbusters* themed ring gear during matches, and discussed his love of the franchise in the 2016 documentary *Ghostheads*.

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Dramatic Dream Team**
	+ DDT Universal Championship (1 time, current)

* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ Ranked No. 13 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the *PWI 500* in 2022
	+ Indie Wrestler of the Year (2022)
* **Other titles**
	+ Internet Championship (2 times, current)