"Matt Riddle Had Amazing Opportunities Handed To Him & Screwed It All Up" - Kevin Owens (WWE News)

Kevin Owens has responded to former WWE star Matt Riddle's claims that KO and Sami Zayn were "hard to work with", calling Riddle somebody who "had really amazing opportunities handed to him" and "managed to screw it all up."

In March, Riddle told Going Ringside that Owens and Zayn were "maybe hard to work with", because "it's hard to put a complete sentence together with those guys."

Appearing on My Mom's Basement, Kevin stated that he has nothing against Riddle, who, in his eyes, had wasted major opportunities on WWE. He said that the former UFC fighter had "screwed it up" not because of talent, but his "own attitude and poor choices."

"It didn't take me by surprise," Owens said (h/t Fightful). "I did see it. It's funny because coming from him, I have nothing against him at all. He's a guy who had really amazing opportunities handed to him like being Randy's tag team partner for so long and basically getting to ride the coattails of a legend, and he managed to screw it all up. Not because of his abilities, because he's very talented and very athletic, but because of his own attitude and poor choices."

KO continued: "For him to say we're hard to work with or whatever, he couldn't get a word in, there is a pretty good reason for that. You look at his track record and you look at our track record, that speaks for itself."

This week's SmackDown saw Owens break the unfortunate news that he is suffering from a serious neck injury, needs to undergo surgery, and will miss WrestleMania 41 as a result. KO had been slated to face Randy Orton at the 19/20 April event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

There is currently no word on how long, exactly, Owens will be on WWE's injury list.