Matt Cardona has opened up about how an unexpected conversation involving his wife Chelsea Green ultimately helped pave the way for his WWE return, with WWE President Nick Khan playing a key role in getting the process started.
Speaking on Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Wanna Talk About podcast, Cardona explained that his surprise appearance on NXT during the TNA invasion storyline in October 2025 came together while he was not officially signed to TNA, making the opportunity even more unexpected.
“I’m working for TNA but not technically under contract,” Cardona said. “TNA does the invasion of NXT, and they asked to have me. I know I’m not under contract but I’m like, I’m going to sneak in. Sure, I’ll do it.”
That appearance ended up catching attention behind the scenes, setting off a chain reaction that would eventually lead him back to WWE. Not long after, Chelsea Green found herself speaking with Nick Khan while in Saudi Arabia for Royal Rumble media duties, where she brought up her husband’s NXT showing.
“Chelsea said to Nick something like, did you see my husband wrestle on NXT?” Cardona said. “Nick said something like, I’ve always wanted to meet your husband, talk to your husband, give him my number. She gave me Nick Khan’s number. You know I’m texting immediately. And then Nick called me right there and said, what do you want? I said, I want to come back. And the ball kind of got rolling from there.”
While Cardona admitted there were hurdles along the way before everything was finalized, he pointed to that phone call as the moment things truly shifted in his favor.
Now part of the SmackDown roster once again, Cardona made it clear his long term goal has never changed, aiming for the very top of WWE.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be the WWE champ,” Cardona told Rhodes. “That’s the title. I think you and I are alike. We didn’t just want to be wrestlers, we didn’t just want to be WWE Superstars, we wanted to be the WWE Champion. So why not swing for it? That’s the goal ever since I was a little kid.”
After being released by WWE in 2020, Cardona spent several years rebuilding his name across the independent wrestling scene, gaining major attention in promotions such as GCW before making his return to WWE at the beginning of 2026.
