During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Riddle commented on wanting to prove his value to Brock Lesnar and Goldberg, possibly working a match with Lesnar in WWE, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On being a representative of MMA in pro wrestling: “I think for a lot of wrestling fans and hardcore independent fans, they know my background and do their homework. They understand the whole package. I feel like a lot of WWE or NXT fans know it’s my background, but I don’t think they know the depth of my career in mixed martial arts because what they see is this over the top character who is very entertaining, but also when I get in the ring, you see that mixed martial arts. I do think I still represent the mixed martial arts community in wrestling just like Filthy Tom Lawlor, Shayna Baszler, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, and I guess we can even throw Goldberg in there since he’s hit some pads. Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, there’s a bunch. I think I’m one of the guys in that group.”
On a potential match with Brock Lesnar in WWE and wanting to prove his value to stars like Lesnar and Goldberg: “When we had our little back and forth backstage at the Royal Rumble – I think about two years ago at this point now – he did not like me. Ever since I was a kid, people either hated me or loved me and I think I just rubbed them the wrong way just like I rubbed Bill [Goldberg] the wrong way. I’m in the business of making money, and just like when I was in the UFC, I think the reason I got fired is because I needed to put more butts in seats. I made it a point to make myself valuable and I felt like at that point when I talked to Brock, I wasn’t valuable enough to him. Same thing to Goldberg when I was talking some trash. But now, they’re starting to see my stock rise. Maybe not now, I’m hoping we can [work together]. Last time I talked to Brock, it did not look good. It did not look promising. I don’t think he’ll ever wrestle me, but I think as long as I keep working, I keep upping my value and upping my stock, eventually, it’s gonna be the right choice for them. That’s my goal is to keep my in-ring work hard and intense and be as entertaining to the mass audience as possible.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
