Gage vs Cardona: The Feud Of The Summer
Credit: Game Changer Wrestling
WRESTLERS have banter on Twitter, sometimes it’s a shoot, sometimes it’s just for the laughs. But, in some special scenarios a rivalry can go from the computer screen (or smart phone screen, this is 2021 after all) to the ring.
And the social media rivalry between Matt Cardona and Nick Gage has made their upcoming match at GCW: Homecoming one of the most anticipated matches of the year.
Speaking on Sean Waltman’s Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast last month, Cardona said he doesn’t remember how the feud actually came about.
He said: “It all happened suddenly. I don’t know if he tweeted me or a fan asked me to wrestle him and I wrote some smartass comment back, but all of a sudden he started going off. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious, but he seemed serious”
The Tweets in question came on May 4th, 2021, see below.
Tweets from Nick Gage that ignited the feud with Matt Cardona.
Credit: Twitter: @thekingnickgage
Gage asked who Cardona was, before remembered he is the man fka Zack Ryder. He would go on to tell his followers that Cardona ‘collects dolls’ and told him to ‘keep your head up’ after being left go from WWE.
Cardona went on to say that GCW then started promoting him for events that he wasn’t scheduled to perform at, with the consequence being that Gage would come to the ring and mock him for not appearing.
The taunts went back and forth leading up to the crazy night of June 6 at GCW’s Zombie Walk. Gage had just defeated Jimmy Lloyd in a Death Match to defend his title.
Suddenly a masked figure hit the ring, copying the mannerisms of AEW star, and NJPW IWGP United States Champion, Jon Moxley. The place erupted!
The figure attacked Gage, hitting him with Mox’s signature move the Paradigm Shift, before revealing himself to be none other than Matt Cardona. The crowd was stunned.
The first blow had been dealt and just days later, on June 11, GCW made the match for Homecoming official.
A day after that and Gage would get his revenge.
Cardona and fellow Impact star Brian Myers were recording a live version of their Major Wrestling Figure Podcast when Gage appeared from the audience and had an intense face off with the former WWE Intercontinental Champion.
The bout will be the first Death Match Cardona has ever competed in, and ahead of the fight Gage had a warning for his opponent.
Speaking to Busted Open Radio, he said: “Listen, I’m gonna carve Matt Cardona up. Listen, he needs to understand what he’s getting himself into. I’m gonna break a light tube over my fucking head, and then I’m going to take that sharp piece off that light tube, and I’m going to stab him with it. And then I’m going to keep it in his skin, and I’m just going to go right down his fucking body, and then he’s going to feel that burn.
“This guy has no clue what he’s getting himself into, man; this isn’t going to be a 10 minute. We’re not going to have some fucking agent next to us, saying, ‘well do it this way or that way.’ We don’t do no agents in our locker room, none of that bullshit man. It’s man versus man. And I feel like I’m gonna fucking tear his ass up.”
GCW Homecoming takes place on the weekend of July 24 and 25 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
