Beginning in 2018, Wrestleview.com has returned to monitoring and reporting on any stories making the rounds among the wrestling media. These stories will be clearly marked as a “rumor” (as highlighted in the image above) for reference.
There has been heavy speculation going on within the wrestling media over the last few days about the future of independent star and former UFC fighter, Matt Riddle, and if Riddle is soon heading to WWE and NXT.
Riddle, who currently makes regular appearances for PWG and EVOLVE, has pulled out of the upcoming Battle of Los Angeles tournament that PWG holds every September, as confirmed by PWG on Twitter earlier this week.
Matthew Riddle will no longer be a participant in the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles. Trevor Lee has now entered the tournament in his place!
— PWG (@OfficialPWG) July 24, 2018
Riddle has also pulled out of an upcoming date for the OTT promotion out of Ireland.
https://twitter.com/OTT_wrestling/status/1019938556867948544
Riddle, the current EVOLVE champion, is currently scheduled for all his upcoming dates with the company next month, but nothing past August 13.
Riddle also has dates this weekend for CZW in New Jersey and Beyond Wrestling in Rhode Island, with CZW outright advertising Riddle as making one of his last appearances before heading to WWE on their poster via their website.
Riddle has reportedly gained interest from both WWE and New Japan in recent months. For years since Riddle made the move from an MMA career with the UFC to becoming a pro wrestler in 2015, the hang-up about him was said to be due to his storied history with marijuana use that led to Riddle’s firing from UFC in 2013.
Riddle had been set to come in for New Japan last November during their World Tag League tournament with Lucha Underground star Jeff Cobb as part of their Chosen Bros. team, but New Japan decided against it as marijuana use is illegal in Japan, with Impact star Matt Sydal notably being arrested in 2016 and later leaving New Japan all together.
Riddle’s marijuana use was also a hang-up for WWE when he tried out for them in 2015, but it led to WWE asking EVOLVE if they would use Riddle to help gain him some seasoning. Riddle has since been of the faces of the EVOLVE promotion and their WWN family of promotions, winning both the WWN and EVOLVE titles in his three years with the company.
Riddle has made no confirmation as to what his future holds as of this writing, so time will tell on where Riddle will end up next.