Matt Cardona: 'Even before I got let go from WWE, I knew the woo woo woo goofy sh*t had to change'

Matt Cardona was interviewed on Matt Hardy's podcast. The interview is up now at AdFreeShows.com. Cardona talks about his reinvention, life outside of WWE, action figures, and other topics.

Cardona on his transformation from Zack Ryder to Matt Cardona:

"So even before I got let go from WWE, I knew the woo woo woo goofy sh*t had to change. I stopped wearing the headband, the glasses, got in great shape, and grew the beard. It's like, you could pitch stuff all day, but you don't write the show. I don't have the pencil. I can try my best to express who I want to be, but unless you're portrayed that way on television, it's just not going to work. Not that I had handcuffs on, but when I was released by WWE, the handcuffs were off and I could just be me and try anything and throw it against the wall. I wish I could say this is all calculated, but it wasn't. I was just fu**ing trying anything and taking any booking I could.”

“When that GCW deathmatch got presented to me, I said, 'No fu**ing way. I'm not wrestling this fu**ing guy, this fu**ing criminal, this guy who's on Dark Side of the Ring. There's no fu**ing way I'm doing this backyard sh*t. Then I took a step back and I said, 'Well, it will definitely create some buzz. People are gonna want to see Zack Ryder get carved up by Nick Gage.' I didn't anticipate how much buzz it would create and it changed everything for me. It changed my career, my life. That's what I needed. That was the step that I needed to change from what people thought of Zack Ryder to the new Matt Cardona." 

Check out the full interview on AdFreeShows.com.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.