Matt Riddle 'pretty stoked' for Major League Wrestling return after WWE run

Matt Riddle will return to professional wrestling Saturday when he faces off against Jacob Fatu at Major League Wrestling’s (MLW) Kings of Colosseum in Philadelphia.

Riddle competed in MLW until April 2018 and months later started in WWE’s NXT division. 

In WWE, he was the United States champion, RAW tag team champion, NXT tag team champion and a winner in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. 

Riddle and WWE parted ways in September, and it was announced last month he would make his return to MLW against Fatu.

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"I’m pretty stoked. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve wrestled for MLW," he told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "I remember having a lot of good matches with guys like Swerve (Strickland), Tom Lawlor and others. So, pretty, pretty stoked about it.

"Then, to get to wrestle Fatu in my first match back is, yeah, I’m excited. I wanted to wrestle Fatu before I got signed by WWE before but now it’s happening. Pretty happy about it."

Riddle said he’s enjoyed having the last couple of months off. He said he didn’t really feel like doing anything except relaxing and taking care of his family.

"The last couple months, they’ve been good. I feel like the last probably 10 years I’ve been wrestling pretty hard in the sense, like on the indies before I went to the ‘E’ (WWE), I was pretty busy traveling to Europe and wrestling everywhere. And then, of course, with the ‘E,’ I was traveling everywhere.

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"So, the last three months, I kinda just had my first vacation in a really long time. I had a kid. A little son, Matthew. So, it was really getting ready and kinda like a reset button. The last couple of months, I totally just didn’t want to do anything other than work out, relax and take care of my family.

"And now that (it’s) the New Year and I got that time and everything else like that, I think it’s just time to cook again and just really been focusing on that and what I want to do in the ring. I feel like before was more of a … it’s always entertainment, but it was a lot of entertainment before. And now, I think, the direction I’m going in, I’m going to be able to show the world what I can do in the ring and just present that version of myself rather than kind of a goofball on TV."

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Riddle's first MLW match in nearly five years will take place Saturday at the Kings of Colosseum at the 2300 Arena at 7 p.m. ET and can be seen on Triller TV.

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