Zack Ryder

Matthew Brett Cardona (born May 14, 1985), better known by his ring name Zack Ryder, is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE.

Cardona wrestled mostly with his tag team partner Brian Myers/Curt Hawkins on the independent circuit and initially in WWE, where they won the WWE Tag Team Championship. After the team split in 2009, Cardona was featured sparingly on WWE television.

In 2011, Cardona began using various social networking websites in order to establish a niche fan following, helping him elevate his status in WWE while also capturing the United States Championship. Hoeski, his first music single, peaked at No. 92 on the iTunes Pop Music chart in February 2013.

Professional wrestling career

New York Wrestling Connection (2004–2006)

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. At the next event on June 4 they won a rematch decisively to become 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 in July. on August 27. On September 23 they were entered into a three way match with the champions but Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Ken Scampi) ended up with the belts. 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 titles until they faced the B.S. Xpress (Tony Burma & Mike Spinelli), who defeated them for the titles on March 26.