January 6th will be the day of Riddle’s in-ring return.
Matt Riddle’s time in WWE came to an end in September when he was released from the company. He is scheduled to make his in-ring return on January 6th at MLW Kings of Colosseum.
It’ll be his first match for the organization since 2018. His opponent will be Jacob Fatu and ahead of the bout, Riddle spoke to Ryan Gaydos of Fox News. He stated that he’s ‘pretty stoked’ about his return to MLW. Riddle has wanted to wrestle Fatu since before he joined WWE.
I’m pretty stoked. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve wrestled for MLW. I remember having a lot of good matches with guys like Swerve (Strickland), Tom Lawlor and others. So, pretty, pretty stoked about it. Then, to get to wrestle (Jacob) Fatu in my first match back is, yeah, I’m excited. I wanted to wrestle Fatu before I got signed by WWE before but now it’s happening. Pretty happy about it.
He went on to state that he feels like his past presentation was about entertainment. As for the new direction he’s taking himself in, Riddle wants to show everybody what he can do and present that version rather than being a ‘goofball on TV’.
The last couple months, they’ve been good. I feel like the last probably 10 years, I’ve been wrestling pretty hard in the sense, like on the indies before I went to the ‘E’ (WWE), I was pretty busy traveling to Europe and wrestling everywhere. And then, of course, with the ‘E,’ I was traveling everywhere. So, the last three months, I kinda just had my first vacation in a really long time. I had a kid. A little son, Matthew. So, it was really getting ready and kinda like a reset button. The last couple of months, I totally just didn’t want to do anything other than work out, relax and take care of my family. And now that (it’s) the New Year and I got that time and everything else like that, I think it’s just time to cook again and just really been focusing on that and what I want to do in the ring. I feel like before was more of a … it’s always entertainment, but it was a lot of entertainment before. And now, I think, the direction I’m going in, I’m going to be able to show the world what I can do in the ring and just present that version of myself rather than kind of a goofball on TV.
As of this writing, below is the lineup for the Kings of Colosseum special:
- Alec Price, Marcus Mather & Dyln McKay vs. Tony Deppen, T.J. Crawford & Griffin McCoy
- MLW World Tag Team Championships: Second Gear Crew (Matthew Justice & 1 Called Manders) (c) vs. Tom Lawlor & Josh Bishop (w/ Mister Saint Laurent)
- Love is Blind Match: Love, Doug vs. Brett Ryan Gosselin
- MLW National Openweight Championship — Taipei Death Match: Rickey Shane Page (c) vs. AKIRA
- MLW World Women’s Featherweight Championship: Janai Kai (c) (w/ Salina de la Renta) vs. Hyper Misao
- Matt Riddle vs. Jacob Fatu
- MLW World Heavyweight Championship: Alex Kane (c) (w/ Mr. Thomas) vs. Richard Holliday (w/ Mister Saint Laurent)
