Can Matt Riddle Break The WWE Main Roster Curse?
Matt Riddle is a performer you can well imagine Vince McMahon wants to push, as opposed to a performer he signed to spite the competition. Riddle, and this isn’t (just) the facetious surge of optimism it should be, genuinely beams on his way to the ring. He doesn’t need such direction from Vince McMahon. He is a performer as attuned to his wavelength as any other.
Riddle brings with him much sought-after combat sports credibility. A jovial killer, McMahon may see him as some beautiful child of John Cena and Brock Lesnar boasting a chant of Yes!-sized potential. He’s tall, too, and his physique is shredded. McMahon, famously, likes an ass-kicker. It doesn’t matter how technically gifted, even over, a WWE wrestler is. It doesn’t matter how much potential they hold to make money; unless the duress is unavoidable, McMahon will not push them.
Riddle is an ass-kicker. On the Ultimate Fighter, he left Dan Simmler literally whimpering on the mat, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, after breaking his jaw. It was a disturbing scene, but nothing too graphic for WWE’s PG parameters. With a loose relationship allowing WWE use of UFC footage, there are few better means of building the character on television if, as is customary, he is simply parachuted into the post-WrestleMania RAW.
His promo game isn’t exceptional, but then, what does that matter? The ability to cut a promo means less now than it ever has. Riddle can’t cut a great promo, but he wouldn’t be permitted to, anyhow.
The spectre of Mary Jane looms over everything. WWE only waited this long to sign Riddle as a result of his controversial exit from UFC. Though he is a documented and flagrant cannabis user, were it such an issue, WWE would not bother signing him at all. Naturally, the inherent vulturism of the media would see any potential backlash levelled at WWE when Riddle is positioned most prominently. The media waits. They circle. Regulator may yet become the ironic chapter title of his WWE journey, but then, the media doesn’t care much for WWE, nor the drug itself. If it isn’t Riddle, it isn’t anybody. There is no act in WWE nor elsewhere that meets Vince McMahon’s Superstar criteria.
Riddle may yet be the answer to the riddle, and if he somehow isn’t, any fading optimism surrounding WWE’s desire to push anybody beyond Roman Reigns at the top level will go up in smoke.