Matt Cardona: ROH Final Battle is ‘the opportunity I’ve been waiting for’

Matt Cardona is determined to prove himself at ROH Final Battle.

At tonight’s pay-per-view from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Cardona will challenge Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship. Ahead of the match, Cardona spoke to The Takedown and explained what this moment means to him. He sees it as arguably the biggest opportunity of his career so far and knows that he needs to deliver.

“This is arguably the biggest opportunity of my career.,” Cardona said. “These past five years, everybody has seen it, unless you’ve been living under a rock. I have been working my ass off to reinvent myself to prove that I’m ‘Alwayz Ready,’ to prove that I’m the ‘Indie God,’ to prove that I’m the ‘Death Match King,’ to prove that I am ‘The Complete.’

“Now it’s put up or shut up. Here it is, the opportunity I’ve been waiting for. Pay-per-view in New York City against Chris Jericho. One of the guys who inspired me to get into the business with a World title on the line. This is it. This is the opportunity. It’s in my backyard. I’m protecting my turf. Jericho says he’s the King of New York. Come on, that’s BS. Maybe he was born there. Maybe his dad played for the Rangers. But he is not the King of New York. If anybody’s the King of New York, it’s me.”

The only other time Jericho and Cardona have faced each other one-on-one was a quick match for WWE in 2016, when Cardona was still known as Zack Ryder. Jericho had high praise for Cardona in an interview with Busted Open Radio recently, comparing him to Bret Hart in the way that Cardona is a “meat and potatoes” wrestler where everything he does looks solid.

Dave Meltzer reported earlier this week that Cardona has been offered an AEW contract, but it’s not known if he has signed that deal. Cardona told The Takedown that his focus right now is solely on Final Battle.

“Listen, I cannot think about the future,” Cardona said. “I need to think one show at a time.

“I can’t be looking ahead. I need to focus day-by-day. That with independence, that’s what’s made me so successful is that I’m treating each opportunity like it’s the biggest deal. Because if I don’t treat it like it’s a big deal, then it’s not a big deal. So I go all in on every single thing that I do. I take one match at a time, one day at a time.”