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Matt Cardona says his match at ROH Final Battle is the opportunity he has been waiting for.
Cardona has widely been praised for his run on the independent scene since his WWE release in 2020. He has had runs in TNA and NWA, but before his recent return to AEW, he had yet to land a sustained opportunity with AEW or WWE, aside from his one-off match against Adam Copeland earlier this year. Cardona has appeared on both AEW and ROH programming leading into his match against Chris Jericho at ROH Final Battle.
In an interview with Steven Muelhausen for The Takedown on SI, Matt Cardona shared his thoughts on facing Jericho.
“This is arguably the biggest opportunity of my career,” Cardona said. “These past five years, everybody has seen it, unless you’ve been living under a rock. I have been working my a— off to reinvent myself to prove that I’m “Alwayz Ready”, to prove that I’m the “Indy God”, to prove that I’m the “Death Match King”, to prove that I am “The Complete.”
“Now it’s put up or shut up. Here it is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for. Pay-Per-View in New York City against Chris Jericho. One of the guys who inspired me to get into the business with a world title on the line. This is it. This is the opportunity. It’s in my backyard. I’m protecting my turf. Jericho says he’s the King of New York. Come on, that’s BS. Maybe he was born there. Maybe his dad played for the Rangers. But he is not the King of New York. If anybody’s the King of New York, it’s me.”
Matt Cardona Wants To Prove Fans Right
Cardona also made it clear that he wanted to win the title, but he also aimed to prove his fans right.
“I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to walk out of New York City with the Ring of Honor World Title,” Cardona said. “Of course, I do. I want to bring it home for Christmas. I want to take pictures of the family with the Ring of Honor World Title. It’s not to prove people wrong. I want to prove myself right. I want to prove to all my fans right. Whether they’ve been following me from The Major Brothers or Z True Island Story, or maybe they started joining the fan club so to speak during this independent run. I want to prove those people right. The doubters, the haters, I don’t give a damn about proving them wrong.”
RELATED: Chris Jericho Says Matt Cardona Reminds Him Of A Certain WWE Hall Of Famer
