When WWE announced a new round of roster cuts last Fall, few were surprised to see Matt Riddle's name on the list.
Arguably one of the featured performers of the final Vince McMahn era, the “Original Bro” rapidly found himself falling out of favor with the promotion based on the direction of creative in the ring and landed in hot water once more for his very public incident at JFK Airport that became something of an international embarrassment for the promotion.
Discussing his side of the story in an interview with Ariel Helwani on his MMA Hour, Riddle explained what happened from his perspective and how a perfect storm of inconveniences resulted in him snapping.
“What happened there, we had a tour in India, it was a one day tour. We flew to India and then back from India. We got there, landed, had a couple hours at the hotel, went to the venue, did the show, flew back to the States,” Matt Riddle explained via Fightful. “On the way back, you know when you fly you feel some pressure and stuff. I thought it was just air pressure. I had a really bad ear infection. Then, of course, you add a couple of cocktails on top of that. Then, you know, grab the mic, I'm talking some crap. Flights were delayed. It was a perfect storm. At the same time, I feel a lot of people would beat themselves up. At the same time, I look at it, I think it was a sign. I was overworking myself, maybe I hopped back into things a little too quick. Doing a four-day tour and going to India for a day and back took its toll on me. That kind of thing took a toll on me.”
Riddle was then asked about the accusations of sexual harassment against him, which happened on the same trip. While Riddle didn't want to go into too much detail for obvious reasons, he did reveal that he had conversations with the FBI and internal affairs and expects no charges.
“I'm not going to go too much into detail with that incident. It was the same trip. I talked to internal affairs, I talked to the FBI. I'm not in trouble, I can assure you of that. I'm not going to go into details with the situation because they asked me not to, unless I want to press charges, and I didn't want to press charges. That's how that situation was handled. At the same time, if I wouldn't have had a couple of drinks, I wouldn't have put myself in that situation, and I wouldn't have been there,” Riddle explained.
“At the end of the day, I put myself in the situation that I knew I could have possibly gotten into trouble. I don't think that's the reason I got fired, but I don't think it helps, especially with the UFC merging. It was written in my contract that I was going to make a million dollars this upcoming year, guaranteed, which is a lot more than I was making last year and a lot more than I was making the year before that. I think there was multiple variables that played into my departure. Plus, I failed a couple of drug tests. The writing, for me at least, the writing was on the wall. I'm good in the ring and entertaining, but especially with WWE and how they want to be perceived, I don't think I was a good fit at the time.”
Failed drug tests, you say? What does that mean? Well, Riddle provided some insight into that, too, and needless to say, it's very interesting to learn indeed.
Matt Riddle reveals what he didn't/didn't get suspended for in WWE.
Discussing his two suspensions from WWE, Matt Riddle revealed that he wasn't on the outs for smoking weed, which is apparently not tested for, or a performance-enhancing drug, but instead cocaine, which he opted to use at a strip club, “a couple times.”
“I had two offenses. They didn't make any of the offenses public. I think they wanted to keep it on the hush-hush, which I understand. I got fined,” Matt Riddle explained.
“You're allowed to smoke weed. I went to the strip club and did cocaine a couple times. I failed a drug test for that. That was for all of them, it was cocaine each time. It was just a random night. WWE tests you randomly, any week. Sometimes, you get tested at the end of one month and the beginning of another month. There was one week where I failed bang bang, didn't know I failed the second one and by the time I failed the first one, I got two at once. I think that's why they were a little more lenient. ‘We tested you back-to-back, you failed both times.' I was like, ‘I'll show you, no more problems, test me for the next ten weeks.' I did that, I was fine, didn't fail one test. When I thought I was in the clear, went out, partied a little bit, they gave me a random test at my house, I failed that, and shortly after that, they had me go to rehab.”
Say what you will about Riddle as a wrestler and the character Riddle played in WWE, but considering everything discussed in his interview with Helwani and beyond, it's not particularly surprising that WWE opted to let him go, as even in the pre-Janel Grant lawsuit days, the sort of negative publicity he brought to the table with relative frequency simply wasn't worth the in-ring return.
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