Solving the Riddle: Nearly 2 years after WWE release, Matt Riddle is ‘having the best time of my life’

In more than five years with WWE, Matt Riddle has become one of the most popular superstars on the list. Despite a pedigree of legitimate combat sports, his relaxed character, Surfer / Stoner has become what defined him as a professional wrestler, allowing him to reach remarkable summits, in particular during his stay in the “RKBRO” tag team with Randy Orton. However, there was never a moment of 2018-23 when he really broke down to become a “high-level guy”.

Now, almost two years since his release of WWE after a series of failed drug testing tests and an incident at JFK airport, Riddle has managed to capture this elusive place at the top of the card with a large wrestling company, rising to become MLW’s world heavyweight champion in his return to promotion.

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“It was fun,” Riddle told the Crown before his last defending defense this Thursday at the Summer of the Beasts of MLW. “I know that I can run with the ball, but it’s nice to pass the ball to be able to make dreams and aspirations, I had all my life. You give me the ball, I will run with and not stop. I liked this race. I can’t talk more about MLW because they had my back before and now after WWE. They have always had a vision.”

Riddle is far from the first athlete to enter the world of professional struggle with a sports training training. Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, Bobby Lashley and Ken Shamrock are only a handful of big names that participated in the professional struggle and in the cage. However, there is a major difference between them and Riddle, which has an 8-3 record with two competitions without competition as a professional MMA fighter.

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When they burst – or returned to – Pro Wrestling, and during their most successful races, these aforementioned fighters were presented in a more serious light (read: dangerous) for their characters on the screen. It is a proven formula that the best wrestling gadgets have more than a little truth for them – they are the natural arrangement of the star, raised up to 100. At WWE, Riddle was a more comical relief than Killer, which worked particularly well in the Tag teams with Orton or Pete Dunne.

But MLW unlocks the appropriate balance for Riddle was the key to its success as a simple interpreter.

“The great thing, and it happened when I worked with WWE, is that they really stupid my character,” said Riddle. “Maybe they did so I am more relatable to children or is what they thought to work with their audience. Even when I was in NXT, I was no longer a killer with the history of the UFC and a guy high [let me have] Fun with the Fillthy Bros and my opponents, but they also respect me, know my legitimate history and understand that I am a threat in and out of the ring. With that, I love it because I can always be a goofball while being a killer, which is essentially what I am in real life. »»

Naturally, there is a winner to have the enigma at the top of the MLW card, and that goes beyond his character work or his skills inside the ring. There is the buzz marketing or the social media that comes with Riddle having worked at WWE for half a decennia, enhancing its profile and, in turn, creating opportunities when it returned to the independent struggle scene after its release.

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“The biggest torsion or change for me was before, I was just an independent wrestler or a superstar,” said Riddle. “Once I had the machine behind me with WWE and I came back, the way I am managed is very different and it is because people have seen me on television and fight on big programs like Wrestlemania. Hold me in high esteem.

Given his high name from WWE, it would have been easy for MLW to capitalize immediately by putting the championship around the size of Riddle. Instead, the founder of the Bauer and MLW promotion waited a year before toping the riddle. This is a decision that ran against what Riddle says he saw more and more on the independent wrestling scene, fans demanding an instant gratuity in a generation of Netflix.

“When you run a program, you can listen to fans, give them what they want, but you can’t let fans keep your business hostage and make decisions for you,” he said. “Once you start doing this, you start to lose control. I have the impression that on the independent scene, I have seen it more often than I would like. Unfortunately, these fans are not those who buy tickets. Sometimes, it is good to wait for fans. I do not think that the greatest wrestling companies, like MLW, do an excellent work. And then the gain.

Riddle is one of the last examples of former WWE talents who found a sustained success after leaving the wrestling giant. Cody Rhodes and Matt Cardona returned to the independent circuit after leaving WWE and achieved immense and unprecedented success, the first going so far to become a founding member of AEW – the main competitor of WWE – before returning as probably the biggest draw in the company.

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After Riddle’s release in September 2023, the decision to remain active and involved in the struggle was obvious. Despite the aforementioned success of Rhodes, Cardona and many others who found a new life outside WWE, Riddle knew that its path should be different.

“I really like and I like the fight. I love making people happy. For me, it was obvious to continue,” said Riddle. “When we talk about asking for advice from people, I do it and I don’t like. I ask for everyone’s contribution, but a bit like learning combat or jiu-jitsu techniques, I like to absorb everything and make them pieces. At the table and my personality and the way I wear that makes him attractive under a light.

As much as Riddle’s authenticity can be an asset, this has enabled it to be very publicized in the world of struggle. A quick search on the Internet will discover the quarrels with Roman Reigns, Lesnar and Bill Goldberg in the past, which have all been crushed to various degrees. Even recently, Riddle has made waves in the world of struggle by calling CM Punk, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens “difficult to work”.

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“I’m going to say this, I come from a world of mixed martial arts, I fought at university, I have been in many fights,” said Riddle. “My thing is that I am now in the world of sporting entertainment, and if I say something that ruffled your feathers or bothers you, you should probably take it with a grain of salt. If I talk about waste and it is on the Internet or something like that, especially in a world where I try things.

Riddle will make its next defense of the MLW World Heavy Championship on Thursday in New York, where he will face the legend of Japanese Kenta struggle for the first time. It is an exciting proposal for Riddle to put a Japanese shooting style match, given the emphasis he put on his MMA history.

“I love him personally. It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Riddle. “I am lucky to defend My Championship against him. On several levels, it’s great and exceptional. All the Japanese people I train with, fought with it, know what I have done in the past and how legitimate I am. We do professional struggle, but the Japanese style and my style is what I like to call “sports struggle”. I think it will bring fireworks, we will hit ourselves hard and bring it. “”

In a business to never make professional struggle, a return of WWE is never something that can really be excluded for anyone, including the enigma. Whatever the result of his match against Kenta, this recent race with MLW showed that Riddle finally understood how to unlock its best in the square circle.

“For me, I don’t know if [the goal is] So much to try to come back that this is the authentic character that I am and to have fun, “said Riddle.” Right now, I’m probably spending the best time in my life, and it’s incredible. “”