Seth Rollins rebounded from losing every match in his epic trilogy with Cody Rhodes by... well, first he kicked Rhodes’ butt. Because the ghastly bruise from Cody’s torn pec wasn’t enough of a reason to write him off television, I guess.
Then he headed into Money in the Bank, where he got close to grabbing the briefcase until Matt Riddle Super-RKO-d him off a later. Theory swooped in to grab the contract, but a feud was born.
Since then, it’s been an escalating series of attacks as WWE’s turned up the heat on the Riddle/Rollins rivalry. Several of those have involved Seth stomping Riddle’s head into the steel ring steps, and a kayfabe “brachial plexus” injury for the King of Bros that postponed a planned SummerSlam clash.
The physical attacks have continued in the build to this weekend’s premium live event, and on Aug. 29’s go home episode of Raw Rollins added some pointed verbal ones that rattled Riddle. They came once the cameras “stopped rolling” on this televised interview, with Seth taking issue to his opponent saying Becky Lynch was The Man in their family and firing off with:
“You want to talk about my family, man, let’s talk about your family. Oh wait, you ain’t got one cause your wife divorced you, took your kids, and they don’t want to see your bitch ass anymore, huh?”
It’s a line that got Riddle to drop some f-bombs, and everyone watching to say “OH NO HE DIDN’T!” The heat is on for Cardiff. Was it worth it, though?
It’s not the first time WWE’s decided to bring Riddle’s personal life into his storylines. Baron Corbin brought up the former UFC fighter cheating on his then-wife during their feud at Payback in 2020, and that was after Riddle’s former mistress alleged he’d sexually assaulted her during their relationship (she later sued both him & WWE, but later dropped the case).
This reference comes after Riddle’s marriage ended, allegedly in part due to his infidelity, and while his now-ex girlfriend was tweeting out screenshots of graphic text messages they’d exchanged during their relationship and accusing him of pressuring her into sex. We won’t share those (a basic Twitter search will lead you to them), and or pretend to have any real insight into the situation.
But we will say it’s odd that the company would risk calling attention to any of these allegations by referencing them on television.
Especially for a program that has done a pretty good job of convincing us the rivals hate each other without them.
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