AEW's Chris Jericho Says He Was 'Excited' To Wrestle This Former WWE Star

After capturing the Ring of Honor World Championship for the second time, Chris Jericho successfully defended it against NJPW's Tomohiro Ishii. At ROH Final Battle, "The Nueve" then took on a former colleague in the form of Matt Cardona. As Jericho points out, though, the two had barely locked up before that.

"I was really excited when the idea came up to work with Matt because I've never worked with him before. Maybe a two-minute nothing match [in WWE], but once again, that was Zack Ryder," Jericho told "Gabby AF." "That's a different guy almost at this point in time, but not almost completely. We've never wrestled before and I like the idea of having it be somebody different, someone kind of outside the wire so to speak. When we created the idea and then he answered the challenge, then the King of New York thing comes up, it just all really kind of fit together."

The first singles match between Jericho and Cardona (then known as Zack Ryder) took place on a March 2016 episode of "WWE Raw," in which a distraction from AJ Styles allowed Cardona to roll Jericho up for the win in less than two minutes. Jericho and Cardona have since left WWE, in 2018 and 2020 respectively, with the former subsequently becoming a prominent figure in AEW and ROH.

Meanwhile, Cardona reinvented himself as a major player across multiple promotions, such as TNA Wrestling, GCW, NWA, and MLW. Coming out of Final Battle, in which Jericho emerged victorious, Cardona reportedly remains unsigned to both AEW and ROH. Nevertheless, he appears "always ready," much like his catchphrase, for any opportunity that may arise in the future.

 If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Gabby AF" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.