Could Matt Cardona be All Elite soon?
According to the Wrestler Observer Radio, the former Intercontinental Champion was offered an AEW contract, though Dave Meltzer make's it clear that he doesn't know whether Cardona has signed it or not.
The 39-year-old has been off and on with the promotion since his release in 2020. Cardona is currently working a program with Chris Jericho down in Ring of Honor for the ROH World title. The two veterans are scheduled to fight this Friday at ROH’s Final Battle pay-per-view. Given AEW’s stacked roster, one could assume that Cardona might be working for ROH if he does sign the AEW contract, but that’s just pure speculation.
Cardona has worked hard to get to this point. The last time he signed an AEW contract, he had a rather meaningless run. Since he went his separate ways with the promotion in 2020, the former WWE star completely reinvented himself and turned into one of the most profitable names on the indie scene.
Cardona has won a world title in Game Changer Wrestling, House of Glory, National Wrestling Alliance, and World Series Wrestling since leaving AEW and WWE. Cardona has noted that he would like to finish off his career in WWE, though he did state a few weeks back that he was surprised that neither promotion has offered him a contract yet:
“That’s a great question. What is left to prove on the independents? I’ve done it all,” Matt Cardona said to Steven Muehlhausen on Walkway To Fight Club. “Besides just reinventing myself and becoming bigger than I was in WWE, I’ve done everything there is to do on the indies and then some. So what is next? I feel like I need to sign a contract somewhere, but at the same time, I don’t want to sign a contract just to sign a contract. I don’t want to be on a roster just to be a guy on a roster. Been there, done that.
“Listen, if WWE or AEW called and there was a good offer with some intent to use me a certain way, of course, I’d have that conversation. But I’m not gonna BS, I haven’t gotten an offer from either of those companies. So until then, I just gotta keep raising my stock and elevating myself, and trying to change the game on the independent level. I’ve said it many times, I’m not trying to pass the torch to anybody, I’m trying to light a new one for myself, and I feel like I have.”
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if Cardona ends up signing with AEW, though given his dream to finish off his career in WWE, it wouldn’t be surprising if he doesn’t.