Matt Cardona Shows Off Prototype Of Unused WWE Replica Internet Championship

Matt Cardona won a lot of people over when he ran his YouTube channel as Zack Ryder in WWE.

Recently, the former WWE Superstar turned Indy God revealed that he finally got his hands on a prototype for a replica Internet Championship. Cardona dubbed himself the Internet Champion, and this prototype would have been a replica (toy) version of the real title he wore on WWE television.

“I finally got my hands on this prototype / unreleased @wwe replica Internet Championship. (The bottom one) Apparently WWE was going to make this in 2013, but decided not to. Damn…I would have made a lot of money. I also spent 3 times more on this replica than the real f’n title! @majorwfpod,” Matt Cardona tweeted.

Notable changes to the title include changing the social media logos on the sideplates, and the main plate looks slightly larger. There’s also a Figures Toy Company stamp on the back of the belt.

It’s unclear why WWE did not produce the replica titles.

Matt Cardona on his YouTube show

While speaking on Swerve Strickland’s podcast, the former WWE Superstar opened up about his YouTube show. Cardona mentioned that it was a passion project but then it turned into a regular job.

“The moral of this YouTube show was… I didn’t want to have a YouTube show. It wasn’t like, ‘I want to have a YouTube show.’ It was, ‘I want to get f***ing noticed’. When I first started the show, I knew there’s a good chance I can get fired. And my goal was to get noticed or get fired. I didn’t want to get fired. But I knew I wanted to create so much buzz that one or the other would happen. And I knew at the time, ‘All right. Well, if I get fired for this, I’ll just go to TNA or something like that.’ I knew had a buzz somewhere. So that was the goal, was to get noticed or get fired. 

“I got noticed. Won the U.S Title like I said, and then like I wanted to end it. I thought that was a perfect ending to a whole year. Starting from the bottom, now I’m at the top, let’s end the show. WWE had a different idea like, ‘Well this is successful, we’re gonna start our own YouTube channel, and your show’s going to be on it. And it wasn’t like, ‘You want your show on it?’ no, ‘Your show’s gonna be on it.’ So it went from something that I was doing, it was a passion project and it was fun to now it became a job,” Matt Cardona said.

Would you like to see the Internet Championship return?