NXT superstar Matt Riddle spoke with TalkSport ahead of his debut on tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On finding out he’d be in the Royal Rumble:
I’ll tell you this: for weeks leading up to the Royal Rumble, they were like ‘Oh, you might be in it, you might be in it,’ but nothing guaranteed. Nobody was guaranteed anything. So after the TakeOver [Worlds Collide] they were like ‘OK, you’re going to the Rumble.’ They didn’t say you’re going to be in the Rumble yet. So even now, am I just here? Am I doing anything? Because they brought other people too backstage that weren’t doing anything. Eventually, I find out I’m going to be in the Rumble. Now I’m stoked! I’m like ‘what if I get my chance!’ [with Brock Lesnar]. I don’t even know if I should say his name [laughs].
Paul Heyman telling him backstage that he’ll never face Brock Lesnar:
Then, of course, [Paul] Heyman and his security guard – I won’t mention his name [laughs] – him and his security guard come up to me and basically told me I had no chance in hell – it was very Vince McMahon like [laughs] – no chance in hell that I was going to get that match with him and I’d have better luck doing something else. And I’ll be honest, at first, I was just like awww [disappointed], I got this far and you’re literally holding me like this [tightly]. Like, he’s holding me like we’re friends but we’re not. And then he [Lesnar] tells me “it’s never going to happen. So, I wasn’t mad, I wasn’t sad, I was more just heartbroken. But it’s like when a girl turns you down on a date; hey, it doesn’t mean give up completely. It’s like OK, let’s go back to the drawing board, maybe I came on a little too strong this time. Maybe I’ll try something different to convince him, ya know? So that’s how that scenario played out.
The reaction he got in the Rumble:
Then I got to the Rumble, got to play with Edge, kick Corbin, kicked now, reigning heavyweight champion, Drew McIntyre. The pop was pretty beautiful too, but the pop if I had of gotten in the ring slightly earlier [when Brock was in] – ahhhh! I’m pretty sure the crowd would have been like ‘oh my god! He’s going to get his chance!’ But hey, still a pretty good pop.
His new plan to get his dream match with Lesnar to happen:
How do I get these matches? Well, I’m on SmackDown now, all I have to do is keep getting more and more valuable -and it seems that’s what happening – and eventually these guys are going to be like ‘Oh, I want another paycheck,’ and they’ll have to go through me to get it. That’s my goal. That’s what I’m going to do. I haven’t been calling out for the matches lately because there’s no point. These guys only really work off one thing and it’s money, so how can I get that? I got to be worth more to them. I got to become valuable enough to get them in the ring with me. So, that’s what I’ll do then.