Matt Cardona reveals how he can make toy deals with WWE legends

Matt Cardona WWE

Matt Cardona made his official return to WWE on the January 2, 2026 episode of SmackDown. But the Indy God hasn’t left behind a lot of the business deals that he put together whilst working independent scene, especially when it comes to his massive toy collection business MAJOR.

Speaking on the latest Have More Money Now w/ John Layfield podcast, Cardona revealed how he is able to put these deals together with legends, even those who used to be in WWE:

“So, so pretty much we can touch anybody who does not have like a WWE nostalgia deal, right, and believe it or not, there’s a lot of guys out there who don’t, for one reason or another” Cardona revealed.

“So, you know, we’d approach them, or unfortunately they were deceased, so we’d approach the family and we just lay out the deal. [It’s all] very simple. It’s pretty much a handshake deal, but in writing, right? We want you [wrestlers and families] to make as much money elsewhere as possible. So there’s non-exclusivity, so if there’s another toy company out there, because now there’s a bunch of these independent toy companies, go sign with all of them!”

Matt Cardona toy company makes millions

Cardona also noted that some of the biggest names in wrestling history aren’t under a WWE deal, so he is able to have his company make them in collectible form: “guys like Flair or Macho Man or Andre The Giant, or independent stars, or guys from ECW like Sabu, pretty much anyone like I said, who doesn’t have a legends deal we can make.”

Cardona would also reveal how he is making millions of dollars from these toy deals: “We’re making millions of dollars a year from these toys, which is just wild. Something that started as a passion project, if I wanted it to be, it could be my only job.”

If you use any of the quotes from this article then please link back to this page with a credit to F4WOnline for the transcription

Jake Skudder
Jake Skudder

Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.

Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.

He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.