8 WWE Dropouts Who Revived Their Careers - Jon Moxley! Toni Storm! Ricochet! Matt Cardona?!
WhatCulture Wrestling
WhatCulture Wrestling
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Leaving the biggest wrestling promotion in the world is NOT the end. Simon Miller presents 8 WWE Dropouts Who Revived Their Careers...
ENJOY!
Follow us on Twitter:
@SimonMiller316
@WhatCultureWWE
For more awesome content, check out: whatculture.com/wwe
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | So most wrestlers do indeed want to get to WWE. This makes sense because it is such an achievement, and I think that always gets forgotten about. Like, imagine you took that first training bump and then you got told in a few years you're going to be signed, you made it, man. There's a whole living point. It of course is what the bill will end all though, especially in the modern day, because the industry in terms of opportunities could be more plentiful than ever. That's pretty flippin' awesome. We need multiple promotions for the wrestlers to work at. It is integral to the business. There are loads of guys and girls who have gone into WWE that were not really clicked when they did leave, and you know what they did? They absolutely kicked ass. So I am Simon Miller, the bald a hole. Let's go through some of these |
| 0:38.0 | monsters right now. Number eight, Matt Cardona. Zach Ryder was not treated right in WWE. This man |
| 0:44.5 | got himself over thanks to YouTube and social media. And let's not forget we all owe him a debt. |
| 0:49.4 | He's sort of the forebearer of this nonsense we're doing right now. Dude open the door. Thank you, Matt. It was ridiculous to |
| 0:55.3 | watch how this equated to on-screen use, though, because it felt like the powers that be didn't |
| 0:59.4 | enjoy how Zach had done it by himself, so booked him in some insane stories, such as Kane throwing him |
| 1:05.5 | off the stage of Monday Night Raw. John Cena also stole his girlfriend. It was very weird to watch in real time. |
| 1:11.6 | Ryder started a damn good run there because he was employed for years and do not forget the |
| 1:15.5 | edgeheads in what cool way to debut. There's also the WrestleMania Intercontinental Title win, |
| 1:20.2 | which was just lovely. We can tick a lot of boxes. When he did get released in 2020, |
| 1:24.7 | he had been with WW for about 15 years too, which is amazing. |
| 1:28.6 | But look at what he did next. |
| 1:30.3 | He became Matt Cardona and reinvented himself into the king of the Indies. |
| 1:34.0 | Also did that insane death match in GCW, which he used to double down on the fact that he has |
| 1:38.9 | changed and genuinely, he feels like a brand new performer these days. |
| 1:42.6 | It's a template in what you should do after you're shown the exit. |
| 1:45.4 | As of me talking recently, he appeared on NXT and the crowd went nuts with a guy. |
| 1:49.7 | He's so damn over. |
| 1:51.0 | And he has done it without any major TV time consistently. |
| 1:54.2 | You couldn't help to find a better post story from WWE. |
| 1:57.2 | Matt Cardona has smashed it. |
| 1:58.6 | He's probably made a ton of money to boot. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WhatCulture Wrestling, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of WhatCulture Wrestling and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

