Matt Cardona has spoken highly of Edge, claiming the 2021 Royal Rumble winner was one of three men who made him believe he could be a success in the world of wrestling!
During a recent AdFreeShows Q&A session, Inside The Ropes’ own Innes McVey asked the former Zack Ryder how big an influence the ‘Rated-R Superstar’ was on his early career and if he learnt any specific lessons from him.
Cardona revealed that Edge’s influence stretches back to well before the two worked together, recalling how the WWE Hall of Famer – alongside Christian and Chris Jericho – made him believe that smaller wrestlers like him could make it in the wrestling industry!
“He was one of the first guys that made me believe that I could actually make it in the business because growing up, it’s guys like the Ultimate Warrior and Hogan and everyone’s so jacked up – it’s the ICOPRO days, right? But it wasn’t until guys like Edge and Christian and Jericho who were the ‘smaller guys’. But now they’re not smaller guys. They’re like regular humans and Edge is a tall son of a b***h. But it wasn’t until those guys started breaking through that I was like ‘Wow, if these guys can make it then I can give this a shot.’ So I owe Edge that.”
The former Intercontinental Champion went on to reminisce about his time teaming with Edge as part of La Familia in 2007/08 and praised the 47-year-old for taking himself and Brian Myers under his wing when they had just come out of developmental.
“It was our idea to be the Edgeheads but he didn’t need us. He could have said ‘No f***ing way.’ But he decided ‘I’m going to bring these guys in.’ He gave us a chance. And like everything that we learned from Edge, it’s invaluable. We were sitting front row every night while he’s main eventing against The Undertaker and Batista. And we’re sitting there ringside watching it. So like he was teaching us without even knowing it.”
Competing in two matches for AEW last summer, the now-IMPACT Wrestling star also discussed how the backstage atmosphere of AEW differs from that of WWE as well as 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.”
During the same Q&A session, Cardona also told the story of how he was once barred from using a baseball slide on an episode of Main Event due to a Ronda Rousey match later that same night!
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!