Behind the scenes details regarding Matt Cardona’s official return to WWE
As seen during the January 2nd 2026 edition of SmackDown, Matt Cardona made his official return to WWE under his real name. While speaking on The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, Cardona said the following about his return…
“So after the SmackDown thing with LA Knight [Last Time is Now tournament match], that’s kind of when the ball got rolling, right? Where there were discussions like, ‘Oh, we’ll be in touch, blah blah blah.’
We were at WrestleCade, and I was at dinner after we had the match. I left and went to take a phone call. That’s when I got the call, like, ‘Hey, you know, we’re interested. Let’s start talking.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, boy. All right, here we go.’
It was very stressful in a good way, right? Like, not bad stress, but still like, ‘is this going to happen? Is this not going to happen?’
And then finally I signed Christmas week. So it was very sudden. And then it’s like, ‘okay, am I Zack? Am I Matt?’ So I’m having both sets of gear made and designed, right?
And listen, I want to thank Downstait for the years with that song, right? It was time. They wanted something fresh, and I actually dig the new music.”