Matt Riddle was recently a guest on WWE’s After The Bell podcast hosted by Corey Graves during which he talked about why he can be himself in WWE:

"I think the reason why I can still be mostly me 100% is because I’m very flexible. On certain things I won’t budge, and a lot of things I do budge.  In WWE, it’s a lot of give and take. For me, I think one of my biggest strengths is how well I work with other people, especially in the back. I’m doing the right things.  I’m very flexible.  I feel like one of the main reasons I get to wrestle barefoot, I get to keep my last name, I get to do all this stuff, and they don’t want to change stuff about me, is because I am authentic.  It’s different.  It’s new.  Yes, WWE is a huge company, a corporation, so yes they might want to change a couple things to cater to a world wide audience, but also, if you show them what you are, how authentic you are, how creative you are, and how charismatic you can be, you’re comedic timing and you can show them your strengths with the stuff they give you, they’re going to start to excel with that.  They’re going to start pushing that.  For me, I try to go out with the other wrestlers because I want to build a relationship with them."