During a recent appearance on TMZ Inside The Ring, former WWE Superstar Matt Riddle recounted a time when his comments in an interview caused legitimate backstage heat with “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns. Riddle revealed that after claiming he could beat Reigns in a real fight, he received an angry text message and had to enlist Randy Orton to help smooth things over.
“Oh, dude. He flipped out. He texted me, ‘Not cool dude.’ And I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ I apologized. So I wrote this long apology,” Riddle recalled.
Unsure if his apology was appropriate, Riddle sought advice from his RK-Bro tag team partner, Randy Orton. “I go, ‘Randy, how does this look?’ He goes, ‘Nah, this isn’t right.’ He fixes the text. He goes, ‘here,’ and it was basically like, ‘My bad, bro, maybe we’ll work someday soon,’” Riddle said.
While the toned-down apology apparently worked, Riddle couldn’t resist getting one last jab in. “We’ve worked since then. The guy loves me,” he said, before adding, “I would beat him in a fight, though. That’s just real.”
Riddle’s original comments were made in a 2021 interview and reportedly generated significant backstage heat with Reigns and others at the time. Riddle was released from his WWE contract in September 2023.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
