Matt Cardona doesn’t know why he didn’t get a contract offer from AEW, but he knows it never came down to money.
Cardona made a few appearances on AEW Television. His first run was in 2020, and he recently answered an open challenge by then-TNT Champion Adam Copeland in March 2024.
While speaking in an interview with Inside The Ropes, Matt Cardona shared that he too is puzzled over why he had not received an AEW contract.
“I’m not sure [why I didn’t receive a contract]. I thought I delivered on the shows. My merch was the number one shirt of the week. At the time I was devastated that I did not get offered a contract, I absolutely was. Because there was nowhere else to go and build my name. I’m sure I could have found an independent that was running with social distancing. But that’s not what I wanted to do. So I wanted to wait until the world opened back up.”
Cardona still feels that not signing with AEW was a blessing in disguise.
“When AEW didn’t work out for me at the time, I was absolutely devastated. Looking back, it was a blessing in disguise, but it wasn’t until the world opened up the following year that I was just dipping my toe in the independent scene, so to speak.”
Matt Cardona shuts down rumors about why he did not get signed by AEW
The Indy God also shared that there was a rumor about why he did not sign with AEW. It was rumored that his asking price was matching that of Sting, but Cardona said that was not true.
“Hey, that actually was a rumour. I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly, but that was actually a rumour about why I didn’t get hired in AEW. Apparently—first of all, this is not true—I’m not sure if this was said but this definitely didn’t come out of my goddamn mouth: I heard one of the reasons I wasn’t signed to AEW was because I was asking for “Sting money”. That’s the rumour I’ve heard, which is such a ridiculous thing that I have to laugh about it. We’ve never even talked about it,” Matt Cardona said.
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