This week, Matt Riddle made two statements while reflecting on his time in the WWE that really got people talking.
Signed By Superstars hosted a virtual signing with Riddle, who claimed he ‘believes’ he was told he would win the 2022 Men’s Royal Rumble Match, but Brock Lesnar went out on his own and changed the match’s outcome.
Riddle also claimed he was supposed to win the 2022 Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder match, which Austin Theory won thanks to a decision made by Vince McMahon hours before the match.
Dave Meltzer, speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, stated that he had not heard Riddle would win MITB. Instead, Riddle was regarded as one of the most likely winners. Meltzer stated that Riddle’s win in the Royal Rumble was not planned.
“Okay, so the story as far as the Money in the Bank briefcase, which he said he was going to win, and then Vince McMahon later changed it to Austin Theory of the day of the event. It was not necessarily that he was going to win. That did happen in the sense that Vince McMahon changed it to Austin Theory, but there were several. It was like never 100% anyone. They had not figured it out until the very last minute. Matt Riddle absolutely was one of the people, perhaps even the favorite, but it wasn’t like it was Matt Riddle and then changed to Austin Theory. It was perhaps Matt Riddle. He was involved in that one Rumble, from what I was told…If you think about when it was and everything like that and how he was being pushed, and that the winner of the [Royal] Rumble main events WrestleMania, he was never being pushed at that level. And I was told that he was not considered seriously at any point to win the Royal Rumble. So that’s the story there. Could he have been a guy who won the briefcase, and they did angles with him and some comedy with them and all that? Absolutely. Royal Rumble, main event WrestleMania against Roman Reigns or somebody like that. It’s not like they couldn’t have done it, but they weren’t going to do it then. And I know people there that were, top people there that were very, very high on him. But, he kept getting the bad pub. A lot of people didn’t really want to see him succeed because he was not very judicious.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
