Matt Cardona made a surprise appearance on ROH TV last night and came out to challenge Chris Jericho for the ROH World title at the upcoming Final Battle event on December 20.

Jericho came out for his TV Time segment with Bryan Keith and informed the crowd that for Final Battle, he wants to take on someone who is from New York since the show will be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

The champ jokingly name dropped Frank Sinatra and Tony Soprano but instead he got Matt Cardona. Jericho was going to call him Zack Ryder, but Cardona cut him off and told him that “Zack is dead” and the one who’s going to take the title away from him at Final Battle is Matt Cardona.

Cardona is a regular for GCW and recently AEW pulled Ricky Starks from future GCW shows and also booked the Hammerstein for three straight nights, a location frequently used by GCW.

“I’m excited for Matt and excited for the fans,” GCW owner Brett Lauderdale said. “It will be a fun atmosphere at The Hammerstein Ballroom for AEW and I think things may have just gotten a little more interesting for GCW’s return to The Hammerstein Ballroom on January 19th!”

Lauderdale also posted “ALWAYZ READY” on X, a term used by Cardona.