Zack Ryder

Matthew Brett Cardona (born May 14, 1985) is an American professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and on the independent circuit under his real name, stylized as Matt Cardona.

Matthew Brett Cardona was born in Merrick, New York, on May 14, 1985.

While in high school, he overcame synovial sarcoma, which had started in his foot and spread to his lungs.

He was forced to miss a year of school.

Cardona was trained by Mikey Whipwreck.

Cardona debuted in professional wrestling in 2004, teaming with Brian Myers on the independent circuit.

He debuted with New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) in 2004, using the name Brett Matthews.

He began regularly teaming with Brian Myers and the duo of Myers and Matthews went on to defeat the NYWC Tag Team Champions Dickie Rodz and Mason Raige by disqualification, for which titles do not change hands.

On the next event on June 4, they won a rematch decisively to become the NYWC Tag Team Champions.

Later that month, they were attacked by The Dead Presidents (Lo Lincoln and Boog Washington) to set up a feud where they eventually lost their titles against them on August 27.

On September 23, they were entered into a three-way match with then champions, but Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Ken Scampi) ended up with the championship.

Cardona's first WWE appearance was on April 21, 2005, on SmackDown!, where he took on Matt Morgan in a losing effort.

He also worked for WWE between 2006 and 2020, where he performed under the ring name Zack Ryder.

After continuing to win matches, they re-earned a match against Team Tremendous and won the titles for the second time on January 25, 2006.

They held the championship until they faced the B.S. Xpress (Tony Burma and Mike Spinelli), who defeated them for the titles on March 26.

On February 24, 2006, Cardona signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

In Deep South Wrestling (DSW), he was renamed Brett Major while Myers was renamed Brian Major.

On October 12, they won the DSW Tag Team Championship from The Untouchables (Deuce Shade and Dice Domino) and held them until the end of November, losing them to Urban Assault (Eric Pérez and Sonny Siaki).

After the titles were vacated in the following year, they became two-time champions defeating the new team of Sonny Siaki and Afa Jr (The Samoan Swat Team) and The Blue Bloods (William Regal and Dave Taylor).

Both men were signed by WWE the following year, making their main roster debuts in 2007.

Later in 2007 they moved to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, reigning from June 15 to 29.

The team was moved to the main roster in May 2007.

They worked on WWE's ECW brand, winning only their first match until they were drafted to SmackDown! in June.

On November 9 they won a battle royal to receive a WWE Tag Team Championship match, but didn't win.

At Armageddon, the duo dressed up like Edge and interfered in the World Heavyweight Championship match, replacing Edge at several points along the match to help him win the title and thus turning heel for the first time in their WWE career.

On December 21, the Major Brothers were revealed as an acquaintance to Edge and his lover, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero.

The Major Brothers were repackaged and renamed, with Cardona and Myers being renamed Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins respectively.

Occasionally referred to as the Rated-R Entourage by commentators Michael Cole and John "Bradshaw" Layfield, the group allied with Guerrero's nephew, Chavo Guerrero and his enforcer Bam Neely as the group La Familia, which dominated SmackDown's storyline through 2008.

Ryder and Hawkins interfered in Edge's match at WrestleMania XXIV against The Undertaker, but Undertaker eventually won the match.

After the team split in 2009, he made appearances on WWE's ECW brand until 2010, following which he was featured sparingly on television.

In 2011, he launched a YouTube web series in which he proclaimed himself WWE's "Internet Champion"; this, along with his creative use of social media, helped him establish a substantial cult following.

Over the course of his time with WWE, Cardona held the Intercontinental, United States, and (Raw) Tag Team Championships (the latter with Hawkins on two occasions).

In March 2015, Devon Nicholson described an incident from 2006 that Bill DeMott was involved with while he was head trainer for the WWE's DSW developmental territory.

Nicholson described an incident where Drew Hankinson was completely naked in the ring for a long period of time and gave naked stink faces to Cardona and Melissa Coates while DeMott held jelly donuts over their faces.

The wrestlers agreed to do this (with the other talent encouraging them) to get out of regular training for that day.

DeMott refuted the notion that it was his idea, stating that the other trainees came up with because they wanted to skip the session.

After being released by WWE in April 2020, Cardona has made appearances in major wrestling promotions including All Elite Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance, as well as the American independent circuit, most notably in Game Changer Wrestling (GCW).

He has since won various championships including the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, Impact Digital Media Championship, and GCW World Championship.

During this time he received critical praise, being named Indie Wrestler of the Year in 2022 and in 2023 by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.