Matt Riddle relishing his ‘freedom’

TORONTO – There’s some real contrasts to Matt Riddle.

Backstage, hours before his match, he’s just another dude in the locker room, albeit one who wears flashy clothes and designer flip-flops that show off his pedicured feet.

But when he gets into the ring, especially in an intense battle with one Ontario’s finest wrestlers, it’s all-out, balls-to-the-wall action.

Then Riddle wins, beating Tarik, and he’s serenaded by a singing rabbi, dubbed Matt Yiddle for the night, and mobbed by kids.

At a special fundraiser in Toronto on Tuesday, February 6, Tarik (Tariq Ghani) got to see both sides of Riddle, as he was his opponent at the Reena Rumble, at The Warehouse at Downsview in Toronto.

“He is super chill backstage. You can definitely tell how much of a pro he is when it comes to wrestling, super laid back,” Tarik said. “But when it comes to the work between those ropes — very intense.” Their bout was definitely the match of the night.

In conversation with SlamWrestling.net, Riddle is more than happy to explain his universal appeal, in his easy-going fashion.

“At the end of the day, I connect with adults, because I’m 420 friendly, and I fought in the UFC,” Riddle said. “I connect with kids, because I’m goofy as hell, and I ride a scooter around, and I make corny jokes. In pro wrestling, I think a lot of people try to cater to a certain market, like, I want to be cool, or this or that. And me? Pro wrestling is catering to the world. That’s why I use ‘bro,’ bro is universal. It might not mean the same thing everywhere, but when I come there, it means bro. Everybody, it doesn’t matter what country you’re from, or who you are, every person, every kid, everybody can say, ‘Bro.’”

Kids are on Riddle’s mind too, as he and his girlfriend, Misha Montana, just welcomed his fourth child, little Matthew.

Asked how #4 is different than the first three, Riddle explained that he is 38 years old now, not 24.

“On top of that, I got a lot of my life put together pretty well. Before I was 24, just starting off in the UFC, and wasn’t getting paid much. I was living with a couple of roommates and my girlfriend, and now you’re having twin daughters, and you got a lot of responsibilities and stress that you’re not used to,” he explained. “At 38, with the job I have, and the success I’ve had, and everything else, I’m definitely in a better spot. Plus, I’ve done this before. I have three other kids that are awesome, amazing people, and I’m pretty sure I’ll do the same with little Matthew.”

The older kids — twin daughters and a son — are into sports and art. “None of them wrestle,” Riddle noted. “I would never force my kids to wrestle, if they want to they could be amateur, professional. I’m not big into track and field. I never played football. But that’s what my kids do. But I’m stoked for them, as long as they’re happy, I’m happy.”

Riddle himself is pretty happy with life post-WWE, leaving the company in September 2023.

“It’s kind of stressful working on TV all the time, especially with the travel. The money is awesome, it was definitely worth it and the experience. But now I want to take a break from TV,” explained Riddle.

During the 90-day non-compete period, he was setting up dates. “I’ve talked to TNA, I work with New Japan, I talked to MLW,” he admitted.

There’s an inevitable comparison to the high stakes of WWE.

There might be TV in his future, “but it’s not the same as Monday Night Raw, three hours live, anything can happen. People are changing the script here and there. ‘Hey, you had 10 minutes for your match. Now you had five minutes.’ It’s extremely stressful,” recalled Riddle.

“Now, I liked the pressure. But at the same time, I kind of wanted a little break from that all that. So that’s how I kind of chose where I’m working. Now I’m choosing places that are more pay-per-view based where I don’t have to worry about going to a commercial so we can get that Fritos advertisement and I just get to do my body of work.”

Riddle has no problem admitting that he is a better performer in 2024 than he was in NXT in 2018 and then on the main WWE roster in 2020.

He has accumulated a “wealth of knowledge.”

“When you work with Randy Orton, you work at that level, or even when you work at WrestleMania, where there’s like 75,000 people there, and you’re now not only able to captivate a gymnasium full of 500 people, but now you captivate an audience of 75,000 people, millions at home at WrestleMania,” he said.

“You don’t know you’re getting that experience and that knowledge then and there, you’re just living in the moment getting through it. But then, say now, like I see a guy in the ring rushing or he’s not timing it and listening to the crowd, it’s like, ‘Oh, okay, these are things I just naturally picked up because I’ve been working so long there, and I’m working with certain people.’ Even when I tagged with [John] Cena a bunch, we did a bunch of dark matches, you learn little things from guys that have been doing it this long, and they might seem like stupid at the time. You’re like, ‘Oh, why would I just do this?’ But it makes sense, because it’s not just the match you’re playing, you’re also playing to the audience.”

The audience the Reena Rumble was decidedly different than your average wrestling crowd. It was a huge fundraiser for the Reena Foundation, and the organizers presented a check for $90,000 before the show even began, with more money raised throughout the event. Ticket prices were high and it was packed with families, who got to meet Riddle — who had the longest line at the pre-show signing (included in the price) — along with AEW’s Colt Cabana and Brandon Cutler, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and “The Mountie” Jacques Rougeau Jr.

There’s a joy to working in front of a smaller crowd compared to a massive stadium.

“The 75,000, there’s a lot of different ins and outs. When you do a move, you have to wait even longer because the crowd’s bigger and by the time it actually starts to roar, it takes a minute or two,” he mused. “Or rather than say, like a PWG or where we are tonight, the crowd’s smaller, it’s gonna be more intimate, they react quicker because they see everything quicker. I would look at it as a different tempo. Even when you see guys from the indies go to the main roster of WWE, you can see that they’re still working that bang, bang, bang kind of tempo, but they don’t have to, because the crowds are much bigger, they receive it in time, it takes time. So tonight, it’s more intimate, they can connect more, I can actually say something the crowd will all hear me.”

The pro-marijuana lifestyle isn’t for everyone, and he is cognizant of kids in the audience.

“I use medical marijuana, I’ve been an advocate for years,” he said. “I also got fired from the UFC for smoking marijuana, regardless if I had a medical license because times change. But when it comes to kids, that’s where the scooter comes in, that’s where the fist bump comes in, just being happy and smiling, showing them a good time. That’s what it is.

“And honestly, it works for adults too. Because when I go out there, there might be somebody sitting on their hands, and I go up to him to the guardrail, give them a hang loose and put my fist out, and then they get a smile on their face and they fist bump me back. It’s all about connecting with people.”

New Japan Pro Wrestling appears to be the primary home for Riddle over the next couple of months.

“They got me a year visa, and I’m going over to Sapporo, Japan, to wrestle [Hiroshi] Tanahashi-san for the television championship. I feel like they are going to use me quite a bit,” he said. “I have other shows lined up for them as well, but I don’t want to get into that until everything — it’s never official till it’s official, but I have the visa, I have the flight. I’m supposed to go there. And we’ll see what happens from there.”

With Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada having just left New Japan, opportunities are there. “There’s a lot of spots open, which is a good thing for me,” said Riddle. “The grass is always greener on the other side and I wish everybody the best of luck. But for me, I believe the doors are wide open.”

He didn’t make a list of wrestlers he wanted to face, like Cody Rhodes did, but did do something similar.

“I made a list of what I want to accomplish. And I think my list of what I want to accomplish is, I wanted to go to Japan and I’m going to accomplish that literally next week or the week after that. So I feel pretty good. And there are a lot of opponents out there,” he said. “If I can just keep working and not get injured, knock on wood, and keep showing up, keep putting out and keep doing everything as consistently as I have been for the last 10 years basically, I’ll be good. If I can’t, that’s the day. Right now, I’m enjoying it.

“I love that I got my own little freedom, I can do what I want to. I’ve been seeing people I haven’t seen in years. For me, I’m just taking it day by day — that’s all I can do.”

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RIDDLE ON VINCE MCMAHON

Q: I have to ask about your experiences with Vince McMahon and the scandal that came out of the blue a lot of us.

A: People say that and I agree, I had no idea of anything going on of course. Dude, I don’t even politic my own matches. I literally just show up and do my job.

But honestly, if you just watch any of his work from his even in-ring performance, the things he said and did, logic would tell you alone, especially like me personally, all the good wrestlers, all the people that play good characters, that’s them — now it might be turned up by 10 or 100, but that’s them.

So when I’ve seen Vince do all the things he’s done from the ’80s, ’90s to early 2000s, everything. I was not surprised. I mean, some of it, a little, but yeah, the guy’s a billionaire that owns a company and yeah, he’s probably done it all and seen it all and wants to do more and see more. I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t. I’m a billionaire. … I wasn’t the dude. [Allegedly] Brock [Lesnar] was the dude he was talking to or whoever else, it wasn’t me. But yeah, so I really have no comment, other than that. I mean, I’m not surprised. I hear people say they’re surprised, I’m not surprised. I mean, the guy was a maniac.

Q: But your interactions with him were …

A: Awesome. He thought I was goofy. If anything, the first time we met, he didn’t like me because I was goofy. And he’s like, ‘You’re goofy.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m goofy, but that’s a good thing.’ He’s like you, ‘Being a goof isn’t a good thing.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m a goof, that can kick your ass.’ Then you can tell him that didn’t make him happy. And then Bruce Prichard hopped in and was like, ‘Hey, Vince, he’s pretty good at wrestling, trust me, da da da.’ Then I eventually ended up working on the main roster. I got there.

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TOP PHOTO: Matt Riddle at the Reena Rumble on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, at The Warehouse in Toronto, Ontario. Photo by Steve Argintaru, Twitter: @stevetsn Instagram: @stevetsn

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