Cardona gives his take on why he believes the match was short.
Following the Christmas holiday, WWE hosts their traditional day after Christmas house show at Madison Square Garden. At the event in 2010, Matt Cardona won a Battle Royal to earn a shot at Bryan Danielson’s United States Title.
Cardona and Bryan were preparing to have a normal length match but shortly before it began, Cardona was told to “get it done as quick as you can”. He recounted this story on episode 44 of ‘MC! True Long Island Story’. Cardona thinks that WWE didn’t want someone like him to have a high caliber match with Danielson. The following night on Raw, Danielson defeated Cardona in one minute.
I’ve never really gotten to work Daniel Bryan in like a long-form match, like one-on-one, something I always wanted to do. There was one time, it’s like — I wanna say it’s a year prior to this [Fatal 4-Way match in 2011 involving Cardona, Dolph Ziggler, Bryan Danielson & Cody Rhodes]. I thought we were gonna have a match and we were putting together a little banger in The Garden, MSG. The first match on the show was a Battle Royal. Whoever won the Battle Royal would go on later in the night to wrestle Daniel Bryan and it’s so funny, I was supposed to be eliminated like first or second in the Battle Royal but there was this horrible snowstorm so people kept not being able to make it so it’s like, ‘All right, this person’s gonna win. Oh no, he can’t make it. This person’s gonna win. Oh, he can’t make it.’ Eventually, ‘F*ck, Zack Ryder’s gonna win.’ So I end up winning because there’s a snowstorm and people couldn’t make it and I’m like, ‘All right, I’ll f*cking show this company.’ I was putting together a match with Daniel Bryan. I was a heel at the time, he was a babyface, and I remember like, it felt like minutes before we went out, Dean Malenko who was the producer was like, ‘Hey, get it done as quick as you can.’ I think it’s like ding, ding, ding, I jump him, I hit him with like a neck breaker, I go for another one, he hooks on that submission move.
I just don’t — I think they didn’t want someone like me having a banger with the champ. But, maybe I’m wrong.
It had to have been right before I started it [YouTube show]. [Bryan Danielson was the] U.S. Champ.
This upcoming Wednesday, Danielson is going to be challenging Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Championship. Their first one-on-one match went to a 60 minute time-limit draw.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit MC! True Long Island Story with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
