Matt Cardona vacates independent title after re-signing with WWE
Matt Cardona has vacated one of his independent titles after re-signing with WWE.
At an ACW event on Saturday, Cardona appeared via video and said that due to re-signing with WWE, he would no longer be able to defend the ACW World Championship and vacated the title. The promotion will instead crown a new champion on tonight’s show.
Appearing as a surprise on Friday’s SmackDown, Cardona defeated Kit Wilson after hitting the Rough Ryder. It was emphasized that Ryder was the newest member of the SmackDown roster and had re-signed with the company under his real name.
Since being released from WWE in 2020, Cardona reinvented himself as a fixture on the independent scene, making appearances in GCW, AEW, and TNA. He had made several appearances in NXT in the months leading to his return and wrestled LA Knight under his old Zack Ryder name as part of The Last Time is Now tournament.
Cardona still holds three independent wrestling titles, the most significant of which is the JCW Lunacy World Championship. The other two titles are the WSW World Heavyweight Championship and the QPW Middle East Championship.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.