Matt Riddle Responds To Newly-Corroborated Story Of ‘Stripping Down’ In Women’s Locker Room At Indie Show

An older allegation that Matt Riddle stripped down in a women’s locker room has been corroborated by independent veteran Malia Hosaka. Riddle, who was recently released by WWE amid their spate of post-merger cuts, was accused back in 2020 during the #SpeakingOut movement by Indiana-based wrestler Thunderkitty of “changing down to his ‘gear’ in front of everyone in a WOMENS locker room” and that a “one of my friends/well respected veteran lady wrestler told him to stop… and leave and he got sh**ty to the point they were in each other’s faces.”

That tweet has since been deleted and was largely forgotten amid many other allegations that were made against people, including Riddle who was accused of sexual assault and eventually sued in regard to those claims in a lawsuit that was eventually dropped. David Bixenspan recently looked further into Thunderkitty’s tweet and has learned that indie veteran Malia Hosaka was the veteran mentioned in the tweet.

Hosaka responded to Bixenspan via Facebook Messenger and wrote:

“We were all in there, our show was going on. I didn’t know who he was, but I was sitting with my feet propped up and eyes closed. When I opened them[,] he was on my right stripped down to his underwear and I got mad at the lack of respect from today’s generation. For him to come into the locker room to change while the women had the room[,] and to strip down and change was disrespectful. There was a bathroom down the hall that fans couldn’t get to that he could have used. [In m]y generation[,] the men and women respected each other enough to at least ask if it was ok or to ask for privacy. It pissed me off[,] and then his attitude that he had underwear on and that it wasn’t a big deal pissed me off more[,] so I told him how I felt about the lack of respect.”

Hosaka added that Riddle called her a “bitch,” possibly saying something to the effect that she “didn’t need to be such a bitch about it,” and didn’t show any regret over the situation. Bixenspan asked Riddle about the situation and he replied:

“The PWX thing wasn’t even an incident[.] [T]here was only one locker room (which isn’t uncommon on the indies unfortunately) [and] the promoter told me to change in there[,] so I did. Malia confronted me on my way out, I explained that the promoter told me to go change in there and she talked to the promoter and that was the end of it.”

The show was a double header with Queens of Combat that took place on September 17th, 2016. The report goes onto note that sources familiar with how the shows are run cast doubt on whether it could have happened as described by Riddle, making clear that PWX has always had two locker rooms if there were women on the show, especially at the venue that this show took place at as it had several spare rooms. Said sources also pointed out that even if a sole locker room from the QOC show was repurposed as the men’s locker room for the PWX show, all of the men on that show were told not to enter the space until all of the women were gone. Further, the same sources said that Riddle wouldn’t have had any need to change into his gear at any time when the all-women’s show was going on, which was when the incident took place. The Queens of Combat show ran until 6:00 PM ET, and the PWX show had a 7:00 PM ET bell time.

The report also details one part of the allegations against Riddle for sexual assault by Candy Cartwright, noting that a friend of Riddle’s known as “Abby The Butcher” (no, not Abdullah) had tweeted the same day as Thunderkitty’s tweet stating he drove the car where Cartwright alleges she was sexually assaulted, and that the story couldn’t have been true. That tweet was also deleted because Abby wasn’t the driver and instead, as discovery in the lawsuit revealed, indie promoter, photographer, and videographer Joe Ranta drove the car. Riddle commented on that matter as well, writing:

“In regards to my friend Abby driving the van, he’s driven me and others on multiple occasions/loops in the north east [sic] when I was on the indies [and] even in WWE. [W]hen he realized she was talking about a different van ride/loop in the Midwest[,] he realized it and took his tweet down.”

Riddle had previously confirmed that he had an affair with Cartwright but denied the allegations and as noted above, the lawsuit Cartwright filed against him was eventually dropped.