Matt Cardona is proud of the professional value attributed to his name. Upon his return to WWE at the start of 2026, a significant portion of the fanbase expressed excitement that Matt Cardona would continue using his established independent wrestling name instead of reverting to Zack Ryder.

In a recent interview with, Cardona articulated his pride in the way he built his personal brand within independent wrestling promotions. He stated, “They wanted Matt Cardona. I’m proud of that. That they thought the Matt Cardona I built on the independents was more valuable than Zack Ryder. And I’m grateful for Zack Ryder, because without him and my previous time in WWE, there’s no Mat Cardona. Everything I learned, and not just putting matches together, but how to do interviews like this, how to market myself, how to sell merchandise, I learned it in WWE.”

Cardona also mentioned in a separate interview his desire to see action figures produced for some of WWE's producers.