Matt Cardona on His GCW Deathmatch Feud With Nick Gage

– Matt Cardona was the guest on today’s edition of Wrestling With Freddie, and he discussed his deathmatch feud with Nick Gage in GCW. Freddie Prinze Jr. also hinted at actor Kieran Culkin possibly being involved with a future indie wrestling brand he’s working on. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Freddie Prinze Jr. on Kieran Culkin and possible involvement with a new indy wrestling brand: “You guys would be great friends. He may be one of the dudes – I’m not gonna say this and confirm it, but he may be one of the dudes in the indy wrestling brand out here, so you guys would have to hang no matter what, man.”

Matt Cardona on not knowing much about GCW before he started working with the company: “Listen, Freddie, I didn’t really know what GCW was either. I knew it was some sort of deathmatch-style wrestling, or that’s the perception out there. When you’re actually watching it, yes, there is deathmatch wrestling, but there is also great technical wrestling, a lot of high-flying wrestling. I compare it to ECW back in the day. A lot of people think ECW was blood and guts, and yes they had that, but they had the storytelling, they had incredible in-ring action bell to bell. People were tweeting about this guy, Nick Gage. I heard about him. There was the Dark of the Ring, I couldn’t even get through the episode, it was so disgusting. I’m like, I don’t want anything to do with this guy.”

On his feud with Nick Gage: “But the tweets kept happening and happening and happening. I said, well, sometimes in wrestling you gotta give the people what they want, right? And I knew this would create some buzz. I could have never imagined the buzz it did create. It has changed my career. It has changed my life. So I knew, OK, I will do this deathmatch. I will wrestle this Nick Gage guy, and listen, I knew there was going to be some blood. I wore all-white, I’m like, ‘yeah, it’ll be cool to have this white shirt on with some trickles of blood.’ I was pouring, pouring blood. It was red. It was like blood ooze coming from my shoulder, and the referee is like, ‘do you want to continue?’ And when this referee is asking me if – he’s seen it all, it got me scared, you know, because I was covered in so much blood, I didn’t know where the blood was coming from, you know what I’m saying?”

Matt Cardona on how the fans hated him in GCW: “There were light tubes and glass, and pizza cutters. But you talk about the fans? Oh my god. They hate me there. They hate everything I represent, and I love it. I love it because for so long I was the white meat babyface in WWE, and thing is, I’m continuing to be that because, in my mind, I am a white meat babyface. How can you not like me? I’m a diehard fan living the dream. How could you boo me, right? And then when I beat Nick Gage and won the title, bro, it was insane. People were throwing bottles, they were throwing cans, pizza cutters at me, which luckily I didn’t realize – this was Atlantic City, New Jersey. The security guards had to escort me out of the building.”