Matt Cardona’s WWE comeback didn’t just hit a speed bump—it slammed into a brick wall. The former Intercontinental Champion revealed that his right triceps tore completely off the bone, forcing him into surgery just as his return was finally gaining traction.
Cardona posted a video to Instagram on August 28, 2026, and confirmed that he underwent surgery on Tuesday, August 25. He also broke down exactly how the injury unfolded, beginning with his brutal WWE SmackDown match against GUNTHER two weeks earlier.
Cardona competed in street clothes without elbow pads during the impromptu fight. After taking multiple powerbombs onto the announce table, ring apron and inside the ring, he began experiencing pain in his elbow.
“I got powerbombed on the announce table, got powerbombed on the apron twice and in the ring. My elbow was bothering me, but I didn’t really think anything of it.”
The real damage became obvious one week later during Cardona’s match against Kit Wilson at the August 21 WWE Main Event taping. Cardona landed on his elbow while delivering a second-rope dropkick and immediately felt something pop.
“I felt a pop, and I thought, ‘There’s no way I hurt my elbow on a dropkick, right?’”
Cardona tried to keep going, but he knew something was seriously wrong when his right arm suddenly had no strength during a baseball-slide dropkick.
“I had no strength in my right arm. I said, ‘Okay, this triceps is torn.’ I could just tell.”
Instead of stopping the match, Cardona rolled Wilson back into the ring, finished the bout and picked up the victory. An MRI the following day confirmed the ugly truth.
“Sure enough, yes—torn right off the bone, right off the elbow.”
Cardona doesn’t know whether the punishment from GUNTHER weakened the arm before it finally gave out against Wilson. He admitted he may simply be trying to connect the dots in his head, but said the answer no longer changes his situation. The timing is especially brutal for Cardona. After spending seven months searching for his place in WWE, his match against GUNTHER appeared to give him the opportunity he had been waiting for.
“It just sucks getting hurt now when I’m still figuring out who Matt Cardona is in WWE.”
At 41 years old, Cardona knows losing several months carries more weight than it did earlier in his career. He made it clear that he has no interest in sitting home, collecting a paycheck or treating his recovery like a vacation.
“Five months, six months, three months off at this point in my career—that’s a long fucking time. I don’t want to sit home. I don’t want to sit and collect a check. I don’t want to have a vacation. I want to be in the ring.”
Cardona also revealed that returning to WWE was never his final goal. He came back intending to climb all the way to the top and become WWE Champion.
“I came back to win the WWE Championship. I might sound crazy to you, maybe I’m delusional, but that’s just how I’m wired.”
The torn triceps may have derailed Cardona’s momentum, but it hasn’t killed his confidence. After surviving countless setbacks throughout his career, he promised that this one won’t finish him either. Cardona ended the update with one hell of a promise: he plans to beat the surgeon’s recovery estimate and resume his chase for WWE’s biggest prize.
“I will not die. I am a cockroach—whatever you want to say. I love this stuff too damn much to let this injury stop me.”
“I’ll be back faster than the surgeon said and coming back to be the WWE Champion—or I’m going to die trying.”
Matt Cardona fought for years to earn another opportunity in WWE, and now his body has forced him back to the sidelines at the worst possible moment. Surgery is finished, the recovery has started and Cardona is already treating his return like another fight he refuses to lose.
Do you think Matt Cardona can return from this injury and work his way into the WWE Championship picture? Leave your feedback and let us know in the comments.
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