Matt Riddle Released by the WWE After Their Merger With the UFC; Joins Dolph Ziggler as Free-Agents – News18

Matthew Fredrick Riddle, also known as Matt Riddle has now confirmed that he has been the latest among those who have been released by the WWE. After WWE was merged with the UFC to form TKO, the company has been laying off hundreds of employees from the backend to the superstars in the ring.

Riddle confirmed his release via a post on his social media handle in X (formerly known as Twitter).

The Original Bro previously had a budding career as an MMA fighter and even made it to the sister organisation of the WWE, the UFC. He was part of many fights with the organisation but was eventually released due to certain violations.

He then managed to start in the independent circuits soon after which he became a part of the NXT roster. Despite having many feuds, it was his tag-team partnership with Pete Dunne who is now known as Butch where they called themselves, ‘The Broserweights. where they won the NXT Tag Team titles.’

He was even part of the NXT team that went up against Team Raw and Team Smackdown in Survivor Series.

Not too long after, he made his appearance on the main roster when Kurt Angle announced that he would be part of Smackdown.

He was then transferred to Raw where he managed to win his first singles title, the United States Championship at Elimination Chamber where he won against Bobby Lashley.

But his career would go up a notch when he formed a tag-team partnership with Randy Orton which was arguably the highlight of his pro-wrestling career. The pair managed to win the Raw tag-team championships twice and were a hot duo in the WWE Universe.

The duo were last seen feuding against The Bloodline. But since Orton was out with a back injury for a significant period, Riddle has been going solo since then where he earned the shot for the WWE Universal Championship against the champion, Roman Reigns.

His last major feud before his departure was against Seth Rollins where the two had competed in the company’s first Fight Pit match where the stipulation states that the two would be fighting inside a steel cage but like the traditional version, there is no victory given when one escapes. But one has to either knock out or submit their opponent to earn their victory.

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One might have thought that Riddle could benefit from the merger as he has had relations with both companies. However, his personal issues might have been the reasons why the company might not have had the faith to continue with him. He was accused of sexual assault and another incident where Riddle claimed to have been sexually assaulted but was arrested for disorderly conduct.

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There is no confirmation on whether this would be the last among the superstars who are released from the WWE. The company released 17 members of their roster yesterday with notable members being, Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali and Shelton Benjamin.