Alex Riley Returning To Pro Wrestling
Former WWE star Alex Riley is officially making his return to wrestling after having not competed inside the squared circle in over 6 ½ years. Create A Pro NY announced via Twitter: "Former Create A Pro Tag Team Champions VBU faces a tough task as they take on the team of Alex Riley and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion @PlanetTyrus! Bring 2 unwrapped wrestling toys to donate for admission into the event!"
🚨MATCH ANNOUNCEMENT🚨
Former Create A Pro Tag Team Champions VBU faces a tough task as they take on the team of Alex Riley and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion @PlanetTyrus!
Bring 2 unwrapped wrestling toys to donate for admission into the event! pic.twitter.com/65OmcwZFhe
— Create A Pro NY (@CreateAPro) November 25, 2022
Riley will be teaming with Tyrus, who recently won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at Hard Times 3, against the team of Jack Tomlinson and Dante Drago known as VBU. This will be Riley's first match since losing to Shinsuke Nakamura in April 2016 on an episode of "NXT." While with the "NXT" brand, Riley also found himself on commentary for several weekly episodes and one of the earliest Takeovers — Takeover: R-Evolution.
Riley found no championship success while with WWE, however, prior to making his way to the main roster, he held the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship for over 100 days. Riley did find himself involved with the main event of WrestleMania 27, however, in The Miz's corner for his match against John Cena. Cena allegedly played a much bigger role in Riley's career though.
While many stars have blamed their lack of impact or lack of success in the business on a variety of reasons, Riley places his right at the feet of Cena. In May 2016, Riley was released from WWE and has since stated that there was an incident involving Cena, which he believes held him back in the company.