Zack Ryder
| Zack Ryder | |
|---|---|
Ryder in April 2014
|
|
| Birth name | Matthew Brett Cardona |
| Born |
May 14, 1985 Merrick, New York, United States |
| Residence |
Long Beach, New York, United States |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Brett Major Brett Majors Brett Matthews Zack Ryder |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Billed weight | 224 lb (102 kg) |
| Billed from | Long Island, New York |
| Trained by | Mikey Whipwreck |
| Debut | 2004 |
Matthew Brett Cardona (born May 14, 1985) is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE under the ring name Zack Ryder. He performs on the SmackDown brand but is currently on hiatus due to injury.
After joining WWE in 2007, he has since become a one-time Intercontinental Champion, a one-time United States Champion, and a one-time Tag Team Champion.
Cardona began working in the professional wrestling industry in 2004, mainly as a tag team with Brian Myers/Curt Hawkins on the independent circuit and then eventually in WWE, where they won WWE's tag team championship. After the team split in 2009, Cardona made appearances on ECW. After ECW ended in 2010, he was featured sparingly on WWE television. In 2011, he started publishing a YouTube web series called Z! True Long Island Story where he proclaimed himself WWE's "Internet Champion", though this championship was not sanctioned by WWE. This, and his use of social networking websites, helped him in establishing a fan following and a bigger television role with WWE as a result.
Cardona debuted with New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) in 2004, using the name Brett Matthews. By 2005, he began regularly teaming with Bryan Myers and the duo of Myers and Matthews went on to defeat the NYWC Tag Team Champions Dickie Rodz and Mason Raige by disqualification, for which titles do not change hands. On the next event on June 4, they won a rematch decisively to become the NYWC Tag Team Champions. Later that month they were attacked by The Dead Presidents (Lo Lincoln and Boog Washington) to set up a feud where they eventually lost their titles against them on August 27. On September 23, they were entered into a three-way match with then champions, but Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Ken Scampi) ended up with the championship. After continuing to win matches, they re-earned a match against Team Tremendous and won the titles for the second time on January 25, 2006. They held the championship until they faced the B.S. Xpress (Tony Burma and Mike Spinelli), who defeated them for the titles on March 26.
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