From his scooter, to his bongos, his flip-flops, his pot jokes, and his, shall we say, unique entrance graphic with a collection of rainbow animals charging the screen, if there’s one word to describe Matt Riddle‘s time in WWE, it would be goofy.

Granted, Riddle did earn some serious accolades during his time in The Fed too, winning the the United States Championship, securing three reigns with Tag Team gold, first with Pete Dunne as the “BroserWeights” and then twice with Randy Orton as “RK-Bro,” but in the end, his run will be marked by silliness, much of which was actively encouraged by Vince McMahon, who reportedly found the Allentown, Pennsylvania native “hilarious.”

Sitting down for an interview with Fox News ahead of his big return match at MLW versus Jacob Fatu – not to mention his eventual showdown with Hiroshi Tanahashi in New Japan – Riddle described how he spent his last few months off before revealing his plans for the future, which don’t include acting like a goofball on television.

“The last couple months, they’ve been good. I feel like the last probably 10 years I’ve been wrestling pretty hard in the sense, like on the indies before I went to the ‘E’ (WWE), I was pretty busy traveling to Europe and wrestling everywhere. And then, of course, with the ‘E,’ I was traveling everywhere. So, the last three months, I kinda just had my first vacation in a really long time. I had a kid. A little son, Matthew. So, it was really getting ready and kinda like a reset button. The last couple of months, I totally just didn’t want to do anything other than work out, relax and take care of my family,” Matt Riddle told Fox News.

“And now that (it’s) the New Year and I got that time and everything else like that, I think it’s just time to cook again and just really been focusing on that and what I want to do in the ring. I feel like before was more of a… it’s always entertainment, but it was a lot of entertainment before. And now, I think, the direction I’m going in, I’m going to be able to show the world what I can do in the ring and just present that version of myself rather than kind of a goofball on TV.”

Whoa, was that last line a subtle shot at Mr. McMahon? Well, considering how Riddle was booked in NXT versus the main roster, it just might be. Either way, if Riddle is going to take himself more seriously both in the ring and outside of it, the entire professional wrestling world would be better off, as an out-of-control “King of Bros” isn’t going to rehab his career but may instead damage it even further.

Matt Riddle has no hard feelings after September WWE release.

Elsewhere in his conversation with Fox News, Matt Riddle was asked about his time in WWE and if he holds any malice towards the promotion for releasing him without much fanfare.

To his credit, Riddle isn’t as bitter as one may have assumed, as he appreciates everything he accomplished in the promotion and the promotion itself for helping him earn a living.

“For me, at the WWE, not at all. I loved every second of it. I was a multiple-time tag-team champion with Randy [Orton], I was an NXT tag-team champion, I won the Dusty Cup Classic, I beat Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship, I wrestled multiple WrestleManias, Royal Rumbles,” Matt Riddle told Fox News.

“No, I have no hard feelings. And I would just say, with WWE, they run a ship, they run it a certain way, and when you work for WWE, everything you do is under a magnifying glass. It doesn’t matter if you did anything wrong, if you did something right, if it was in between, it’s perception. And the WWE, unfortunately, if a situation happens, and they don’t like the perception, they make their decision. But I’m not going to argue with them. That’s their company. I don’t run it. I just worked there. I’m thankful that they gave me the time that they did, and that’s all I can say.

“I have zero hard feelings. I don’t know if I can say that for them. They might have some hard feelings, but I feel like they’re pretty professional. They’re more about that paper, that money. So, I don’t think there’s any hard feelings. I mean, they did have to pay me for three months when I didn’t work. That was on them. They fired me.”

Was it surprising to see Riddle released when he was, a few weeks after his JFK Airport incident but a few weeks before the return of Randy Orton? Sure, after helping to prop up Orton when he was injured the year prior, being released alongside a dozen other performers is strange indeed. Still, if Riddle isn’t mad about it, maybe he is handling his release the right way, which spells good news for promotions like MLW and NJPW who have already booked him.