Matt Riddle explains his absence from NJPW.
In the early months of 2024, Riddle was a strong precense in the promotion, even defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the NJPW World Television Championship in his second match for the company. Now, Riddle hasn't worked for the company since dropping that title to Zack Sabre Jr. a little under two months later.
While talking to Shakiel Mahjouri of Shak Wrestling for a new interview, Riddle explained that NJPW attempted to book him for a show in California after his title loss. Riddle also noted that he's a busy man and always has a lot going on.
"New Japan was great. I was supposed to go do a tour when I first started working with them, but I had a scheduling conflict. I had a match with RVD, and me being me, there is no way that I could miss a match with RVD. I told New Japan that I could come in the first week of the tour, but then I had to leave the second week and I’d be back before the weekend was over. They said that wasn’t going to work. I was like, ‘Okay.’ I worked for them in Chicago and dropped the title to Zack Sabre, and then they wanted me to wrestle again. When they did the next one in California, I had a booking with MLW, and MLW comes first. They’ve been taking care of me, I’ve worked with them in the past, and ever since I said, ‘I have a booking that day with MLW,’ they have not reached out. I don’t think it’s anything personal. I fill up my schedule early and wrestle two or three times a weekend, usually. Their schedule, they didn’t pencil me in. They would a lot of times call me or ask me to do a date and I was already booked. I think that was it. They have a lot going on and a lot of moving pieces. When you’re dealing with somebody like me, Mustafa Ali, or Donovan Dijak, we’re in demand. I wrestle all over the world all the time. You may not see me on TV, but I’m very busy."
Elsewhere in the interview, Riddle had high praise for Swerve Strickland, saying he's one of the best that he's ever wrestled. Check out his full comments here.
MLW recently announced the date and location for Fightland 2025. Check out that information by clicking here.
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