Matt Riddle Denies Allegations Of Sexual Assault, Admits To Affair

By Marc Middleton

Matt Riddle took to Twitter today and issued a video statement to deny allegations of sexual assault and harassment made by a woman named Candy Cartwright. The indie women's wrestler recently accused Riddle as a part of the "#SpeakingOut" movement on social media, claiming Riddle assaulted her when they rode together back in 2018.

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"I have never in my entire life sexually assaulted a man, woman, or anybody," Riddle said. That includes Samantha Tavel, Candy Cartwright. I never sexually assaulted you. That story about that van trip, and the driver being asleep, and me forcing you to do stuff, and hop on... whatever, it's a complete lie. It's a fabricated story because you're still mad."

Riddle went on to admit that he had an affair and cheated on his wife. The WWE SmackDown Superstar went on to say that he told his wife about the affair, and tried to block Cartwright from his life, but she kept trying to make contact.

"You know why you're mad? Because yes, you're right – we had an affair," Riddle admitted. "You have plenty of evidence of that. And you know what? I never denied it, because it happened. Do I want to talk about it, do I want really want to share about it? No, it's embarrassing, because I feel like a real piece of crap cheating on my wife and doing that. And now having to talk about it publicly, but I have to. We had a relationship, we had a fling. I started to get sad and depressed because I was lying to my wife so much to hide what I was doing. I was lying to all my friends because I didn't want anybody to know, because it's not something cool. I didn't want to brag about it, I tried to end it. I told my wife about you and us. I tried to end it. I blocked you, I blocked your social media. You then started using messaging apps and you kept coming. I blocked those. I got a new number, you got my new number and kept messaging me. You literally got on social media accounts for other companies, kept messaging me until I blocked them."

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Riddle also accused his accuser of harassing his friends. He also accused her of trying to use the "#SpeakingOut" movement as a way to end his career.

"Now you have literally started harassing me, showing up to hotels, harassing my friends. 'Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?' At this point you have to realize – if you don't think you're stalking me, or harassing me, you're crazy," Riddle said. "And if you're at home and you don't think this is harassment, you're crazy. At the end of the day, I'm not perfect. We did have an affair, and I'm not happy about that, but I never sexually abused anybody. I never sexually assaulted anybody, and when I wanted to get out of this relationship, out of this situation, she said no and she kept pursuing me, and harassing me, and stalking me. And then, when she didn't get her way, she used the #SpeakOut movement to try and ruin my career. Completely unacceptable. That's all I really have to say, that's the story. Everybody have a great day, take care. Later."

Riddle previously issued a statement through his lawyer to deny the allegations. It was noted on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that this was not the first time that Cartwright had come forward with accusations against Riddle, and apparently WWE had known about these accusations since the company first signed him to a contract in 2018.

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You can see Riddle's full video below:

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