This past September, Matt Riddle was let go from WWE, where he had worked for years. He has since joined MLW and NJPW and is beginning to open up about his time with WWE.
Outside of the ring, Riddle found himself in hot water for a variety of reasons, including stints in rehab for substance abuse issues, which caused him to fail WWE’s wellness policy, issues with an adult film star who claimed he cheated on her to do drugs, and more.
During an interview with The MMA Hour, Riddle revealed that he failed multiple drug tests for cocaine while in WWE.
Ariel Helani: “The original offense was it not public? Do people not know they didn’t make any of the offenses?
Riddle: “Probably. I think they just wanted to keep it on the hush-hush, which I completely understand, you know, and they punished me as I got fined.”
Helani: “Can I ask what it was for?
Riddle: “You’re allowed to smoke weed. I went to the strip club and did some cocaine a couple of times. And I failed the drug test. That was the first one. That was well, that was for all of them. It was cocaine each time. But it was honestly just random nights, and the first drug test I took, WWE tests you randomly say any week, but sometimes you get tested, say, at the end of one month and the beginning of another month. So there was one week where I failed bang bang, didn’t know I failed the second one. And by the time I thought I failed the first one, I got two right at once. So I think that’s why they were a little more lenient with us.”
Riddle also talked about going to rehab and then thinking he was going to be fired when he got out:
“Honestly, for me, and probably just from my experience with the UFC, I thought I was going to get fired a long time ago just because, I don’t know. I got fired from the UFC. I was on a four fight win streak and then I got fired. So after that, I’ll be honest, I just think I’m going to get fired any day because you just never know. Some guys don’t, some guys do. So that’s how I always played it. And then after I went to rehab and stuff like that, and I got out, I didn’t even think they’re going to bring me back. It was Wrestlemania season. I wasn’t on Mania. And a lot of times they do the budget cuts right after there, so I was like, ‘think it’s already chopping block time?’ And that didn’t happen.
Then TKO merger and then plus my shenanigans, just acting a fool half the time didn’t help things. But at the same time, like I said, I think it was best for everybody. Honestly, the day I got fired, I remember, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, it’s not like mean, it’s not a dig to WWE, but it was probably one of the biggest reliefs I’ve had in a long time because for the last seven years, I was under contract with them, working very hard, and before that was working really hard to get there. I didn’t take one vacation like they give you vacation, but I always made sure I didn’t miss work and I didn’t take a vacation in like seven years. Wow. I think my vacation was my time in rehab. If you added up all my weeks over the seven years, probably the amount of time I spent there was my vacation time that I earned over the course of.”
Regarding the JFK Airport incident, he stated that he was returning from a WWE tour in India with a bad ear infection. He also drank some cocktails. Riddle referred to it as a perfect storm, and he saw it as a sign that he was overworking himself by jumping back into things too quickly.
Riddle admitted that doing a four-day tour and then traveling to India in a day and a half took its toll on him.
Matt Riddle talks the JFK Airport incident#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/WCI5FexGKJ
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) February 28, 2024
— WrestleClipsnVids (@wrestlevidsclip) February 28, 2024
