Matt Cardona picked up one of the biggest wins of his wrestling career when he defeated Nick Gage to become the new GCW world champion at Homecoming night 1.

The former WWE star recently had an interview with Sports Illustrated where he opened up about his big win and discussed what it means to him.

Cardona first commented on the wild crowd reaction to his victory. He explained that hearing the boos made him realize that they had something special, before claiming himself as the new deathmatch king:

“Tasting my own blood and hearing those boos, I knew we had something special, but it was all worth it. I’m the new deathmatch king.”

The GCW championship is the first world title of Cardona’s career. Discussing how the title win is a big deal for him, Matt Cardona said that people are crazy if they don’t think he is going to treat it as the biggest thing:

“This title is a big deal. I was fortunate in WWE to win the tag team title twice, the intercontinental title, and the United States title,

But the GCW title is my first world title. So people are absolutely crazy if they don’t think I’m going to treat this as the biggest thing in the world. I took the title to Disneyland and posed in front of the castle.”

Matt Cardona also discussed the negative crowd reaction at the Homecoming special that stemmed from his victory. He claimed that he is not trying to be a heel.

According to the former US champion, he was just being himself. He had fans in the arena too but it just happened to be that the vocal fan base there were the ones who didn’t want him to win.