Matt Riddle recently made some bold statements regarding scrapped plans while he was a part of WWE.
Now a free agent following his release in September, Riddle took part in a signing and revealed that there were multiple plans in place for him to win major matches in 2022. The first claim was that he was at one point chosen to win the Royal Rumble but eventual winner Brock Lesnar chose to go into business for himself and steal the victory. Also at the signing, the ex-WWE star claimed that he was the original pick to win the Money in the Bank briefcase, but again this was changed last minute due to Austin Theory, who was heavily linked to Vince McMahon at the time.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has clarified how true Riddle’s claims are. In regards to the Money in the Bank briefcase, it is stated that although the decision to make Theory the winner was a late one, there were never concrete plans to have Riddle win the match prior to the change:
As far as the Money in the Bank briefcase, which he said he was going to win, and then Vince McMahon later changed it to Austin Theory the day of the event. It was not necessarily he was going to win, that did happen in the sense that Vince McMahon changed it to Austin Theory. It was never 100% anyone, they had not figured it out until the very last minute. And Matt Riddle absolutely was one of the people, perhaps even the favourite, but it wasn’t like it was Matt Riddle, and then changed to Austin Theory. It was perhaps Matt Riddle.
Meltzer then moved on to Riddle’s claims of being the original Royal Rumble winner. Once again debunking Riddle’s statement, at that time Riddle was not considered a potential winner:
Royal Rumble, from what I was told, if you think about when it was and everything like that, and how he was being pushed, and that the winner of the Rumble main events WrestleMania, he was never being pushed at that level. And I was told that he was not considered seriously at any point to win the Royal Rumble. So that’s the story. And going back, yeah, could he have been a guy who won the briefcase and they did angles with him and some comedy? Absolutely. [But] Royal Rumble and main event WrestleMania against Roman Reigns or somebody like that? It’s not like they couldn’t have done it, but they weren’t going to do it then.
Concluding his assessment of the former United States Champion, Meltzer stated that although higher-ups did like Matt Riddle, the fact that he kept getting into trouble by saying the wrong things and was kicked out of multiple MMA promotions affected their trust:
I know people there, top people, that were very, very high on him. But he kept getting the bad publicity. A lot of people didn’t really want to see him succeed because he was not very judicious. When you’re going out there, I mean, one of the things that’s such a no-no politically, is to go and say, If it was real, I could kick Roman Reigns’ ass, and he probably could. But you’re not supposed to say that.
And, he got in kind of on the wrong side of Bill Goldberg by saying Bill Goldberg wasn’t any good. Bill Goldberg is not really a great wrestler, he just was in the right place at the right time with the right charisma. And he’s a legend, superstar, a needle mover, giant star, and that’s that. So there were a lot of key people who did not want to see him at that level. And both for that reason, and for the fact that I think there was a lot of apprehension in the sense that he kind of fell out in UFC, fell out completely in Bellator.
There’s a trust level for the main event at WrestleMania. I think that you want guys that you got a higher trust level than they had with him at that time and would have even more now. Obviously, they ended up firing him.
Matt Riddle Discusses Potential Goldberg Match
With neither Riddle nor Goldberg contracted to WWE, there is once again a possibility that the match could take place in another promotion. At the same signing where the former Tag Team Champion made the claims, Matt Riddle also stated that he is hopeful that a Goldberg match can still happen. In a new interview in 2024, the ex-WWE star criticised Goldber’s work once again.
In the meantime, Matt Riddle is competing for NJPW and recently reformed a popular tag team.
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