WWE Smackdown can be an interesting place at times, and this looks like another one as they potentally break some time honored traditions, and it all may start with an interview.
Michael Cole Interviews Matt Riddle
With his shocking first main roster win over AJ Styles in the books, Matt Riddle will sit down with Michael Cole for an interview on this week’s WWE Smackdown (7/3). It’ll start out as a chance for fans to get to know Riddle a little better. We expect it to be the standard slew of questions about what motivates him, what was it like beating Styles in his debut, who he’d like to face next, and so on.
About here is where we expect an interruption to happen, as is standard for these things.
Normally, we’d think it’d be AJ Styles coming out and wanting a piece of Riddle for humiliating him in their non-title match, and while that may happen, it seems there’s another rivalry ahead for Matt Riddle, and his opponent may not be too happy about it if the rumors are true.
Matt Riddle and King Corbin
There really is no one better to interrupt someone’s first interview than WWE Smackdown’s resident bully, King Corbin, but this also brings some interesting baggage.
Rumor has it that Corbin isn’t pleased about his role because Riddle should’ve faced a handful of enhancement talent before stepping up to the big leagues, and he has a point.
Matt Riddle is obviously being fast tracked to being a top superstar.
It’s surprising and it’s not, as the WWE has long held a tradition where newcomers to the main roster had to show their worth against jobbers and other up and coming talent, but that was wish a live audience. And no, the performance enhancement talent is not a real audience.
Since there isn’t a live audience, and Vince McMahon has shown a penchant for not listing to what the fans want the last few years anyway and the WWE needs to inject some energy (ignoring the talent on the roster that’s still sitting there wasting away), it looks like Riddle will be going up pretty fast.
This is only a rumor we’ve seen online among fans, but it has possibilities. King Corbin is one of McMahon’s guys, so he’ll be expected to put Riddle over if they do indeed enter a feud. This comes on the heels of Riddle beating AJ Styles in a non-title match and being refused a chance to compete for the Intercontinental Championship by Styles.
One thing that’s struck us odd even knowing this is Smackdown where strange things seem to happen, is that Corbin can’t be happy with this, as we mentioned above. Just last year, he challenged Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship, won the King of the Ring tournament, and feuded with Roman Reigns.
And now he’s being asked to put over Riddle as a face. This shows a trust in Corbin, especially given how he’s one of their best heels even if his gimmick is helter-skelter at best.
There is another potential reason for the fast tracking beyond the WWE need to inject some kind of life into their product besides consistent storytelling. This is the recent purchase of Evolve. While Evolve has long been a pipeline of talent for the WWE, with their staff and roster added, assuming the WWE keeps them, they may need room on the NXT roster.
In short, they’re going to fill the spots they created through releases with cheaper, less proven talent. This may also bode well for NXT star Keith Lee, who was expected to be called up and make a run for a main brand championship before the end of the year.
Will the push on Matt Riddle work out? Time will tell, but his and Corbin’s feud should be interesting given they have a recent history, so that should help generate some interest for WWE Smackdown.
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