WWE is punishing a superstar for his controversial actions; lost a match to Imperium member as a result, according to veteran (Exclusive)
During the recent episode of WWE RAW, an Imperium member got a win after more than two months of losing match after match. Meanwhile, his opponent has been on a bit of a losing streak, not winning a single televised match in almost a month. According to industry veteran Vince Russo, this is because WWE is punishing Matt Riddle for something he has done.
Riddle has not had the best time recently. Other than defeating Giovanni Vinci towards the beginning of July, he has not only not picked up a single win, but he has also lost match after match.
This week, Ludwig Kaiser beat him, winning his first match since May 29. The star has since been making rather cryptic posts online with fans debating about what's next for him.
In a recent appearance on Legion of RAW with Dr. Chris Featherstone, Vince Russo spoke about how Matt Riddle has been treated by WWE, and that Kaiser's win was more a signal that Riddle was being punished.
“I don’t think this is Kaiser getting a push. I think this is part of the Riddle punishment. Whatever he was away for, or whatever the issues have been with Riddle, that’s what this was.” (11:18 - 11:35)
Matt Riddle would have made WWE a lot of money, according to Vince Russo
Russo went on to say that Riddle was someone who could make WWE a lot of money. They would not be able to make the same money with Kaiser. So if they were using Riddle like this with him losing regularly, then it was a signal of things happening backstage in the company.
“Riddle is money. Riddle is money to the kids, he is super cool, he is super over. There is money on Riddle. They are not going to make that money with Kaiser, obviously, they’ve got him in a second fiddle role. So when you see something like this, and when you see Riddle beat the last couple of weeks, that’s what we’re looking at. Whatever happened backstage, whatever he’s done, whatever test he failed, or didn’t fail, we’re going through the testing period now.” (11:44 – 12:19)
According to a recent report, this appears to be the case after all, with Dave Meltzer reporting that WWE was not going to build around Riddle in the future.