Matt Riddle says life in MLW comes with a lot more creative freedom than what he experienced in WWE. In fact, Riddle claims WWE would sometimes shoot down his ideas as “dumb,” only for those same ideas to somehow find their way into his promos or sketches a couple of weeks later.
Speaking with The TakeDown on SI, Riddle was comparing his current MLW run to his time in WWE when the subject of creative freedom came up. He praised MLW for having an actual game plan while also giving him room to be himself.
“MLW definitely has a game plan. I definitely have more freedom here than I did in WWE. 100%.”
That’s when Riddle brought up one of his frustrations from his WWE run. According to the former United States Champion, he’d occasionally pitch something backstage, get told it wasn’t a good idea and then see something very similar become part of his material shortly afterwards.
“In WWE, most of the time when I suggested something, somebody would say it was dumb, and then two weeks later it would be part of the promo or part of the sketch. MLW kind of lets me rock.”
Riddle didn’t name anyone responsible for rejecting those pitches, nor did he reveal any specific ideas that went through that process. His bigger point was that he doesn’t feel like he’s dealing with the same creative restrictions now that he’s working with MLW.
That doesn’t mean MLW is some anything-goes operation either. Riddle said the promotion is still professionally run despite giving him more freedom, and he even gave the company some credit for taking care of the wrestlers backstage.
“They run MLW professionally. They’ve got good catering. There’s water, Gatorade, and sodas. It’s pretty sick.”
Riddle certainly isn’t complaining about his current setup. After dealing with ideas being rejected and then apparently resurfacing during his WWE run, he’s enjoying being somewhere that gives him more freedom from the start—and apparently having plenty of Gatorade around doesn’t hurt either.
What do you make of Matt Riddle’s claim that WWE would reject his ideas before using them weeks later? Let us know in the comments below.
