News On Matt Riddle's WWE Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank Claims

During an autograph signing session with Signed by Superstars, former WWE star Matt Riddle claimed that he was told he was going to win the 2022 men's Royal Rumble match until plans changed. At another point in the session, Riddle also said the following...

"I was supposed to win Money in the Bank but Vince (McMahon) really likes Austin Theory and literally hours before, they changed it and Austin was added in and threw me off the ladder."

In response to these claims, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, while speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, clarified the situation:

"Okay, so the story as far as the Money in the Bank briefcase, which he said he was going to win, and then Vince McMahon later changed it to Austin Theory on the day of the event. It was not necessarily that he was going to win. That did happen in the sense that Vince McMahon changed it to Austin Theory, but there were several contenders. It was never 100% anyone. Matt Riddle absolutely was one of the people, perhaps even the favorite, but it wasn't like it was Matt Riddle and then changed to Austin Theory. It was perhaps Matt Riddle.

He was involved in that one Rumble, from what I was told… If you think about when it was and everything like that and how he was being pushed, and that the winner of the [Royal] Rumble main events WrestleMania, he was never being pushed at that level. And I was told that he was not considered seriously at any point to win the Royal Rumble. So that’s the story there. Could he have been a guy who won the briefcase, and they did angles with him and some comedy with them and all that? Absolutely. Royal Rumble, main event WrestleMania against Roman Reigns or somebody like that. It’s not like they couldn’t have done it, but they weren’t going to do it then. And I know people there that were, top people there that were very, very high on him. But, he kept getting the bad pub. A lot of people didn’t really want to see him succeed because he was not very judicious."

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