Matt Cardona has discussed the backstage differences between WWE and AEW, revealing how the former felt “super relaxed” and how approachable Tony Khan was!
Cardona made several appearances for AEW last summer, first debuting on the July 29th edition of Dynamite by saving his long-time friend Cody Rhodes from an attack courtesy of John Silver and Alex Reynolds. He and Rhodes would defeat the duo on the following Dynamite before triumphing over The Dark Order alongside Dustin Rhodes, QT Marshall and Scorpio Sky at All Out.
During a recent AdFreeShows Q&A session, Inside The Ropes’ own Innes McVey spoke to the former Zack Ryder and asked if the backstage atmosphere of AEW differed from that of WWE. Cardona explained how relaxed everyone was in comparison, specifically bringing up Tony Khan’s approachability versus Vince McMahon’s!
“I was in AEW for a cup of coffee, but I could tell right away, different atmosphere. Totally different vibe, everyone was super cool, super relaxed. Tony Khan – super approachable. Not that Vince isn’t, but Vince, you know, sometimes you’re waiting outside Vince’s office all day and sometimes you might not get to talk to him. As opposed to Tony who you can go like ‘Hey Tony!’ or you text him.”
The now-IMPACT Wrestling star elaborated that whilst there were differences, some things remained the same – like how he had to form a relationship with Tony just like he did with Vince and his current boss Scott D’Amore!
“But I think it’s all relative, right? You need to have relationships and that’s on you to make that relationship, whether it be with Tony Khan or Scott D’Amore or Vince McMahon. You need to make that relationship. They’re not going to go out of their way to make a relationship with you, you need to do that. You need to be in their ear and get to the point where you could text them or call them and stuff like that. But is the atmosphere different? Yeah, 100 percent.”
The one-time Intercontinental Champion went on to detail how AEW’s relaxed atmosphere allowed for much greater creative freedom, something he struggled with at times in WWE!
“WWE, it’s this huge thing and I think almost too micromanaged where AEW is just like letting things happen. You don’t even know, like, who’s running the show which is a good thing. There’s creative freedom in your matches as opposed to sometimes in WWE where it’s like ‘Oh, you can’t go to the floor tonight.’
During the same Q&A session, Cardona also talked about the influence of Edge on his early career and recalled how he was once barred from using a baseball slide in WWE due to a Ronda Rousey match!
Thanks to AdFreeShows for facilitating our chat with Matt Cardona! You can join their Q&A sessions yourself by heading over to their Patreon and pledging at the ‘Top Guy’ tier!