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#3. Hope is true: Vince McMahon's reaction to Riddle's botch on WWE TV
Asuka and Riddle have been two Superstars who have been important to WWE this past year. While Asuka has been the centerpiece of the RAW Women's division since May 2020, Riddle debuted on SmackDown and spent a few months there before getting drafted to RAW - where he has found more success.
Riddle's WWE career is taking off as he enters his first WrestleMania holding the United States Championship. A lot of Riddle's character is based on his real-life persona, to put it lightly.
There was a hilarious segment on WWE TV recently, where United States Champion Riddle had an interaction with RAW Women's Champion Asuka. Less than a minute in, it appeared that Riddle forgot his line and simply went away - leaving Asuka a little confused.
According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, WWE CEO Vince McMahon and Executive Director Bruce Prichard saw the segment and laughed about it. Interestingly, Alvarez speculated that the segment might have been pre-taped and WWE possibly aired the botched version on purpose:
“Well, it was a shoot! Yup, they did not tell him…I haven’t fully figured out the story yet because the story I was told actually doesn’t make a lot of sense. The story I was told was he wasn’t told it was live but [Bruce] Prichard and Vince [McMahon] saw it and they just laughed and laughed and laughed. So, if it was live you can’t redo it. So I’m wondering if what actually happened was a pretape that he screwed up but they loved the pretape so much — the point is what you saw on TV was not a plan. He was supposed to deliver his line." (H/T WrestlingNews)
We hope this is true (the part about Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard laughing) because it's better than him getting heat for a small mistake. Moreover, it fits Riddle's character, so he won't be affected by it in any way - nor will his position in WWE.
