In an interview with The Takedown, Matt Riddle explained why he hasn’t showed up in TNA Wrestling yet.
Riddle has competed on the indies, for MLW, in Mexico, and had a brief NJPW stint following his release from WWE in September 2023. He told The Takedown that TNA was also interested in booking him, but Riddle had prior bookings on the dates they wanted. Riddle thinks he’ll probably end up competing for TNA in the future, though he doesn’t know how TNA’s relationship with WWE could affect that.
“When I got released, I started getting bookings. If you pay my rate, I don’t care if you’re a hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere. You pay my rate (and) you talk to me like a human, and I’ll accept your booking. I’m very easy to work with, regardless of what people say. But when it came to TNA, I talked to (Tommy) Dreamer at one point. He sent me a plethora of dates for me to do. I have taken so many dates, and usually, they do tapings over the course of a weekend. There was not one weekend that I wasn’t booked at least one or both of the days they wanted me to be at. TNA hasn’t happened yet, but it’ll probably happen eventually,” Riddle said.
“I think once I said, ‘Hey, I’m booked all these days. Let’s try these months.’ I haven’t heard anything back. I think they want me to work there, but it’s more of a scheduling thing. Also, I think right now, with the current relationship between WWE and TNA, I don’t know if they’re interested in me anymore. They’re already cross-promoting. I think Cody’s doing something with TNA eventually. They got the Rascalz in NXT, Joe Hendry. People are believing in him, finally. They [got] a lot going on.”
This month marks one year since Riddle was released by WWE. He was let go at a time when WWE was making roster cuts after being acquired by Endeavor. His release also came shortly after an incident where he appeared to be drunk at JFK Airport in New York City.
On the subject of AEW, Riddle said he did not want the attention of working for another promotion with so much TV after his WWE release.
“With AEW, I think AEW is a fantastic product,” he said. “I know a lot of the people that work there. I like the company. I like the way they work. I like the people that work there. I think with me, and it’s one of the things I’ve noticed, I’ve been relieved after getting fired from WWE. I felt that because I was on TV, and I’m such a provocative character at times, everything was magnified so much because I was on TV. The stress of working on TV two to three days a week was a lot. I like pressure. I like stress too, but it was a lot.
“The best answer would be to go to AEW, get more money, and work a decent schedule. I didn’t want to work on TV again. I didn’t want the attention for a while. I wanted to step away. I just wanted to do indies.”
Riddle detailed an awkward interaction he had with Tony Khan backstage at NJPW Windy City Riot earlier this year.
“I talked to Tony,” Riddle said. “I don’t know if he likes me. He seemed happy. I wrestled Zack Sabre Jr. in Chicago. He seemed cool about it. I don’t know. When you meet me, I’m very sarcastic. But when I met him, I was like, ‘Oh, you like that match?’
“But I said it a different way, and he looked at me all confused. And I was like, ‘Never mind, dude.’ I just walked away. So that was my experience with that.”
Riddle currently holds the Cruiserweight Championship for Lucha Libre AAA. In MLW, he’s in line for a World Heavyweight Championship shot after winning their Battle Riot match. Satoshi Kojima is the current MLW World Champion.
