In the summer of 2021, Matt Riddle made headlines when he was talking in an interview about Roman Reigns taking credit for the success of that year’s SummerSlam.
Riddle stated that Reigns doesn’t move the needle, in addition to saying the reason Reigns is in a top spot is due to his relationship with The Rock, and he could beat up Reigns in a real fight. The comments about Reigns not moving the needle came after Reigns stated that CM Punk wasn’t as over as The Rock or John Cena for the company when he was on top.
Riddle ruffled some feathers with some people in WWE for saying what he did at the time. And there was a lot of heat in certain circles on Riddle. Dave Meltzer had reported that many in the company considered Riddle as talented, but he’s not as astute as a politician backstage.
Riddle taking shots at other stars isn’t new. He has been critical of Brock Lesnar and Goldberg in the past. While appearing on The Bubba Army, Riddle stated that he got a text from Reigns, who called him unprofessional.
Riddle wrote an apology to Reigns, asking for it to be rewritten by Randy Orton. Riddle claimed Reigns called him a “b*tch” the next time they bumped into each other while performing at a house show.
While speaking on The Wrestling Matt, former WWE host of The Bump Matt Camp revealed that due to their real-life hat, WWE had to keep Riddle on-screen during a Reigns appearance on the show in August 2021.
Camp said, “The funny part, a little side part of that show, is that Riddle was the in-studio guest and we 100% did not put Riddle on the set until Roman was gone, off the video screen. Just not going to mess with that. Then Riddle went and said something dumb about Roman right after that in another interview. Right after that. I think that’s where he told the story about writing a letter to Roman, apologizing, and Randy [Orton] told him to do it. We made a point to keep Riddle…we would have those interactions where someone would be in studio, and then they’d interact with the guest, whether they were in storyline or not, we’d have some fun stuff with that. We 100% kept Riddle off the set until the Roman interview was done, which was the right call.”
It should be noted that Reigns and Riddle worked together the following summer, as Reigns beat Riddle to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on SmackDown.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit The Wrestling Matt with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
