Matt Riddle has revealed that Randy Orton didn’t like him at first.
RK Bro is the most famous and potentially most memorable act of Riddle’s wrestling career. Though like many other legends of the business, Orton wasn’t a fan of the King of Bros at first, because of his unique approach to things in the business.
The former WWE Star told the story of his first interaction with The Viper during an interview with Barstool Rasslin’. He revealed that he didn’t shake Randy’s hand when he came into the locker room because he didn’t want to look like a fanboy:
“Before we actually wrestled a full match, Randy wasn’t a huge fan of me. I guess he thought I was disrespectful because I had my headphones on. He came to the locker room, everybody was shaking everybody’s hand.
I didn’t want to be like a nerd and go over. Didn’t wanna do that. So I [just] gave him a nod. I was waiting for my chance to shake his hand, but I guess he took that as disrespect. I wasn’t [blowing him off].”
First Person That Said Anything: Matt Riddle
Matt Riddle would go on to form a tag team with Randy Orton after they had a match on the April 19, 2021 episode of Raw. Though according to the former US Champion Orton had already softened up to him following his infamous backstage promo where he forgot his lines:
“Later on, I did a promo with Asuka where I forgot my lines. I had this long segment about talking about robots in Japan, and I forgot it. I didn’t know we were live; I thought we were recording. When I did that, I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m probably in trouble.’
When I went to the locker room the first person that said anything was Randy. He goes, ‘I don’t know if that shit was planned, kid, but that was the funniest shit you’ve done since you’ve been here. That was your best promo yet.’ I was like ‘Well, at least Randy liked it.’ and then Vince and Bruce, and everybody else that was in creative also enjoyed it.”
Apart from this, Riddle also talked about potentially facing Goldberg in his announced retirement match, the difference of pro wrestling and MMA, and more.
