Matt Riddle recently appeared as a guest on The Kurt Angle Show for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, “The Original BRO” spoke about how the merger between WWE and UFC didn’t help his relationship with the company and may have sped up the process of him getting released, as well as how he was on-pace to make one million dollars per year before his departure from the company.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On the WWE/UFC merger not helping his relationship with the company and his past issues with UFC President Dana White: “I think [the merger] definitely didn’t help things. Me and Dana White don’t have the greatest relationship and I know he’s definitely a big part of that. Definitely, yeah, it definitely played a part. Also, I know that they were making budget cuts regardless, and I was getting paid quite a pretty penny. I don’t know if it was before RK-BRO, or right after, but [John] Laurinaitis pulled me into the office. I thought I was in trouble, I didn’t get my vaccine yet and I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ We went in there and they were like, ‘Hey we wanted to give you a raise,’ and they gave me a substantial raise, and it was increased every year, and this year, I was going to get paid $1 million a year, I was at $750,000. Last year, I cleared my bucket. I did extremely well.”
On how he was on-track to receive 1 million dollars per year prior to his WWE release: “I think that was a big contributing factor. I was going to get paid $1 million starting in the next year, but I also think the merger didn’t help. Also, my behavior didn’t help either. I ruffled some feathers with HR in the last couple of years [and] months that I was there. I asked a couple of questions, this and that, plus other things. So, I think there’s multiple reasons why they got rid of me, but it is what it is. One door shuts and another one opens. You just learn from your mistakes.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.