According to F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer, WWE have renewed their interest in EVOLVE’s Matt Riddle. Riddle, initially an MMA fighter by profession, turned towards pro-wrestling after a seven-year career in MMA.
Riddle caught WWE’s eye ever since he first burst onto the scene. He impressed the officials in his tryouts but didn’t get signed by the company after they found out about his marijuana test failure during his time in the UFC.
The marijuana charge was not something Riddle kept secret from them, but the company thought of keeping Riddle’s signing aside for a while to avoid any bad press. It should be noted that the WWE does not suspend talent for failing marijuana tests, but fines talent if found positive, known in wrestler’s lingo as “Pot Tax”.
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In order to not let a talented athlete like Riddle go out of their reach, WWE sent him to EVOLVE, run by Gabe Sapolsky, to further allow him time to hone his wrestling skills. WWE have already signed EVOLVE stars such as Tony Nese, and Drew Gulak to their Cruiserweight Division.
After Tony Nese’s WWE contract signing at EVOLVE 73, several members of the crowd had started chanting “Bro!”, directed towards Matt Riddle. The chants had started after WWE Official William Regal, who was presiding over this signing, informed the crowd about WWE’s interest in signing more stars from EVOLVE.
Riddle made his pro-wrestling debut in the February of 2015, at the Monster Factory in Paulsboro, New Jersey. Riddle signed on with EVOLVE in April of the same year and has been a company regular ever since. At EVOLVE 75, Riddle defeated Ricochet in a singles match.
The video below shows a mini-documentary on Matt Riddle:
The video below shows a match between Matt Riddle and TJ Perkins at EVOLVE:
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