Roman Reigns was separated from former champion with whom he had real-life heat, says ex-WWE host, during a media appearance
Roman Reigns appeared on WWE's The Bump nearly three years ago. Meanwhile, a former host of the show recently revealed that the crew had to keep the Original Tribal Chief away from a former champion with whom Roman had real-life heat during that appearance.
The host in question is none other than Matt Camp. During a recent episode of The Wrestling Matt podcast, he recalled the August 25, 2021, episode, which saw Reigns appear on WWE's The Bump via video to promote a sunglasses brand. Camp pointed out that former United States Champion Matt Riddle was the scheduled in-studio guest for the same episode.
However, they kept The King of Bros off-set until Reigns' segment ended to separate the two superstars, as they had real-life heat. Notably, Riddle took potshots at the Original Tribal Chief during an interview with Bleacher Report in 2021. During the interview, The Original Bro referenced his MMA background and claimed he could beat up the former Shield member in a real fight. The comments did not go down well with The Big Dog.
Despite taking measures to keep Reigns and Riddle from interacting on camera, Camp stated that The King of Bros "said something dumb" about the Original Tribal Chief immediately in another interview.
"The funny part, little side part, of that show is Riddle was the in-studio guest, and we 100 percent did not put Riddle on the set until Roman was gone off the video screen. Just not gonna mess with that. And then Riddle went and said something dumb about Roman, like, right after that in another interview," he said.
The former WWE personality pointed out that although he and his co-hosts would sometimes let in-studio and on-video guests interact, he claimed it was the "right call" to avoid a possible verbal altercation between Roman and Riddle.
"Like, right after that. And I think that's where he [Matt Riddle] told the story about writing like a letter to Roman apologizing, and Randy told him to do it and all that. But we made it a point to keep Riddle [away from Reigns] because we would have those interactions where someone would be in studio, and then they'd interact with the guest whether they were in storyline or never; we had some fun stuff with that. We 100 percent kept Riddle off the set until the Roman interview was done, which was the right call," he added. [58:51-59:59]
Matt Riddle was released from WWE in 2023
After wrestling for a few years on the independent circuit, Matt Riddle joined WWE in 2018. After spending nearly two years in NXT, he moved to the main roster in 2020. Over the next three years, Riddle held multiple titles. Meanwhile, he was also involved in several controversies.
Last September, the 38-year-old was released from his WWE contract. He has since returned to the independent circuit. During an interview with MuscleManMalcolm in June 2024, Riddle disclosed that he discussed his potential return to the company during a recent interaction with Randy Orton.
"I talked to Randy probably a week and a half, two weeks ago, about an arcade; we talked about some other stuff, just hanging out. He always asks me if I wanna come back, and I’m like, ‘Maybe one day!’ Right now, with the kid and everything, I’m enjoying my time, and I’m trying to get my life all together. Not that you’ll ever get your life together, but yeah, you know, things have been really good. I’m focusing a lot on myself and other things," he said.
It will be interesting to see if Matt Riddle returns to the Stamford-based company in the future.
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