For the past few months, NXT superstar Matt Riddle has fired a number of shots at WWE legends, including Hall of Famers such as Bill Goldberg and Booker T. The former UFC welterweight’s latest target appears to be none other than WWE alumnus Chris Jericho, as he didn’t appear to take too kindly to the current All Elite Wrestling star’s attempts to offer career advice.
As recapped by Wrestling Inc ., the original piece of advice came from a Twitter user who tagged Riddle when he shared a passage from Jericho’s first autobiography, A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex . This excerpt from the book dealt with Jericho’s earlier days in the professional wrestling business, where he was told that a wrestler should never completely make their opponent look bad when cutting a promo. Jericho then retweeted the post, telling Riddle to “listen and learn” from his past experience in the industry.
Not long after Jericho’s retweet, Riddle responded by blasting the 48-year-old AEW standout and making reference to the fact that he had once competed for World Championship Wrestling – WWE’s now-defunct rival promotion – in the 1990s.
“What’s wrong with these WCW guys? First Goldberg then Booker T and now a really boring wrestler who hates barefoot Bros (Lance Storm) and last but not least Y2J. It’s almost like you all wanna get beat up before you retire.”
I guess old WCW wrestlers hate the bro, I wonder who will be next ??? #brover #ob #originalbro #kingofbros #stallion #nxt #wwenetwork #splx #bro pic.twitter.com/wzzrojOMC9
— matthew riddle (@SuperKingofBros) June 28, 2019
Although Matt Riddle’s previous rants against Goldberg appear to be mainly in character, the mixed martial artist-turned-pro wrestler nonetheless drew flak from Booker T in June over these comments. Per WhatCulture , Booker remarked that Riddle “needs a lot of work” and has to “work on his craft” in order to establish himself further as part of WWE’s NXT brand.
Earlier that month, many fans speculated that former WCW and WWE star Lance Storm was targeting Riddle in a series of tweets, including one where he said that he “[considers himself] a professional wrestler” not only because that’s how he makes his living, but also because of how he “tried to conduct [himself].”
According to Wrestling Inc ., these comments from Storm came shortly after Riddle posted a now-deleted video where he called Goldberg “the worst wrestler in the business.” The clip was reportedly posted as a reaction to Goldberg’s poorly-received match against The Undertaker at WWE’s Super ShowDown pay-per-view.
It’s not clear whether Riddle’s latest social media antics will have any bearing on his push in NXT going forward. However, Ringside News previously cited wrestling insider Brad Shepard, who said in June that Riddle’s lack of success on the yellow-and-black brand at that time appears to have been WWE’s way of indirectly warning him about “becoming too chatty on Twitter” with the legends of the business.