Matt Riddle is done being the “goof” he saw himself having to portray in WWE.
The former MMA star, who is a little less than a year removed from being released from WWE last September, is making the most of his new home in Major League Wrestling while finding success working with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, AAA and numerous independent companies.
Riddle, who now has more ownership of his presentation, said there are some similarities to the aloof, forgetful and “childish” persona fans saw in WWE, but now his career and accolades in the UFC and jujitsu are taken more seriously.
“If somebody says, ‘watch your back,’ I’m not gonna spin around in circles trying to look at my back,” Riddle said. “Those are the kinds of things I would do in WWE. And fortunately, the people I work with now think I have more brains than that and I’m allowed to know what things mean when people say them… I want to be taken more seriously. I want to show people that combat sports background.”
His next chance to do that will be when he faces a risk-taking high flyer in Matt Justice during MLW’s Summer of the Beasts show (7 p.m., YouTube) at Queens’ Melrose Ballroom on Thursday.
Riddle describes Justice as a “wild man” on the rise that he can “tear the house down” with.
“The guy can go,” the 38-year-old Riddle said. “He’s not a pushover. He’s one of those guys if you saw him in a dark alley, you probably wouldn’t want him trying to take your wallet because he’d probably get it.”
Riddle, the current AAA World Cruiserweight champion, also holds MLW’s version of the Money in the Bank contract, a “golden ticket” for winning the Battle Riot VI in January, which he can redeem for a World Heavyweight championship match anytime, anyplace.
It’s a title Riddle failed to win during his brief stint with the company in 2018, falling in his one opportunity against current AEW star Swerve Strickland.
“It’s not something I have to do. It’s something I’m going out of my way to do,” Riddle said. “For Matthew Riddle, for the King of Bros, the MLW heavyweight championship is what I want. It’s what I need and it’s what I’m going after and I’m gonna get it one way or the other.”
Riddle believes MLW is in a good position, even in a crowded wrestling space, and praised the professionalism of Court Bauer’s company. He called its combat-sports-centric presentation a “breath of fresh air,” and praised its relationship with other promotions.
“I don’t think they bite off more than they can chew and that’s why they’ve survived as long as they have,” Riddle said.
Riddle lasted five years with WWE, working his way up from NXT to the main roster where he won the United States championship and was a multi-time tag team champion with Randy Orton.
Riddle, who has said he was set to make a million dollars with WWE in 2024, was released from the company after spending time in rehab following failed drug tests for cocaine.
He also displayed disruptive conduct during an incident at JFK airport last September — yelling into a flight gate microphone — on his way home from the WWE’s Superstar Spectacle show in India. Talent ended up flying into India that day and flew back after the show. Riddle, during an interview with Ariel Heilwani in February, said an ear infection and drinking on the flight led to his conduct that day.
“While I think WWE was doing the best they could, or thought they were doing the best they could, but at the same time, WWE protects WWE, as they should,” Riddle said. “But at the same time, we’re all human. We’re all people and sometimes I think that gets lost in translation in a publicly traded company.”
After his release, Orton has had nothing but praise for Riddle for taking the brunt of the physicality during their year-plus time together that allowed him to work as long as he did with serious back injuries that eventually kept him out for 18 months and nearly ended his career.
Riddle said Orton was in extreme pain years before they started working together and knew with surgery inevitable, they needed to make the matches exciting while limiting the damage Orton had to take. It meant eating any heavy offense himself.
It was something he was more than willing to do for someone of Orton’s stature, who he said stood up for him when he wouldn’t stand up for himself — including getting him out of coach and into first-class on flights once they started having success as RK-Bro. It all made for some of the best times of their careers.
“He wanted to keep wrestling and keep showing his value because the thing about wrestling is you’re only as valuable as the last show you can make it to,” Riddle said. “Once, you can’t make it, you’re not as valuable to that company. I wanted to extend his career as long as I possibly could and I knew I could by taking a little of the damage and the brunt of the match.”
Riddle revealed during an interview with Muscle Man Malcolm in June that Orton asked him if he wanted to come back to WWE. Riddle isn’t ruling it out down the road, but not in the imminent future as his current schedule works best having welcomed a son, Matthew, with fiancée Misha Montana in December.
The King of Bros said he loved his time in WWE, but the work schedule and travel at the time had him home one full day a week.
Riddle and his first wife, Lisa, divorced in March 2022 after 11 years of marriage and three kids. Being home less than he felt he needed to be didn’t help matters.
“Even though I was making great money, my family life deteriorated, I got divorced and other things and then on top of that just being able to see the kids, then just taking care of responsibilities,” Riddle said. “When I’m flying to a different city or driving to a different city every day and wrestling and memorizing promos and all these things, a lot of other things fell to the side.”
It’s why Riddle was relieved when WWE released him because he had things to take care of and a kid on the way. It happened at the right time, allowing him to take care of himself.
“I’m in a way different place,” Riddle said. “I feel way better. It’s hard to explain because most people think, ‘Oh you’re there, it must be great.’ Professionally my life was awesome. Personally, my life was in shambles. You lose your family. You lose this, that and you’re trying to rebuild anything and you don’t have time to.”
If he ever did return to WWE he would do so with a repaired relationship with Roman Reigns.
Talk of their past animosity resurfaced last week when Riddle said he could beat Reigns in a “real fight” when asked in a 2021 Bleacher Report interview why RK-Bro was better than the Bloodline during a time when the two factions were feuding. Riddle felt he was just cutting a promo‐like answer to promote the storyline but Reigns took offense.
Former WWE host Matt Camp said on his podcast that there was an episode of “The Bump” in August 2021 where the two were kept separate even with Reigns being on via satellite.
“This isn’t a flex, this is the truth,” Riddle said of believing he can beat the likes of a Reigns and a Goldberg in a real fight. “If I didn’t think I could I wouldn’t say it. You don’t hear me saying I can beat up Bobby Lashley, you know maybe on a good day. Or a Brock Lesnar, maybe on a good day.”
At the time, Riddle tried to write Reigns an apology, which was given to and rewritten by Orton into “no apology” at all, which made the Tribal Chief even more furious.
The two didn’t talk for a while, but things got straightened out when they started working together from May to July in 2022 — including a world title singles match on SmackDown.
“I think when he saw how professional I am in the ring and I also explained why things were said and I wasn’t just trying to call you out,” Riddle said. “I know my place in WWE but when someone tells me to cut a promo on you, I’m gonna cut a promo on you. I think he understood that. Still wasn’t happy about it, but understood. Me and Roman, we’re good.”
One relationship he hopes to explore even more in the ring is with WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam, whom he met in the grotto of the Playboy mansion at a 2008 cannabis party.
Riddle, who is working on an RV-Bro glass pipe line among other things with Van Dam, would love to tag with him even more after a singles match for the New Japan World Television championship turned into a tag match against Chris Harris and James Storm at an independent show in March.
“I think kind of what I did for Randy, I could kind of do for Rob,” Riddle said. “If he wanted to we could probably have a crazy run as a tag team.”
Riddle said he still has an eye on MLW World Heavyweight Satoshi Kojima but is hoping for a shot at redemption against Japanese wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki, who is 2-0 against him in singles matches dating back to 2018.
“I think I’d like to get that win,” Riddle said. “I’d like to beat Minoru Suzuki. Plus he came to my jujutsu gym the other day and he definitely didn’t want to roll with me because the last time he rolled with me I took his lunch and I’m more than happy to take his lunch again in MLW.”
