Matt Cardona Reveals Which Rising AEW Stars Have Most Caught His Eye

Dave LeGreca and Bully Ray welcomed newly-signed AEW wrestler Matt Cardona onto the the Busted Open podcast, where Cardona talked about his ambitions and goals for his AEW run.

Wrestling Inc. has exclusively reported on Cardona's short-term AEW deal, revealing that Cardona is signed on for five appearances with AEW. Despite being on a short-term deal right now, Cardona discussed with LeGreca and Ray about whether or not he has a chip on his shoulder.

"Not really, because what's the point to live in the past and be bitter? Like, of course I recognize what has happened before," Cardona stated. "And obviously, you know, there's a little fuel there. But I don't like [saying], 'Poor me, I wish I could've did this. I should've did this,' like, you can't change the past anyway. So all I'm thinking about is Dynamite. Next week's Dynamite, over, and over. The future [is what I see], because looking back, it will get you nowhere."

Cardona made his AEW in-ring debut on Dynamite tagging with Cody Rhodes against Dark Order's John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Cardona also talked about the young AEW wrestlers that have caught his eye so far.

"I'll be honest. Like, there's so many people," Cardona said. "I would say everybody on the roster. I know it's a generic answer, but if you want me to pick out a couple of guys, like, Darby Allin. Of course you look at this guy and you just see a star, you know?

"You see there's something different about him, and then he has these matches, does all those orthodox thing. And somebody like Joey Janella – he's crazy with that hardcore stuff that he does. I would love to get in there and do stuff like that because I've never really done it before and, you know, I feel like in AEW I can show a different side of me."

Cardona spoke more about his enthusiasm to be in AEW. Cardona talked about wanting to prove his supporters right and not deal with haters. He admitted that he didn't check social media after his AEW debut as to not deal with any social media trolls.

"The proving people wrong, that's going to happen, right? Like, I just want to prove all of the supporters right," Cardona remarked. "And I know that sounds like, 'bluhhhh', it almost, like, makes me want to puke even saying it but it's true. I just want to prove to people who supported me that I can't waste time with the haters. You know last week, after Dynamite, I didn't want to check social media because, of course, there's going to be some trolls in there.

"I knew it was a great night. I don't need to read a bunch of people hating on it, you know what I'm saying? So, I'm more concern about the people who care about me, who want me to succeed, and I'm going to back it up and, you know, deliver just for them."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Busted Open with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.