Chelsea Green opened up about the circumstances surrounding her husband Matt Cardona’s (formerly Zack Ryder) WWE return, revealing that the entire situation came together at the last possible moment. Speaking in an interview with Adrian Hernandez, Green explained that the unpredictable nature of WWE meant the couple had little notice before Cardona was asked to fly in.
“We didn’t really know what was happening until the very last moment,” Green said. “You know how WWE is—you know how professional wrestling is. It can be in talks for months, or it can be in talks for 24 hours. Either way, when they call you, you pick up the phone and you get on a plane. It was the same with Ethan Page coming to SmackDown. Ethan found out that day—the day of SmackDown—that he needed to fly in, and he literally had just enough time to grab his suit and go.”
Green noted that Cardona had only slightly more lead time than Page. “It was the same with Matt, although we got the flights the day before. We figured out last minute that he was coming.”
Despite the last-minute nature of the booking, Green stressed that Cardona has remained in regular contact with WWE ever since his 2020 release. She credited that persistence—and the involvement of a major WWE name—for making the timing finally line up.
“He’s been in contact with WWE constantly,” she continued. “For the whole five years, he’s stayed in touch—always making sure that Triple H knows what he’s doing and that he’s available for a Rumble and things like that. And I just think it was a perfect storm where this made the most sense, because he does have a personal friendship and relationship with John Cena. So why wouldn’t he want to be John Cena’s final opponent? It worked perfectly. Between me pestering WWE, John Cena pestering WWE, and Matt pestering WWE, they caved.”
