Matt Riddle Reveals He Spoke To Tony Khan Backstage At NJPW Windy City Riot

After being released by WWE almost a year ago, 38-year-old Matt Riddle has been steadily rebuilding his wrestling career on the indies, working most weekends all over the country and even internationally. However, many fans still hope he’ll return to mainstream pro wrestling via AEW. And now, while being interviewed by Sports Illustrated , the former UFC fighter revealed he spoke to Tony Khan backstage at NJPW Windy City Riot in April, although he isn’t sure if he made a good impression.

“With AEW, I think AEW is a fantastic product,I know a lot of the people that work there. I like the company. I like the way they work. I like the people that work there … I talked to Tony, don’t know if he likes me. He seemed happy. I wrestled Zack Sabre Jr. in Chicago. He seemed cool about it. I don’t know. When you meet me, I’m very sarcastic. But when I met him, I was like, ‘Oh, you like that match?’ But I said it a different way, and he looked at me all confused. And I was like, ‘Never mind, dude.’ I just walked away. So that was my experience with that.”

Like many other wrestlers before him, Riddle has been his own worst enemy and would have likely been one of WWE’s current top stars had he remained with the company. Yet it does appear he is in a far better position in his personal life now than he was a year ago. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to debut for AEW or even return to WWE in the future if he can avoid any more controversy.