Matt Riddle Reportedly Quickly Eliminated From WWE Royal Rumble Due To Backstage Heat
Matt Riddle appeared in Sunday's 30-man WWE Royal Rumble match. Despite coming in late in the match at #23, Riddle lasted less than a minute before he was thrown out by Baron Corbin.
According to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Riddle has backstage heat in the company, which is why he was booked that way in the Rumble. Meltzer noted that "there is a lot of heat" on Riddle right now. While it's not known exactly why Riddle has heat, it's likely that he has rubbed some people the wrong way.
As reported earlier, Riddle had a verbal confrontation with Brock Lesnar before the Rumble last Sunday. Riddle also had words with WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg at SummerSlam last August, which led to him getting into a Twitter fight with Chris Jericho.
Riddle indicated that he had heat backstage in NXT last September when he posted the video below where he talked about to work.
"This message is for all the pieces of trash, hags, and whatever other word you want to call them that couldn't give me a ride today because their cars were too full with so much talent," Riddle said in the video. "I hate you all. You're garbage. Bye."
Tommaso Ciampa responded, "The boys shall police themselves. Aka go f— yourself."
At the post-TakeOver: Toronto II media scrum last August, Wrestling Inc. asked Triple H about Riddle's online beefs.
"It's his opinion," Triple H said. "It's social media, he has an opinion, he can say it. It is what it is.
"Matt Riddle's a very outspoken person so. He's a big boy."
The boys shall police themselves. Aka go f–k yourself. https://t.co/utYqw9jG92
? BLACKHEART (@NXTCiampa) September 6, 2019
Marc Middleton contributed to this article.