Matt Cardona Confirms His Contract Status With AEW

Former WWE star Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder) made his surprise arrival in All Elite Wrestling on the July 29 episode of AEW Dynamite, saving Cody Rhodes from a surprise attack by The Dark Order. He competed alongside Rhodes in a tag match the following week, defeating Alex Reynolds and John Silver, but has not appeared on AEW programming since. In an interview with Wrestling Inc. this week, Cardona clarified his status with the company, saying that they're working on a long-term deal.

"You see online that I haven't signed a long-term thing, and that's true, but I'm not there to just get a new t-shirt on ShopAEW.com. I want to win championships," Cardona said. "I want to be on Dynamite every week. I want to be on the PPVs. So right now, we haven't come to a long-term agreement, but that's certainly my plan to be there long term."

"It's just something that we got on a week-by-week thing for now, and hopefully, soon, we have something more long-term. And that's really it," he continued "So right now, I don't think there's a rush. I don't plan on going anywhere right now. I'm living my life, especially now, day-by-day, week-by-week. So we'll see what happens, but I'm super excited for the future. I got two shirts on ShopAEW.com. What is with Cody, which is pretty ridiculous, when they sent me the shirt, I LOL'd. I thought it was a joke, and it was actually on the site. This is great. I need one."

Cardona initially teased challenging Rhodes for his TNT Championship, but Rhodes wound up losing it this past Saturday in violent fashion against The Dark Order's Brodie Lee. Lee had his faction beat up the rest of The Nightmare Family, then pulled Rhodes off a stretcher and bashed him with the broken pieces of the old TNT Championship.

Here's the full lineup for this week's AEW Dynamite, which is currently scheduled for Thursday:

• Brodie Lee's TNT Championship Celebration
• Cody Rhodes Status update
• Jon Moxley and MJF's Contract Signing
• Tables Match: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara
• Big Swole vs. Britt Baker, Reba and Penelope Ford
• Tag Team Gauntlet Match: The Natural Nightmares vs. The Young Bucks vs. The Best Friends vs. FTR

AEW's next pay-per-view, All Out, takes place on Sept. 5. Here's the card for that show as of now:

• AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. MJF
• AEW Women's World Championship: Hikaru Shida vs. Thunder Rosa
• AEW World Tag Team Championships: Kenny Omega and Hangman Page vs. TBD
• Mimosa Mayhem Match: Orange Cassidy vs. Chris Jericho