Matt Riddle No-Shows Charity Event: Ex-WWE Star Refutes Claims, Gets Caught Lying (WWE News)
This is just the latest bit of controversy involving former WWE man Riddle.
Former WWE star Matt Riddle is in the news again for the wrong reasons.
Riddle recently no-showed Global Wrestling Kingdom's first event on 31 August in the UK. He was scheduled to wrestle WhatCulture's very own Simon Miller in the main event, but was replaced by the ever-popular Grado last-minute. The Scot was brought in as a late sub, and admitted he'd been concerned that fans would feel let down by the replacement. However, he agreed to help out and wrestle Miller.
Then, in a video posted to his X account, Riddle addressed the no-show and blamed promoters for failing to book him a proper flight in time. Matt said: "The reason I didn’t go is because you booked me a flight for Thursday for a show that was happening Sunday and you said you were booking me meet and greets, other matches and appearances. You did none of that. I had nothing scheduled and I was going to sit in a hotel room for two days in London. I told you multiple times I can’t do that or wouldn’t do that".
There was also an issue with exactly who'd pay for a flight hastily arranged on the Thursday. Riddle thought the promoter should pay for it, but they wanted him to foot the bill. That's when Matt offered to have them "take it out of [his] pay". Instead of flying over to the UK as planned, Riddle went to Miami for another independent appearance.
At one point during his rebuttal, Riddle claimed that GWK made "a last second change" by turning the show into a charity event.
Al Snow's Prior Announcement Is Awkward For Riddle
The problem with that is...Al Snow, who's involved in Kingdom, had released his own video promo stating that profits from the event would be donated to Help 4 Homeless Veterans and Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide afterwards. Cultaholic noted that this was 4 weeks ago, and Riddle subsequently cut hype promos for his match vs. Miller after that.
So, in other words, he's been caught out here.
There's no way Matt was ignorant to the charity gig, because it had been laid out by Snow publicly around a month in advance of the show. Claiming that GWK made the change late on to make him look bad is a weak argument then, and it's just the latest in a long line of puzzling incidents involving the former WWE man.