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Matt Cardona Makes John Cena Post After Getting Called Out During Smackdown

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dean Koutouratsas | Last updated Jun 21, 2025 6:34 PM ET

WWE Undisputed Champion John Cena and TNA Wrestling superstar Matt Cardona broke the professional wrestling fourth wall over the past two days.

It all started during Friday’s episode of WWE’s weekly show, “SmackDown,” where Cena faced off against Ron Killings in the main event. Ultimately, Cena lost the match by disqualification because he hit Killings in the head with his championship belt.

Then, CM Punk, a longtime rival of Cena’s, came out to engage in a brawl with him that ended with Cena slamming Punk through a table. As Punk laid through the broken table in pain, Cena created his own version of Punk’s infamous “Pipebomb” segment from 2011, where he let his feelings be known about his longtime rival.

John Cena says hello to Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth, and Matt Cardona.#SmackDown

pic.twitter.com/QCFgxbdXiH
— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) June 21, 2025

As Cena’s segment continued, he decided to give a shoutout to three former WWE superstars: Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro), Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler) and Cardona (Zack Ryder). This caused the crowd to burst into cheers, and Cardona issued a response to the moment on X.

“Hey @JohnCena,” Cardona posted on Friday along with an old photo of himself and Cena on Saturday from his time in the WWE.

However, the callout is not a surprise because the WWE started a multi-year partnership with TNA Wrestling in January, allowing both promotions to have their wrestlers to compete in each other's companies.

pic.twitter.com/ytkCT1DhPA
— Matt Cardona (@TheMattCardona) June 21, 2025

So far, the partnership has been primarily focused on WWE’s developmental show NXT, where TNA superstars such as Joe Hendry and TNA Knockout World Champion Masha Slamovich have competed in several matches.

Meanwhile, Punk is expected to challenge Cena for the WWE Undisputed Championship at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on June 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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