7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 17)

2. A Step Backward For Riddle

In recent months, we’ve seen Matt Riddle grow as a character.

He got his first name back, made fewer lame stoner jokes, stopped being portrayed as a dumb, goofy man-child, and became more serious about winning matches and avenging losses.

But Monday, Riddle trotted down to the ring to gush about being a huge Elias fan during the troubadour’s big return, carrying bongos and asking Elias to take a hit off his bong(o). He continued to act goofy throughout the segment, even though he was about to face hated rival Seth Rollins for the United States Championship.

And then the match came, with Riddle having just won a feud-ending Fight Pit match a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately for Riddle, he was shoved into Elias and fell to a stomp before being saved by Mustafa Ali.

It just felt like some of the work being done to improve Riddle’s standing was undone Monday night. However, WWE has had a better track record of late, so we’ll give them an opportunity to fix this next week, but it would be a real shame if they dropped the ball after reinvigorating his character the past couple of months, only to putter it away.