Matt Riddle thinks Brock Lesnar really hates him

SmackDown’s Matt Riddle has been in the news lately for different reasons, but he used to make headlines for calling out - and being confronted backstage - by the biggest names in the business.

Corey Graves asked about the two biggest ones when Riddle was his guest on this week’s After The Bell podcast.

The King of Bros was diplomatic in talking about both Goldberg and Brock Lesnar. On the former, he praised Bill as a money-maker but not his cup of tea. On the latter, Riddle talked about being influenced to get into pro wrestling by WrestleMania 30, and specifically Daniel Bryan and Lesnar. That admiration played a part in why he uses Brock as motivation - even if the former UFC & WWE champ doesn’t see it that way.

As he explained to Graves, however, Riddle is not giving up:

“Brock - guy has it all. I want a piece because he’s awesome. I think he’s taken my comments as literal disrespect and I think he really hates me, which hey, okay, I get it. I rubbed you the wrong way. And I told everybody, ‘Hey, I get it. I’ll stay away, I won’t call these people out anymore, but I still want it.’ I’m not gonna go away, I’m gonna make myself valuable enough until the money’s on the table and he’s like ‘it’s worth it.’ And I know I can do it.

“When I first started wrestling... people would go like, ‘what’s your goal?’ And I like to set goals that are unattainable because in the process of trying to get to that goal, you’re probably going to be great. So, because he had just beat The Undertaker, I was like ‘I want to retire Brock Lesnar,’ and everyone was like, ‘Hahaha! That’ll never happen! You’re an idiot.’ And I’m like, yeah, it probably won’t happen, but I know if I try, I’ll probably be super successful... Brock - nothing but the utmost respect. And I think my words were taken as disrespectful, which is fine. But like I said, at the end of the day I just know I need to make myself valuable enough to where we get in the ring. I hope I can do that - and it’s not like a one minute squash [laughs].”

That all makes sense, and it sounds like WWE brass are getting through to him about the importance of respect in the wrestling business. We’ll see if his new approach works out better than his old one did.

Riddle is currently working a program with King Corbin on Friday nights, which he also discussed with Graves on After The Bell. Unsurprisingly not addressed on the official WWE podcast - a sexual assault allegation made against him during the #SpeakingOut movement that he claims is a Fatal Attraction-esque tactic by a woman with whom he had an extra-martial affair.