Matt Riddle Says WrestleMania 30 Inspired Him To Get Into Wrestling

Matt Riddle credits WrestleMania 30 as the event that inspired him to enter pro wrestling. The WWE and UFC alumnus appeared on Rewind Recap Relive and during the conversation he spoke about how the 2014 PPV, and Brock Lesnar & Bryan Danielson in particular, led him to believe he could make it in Wrestling.

“I also saw that year Daniel Bryan beat Triple H and beat Batista,” Riddle said (per Wrestling Inc). “It was [WrestleMania] 30 and that’s the first year of the network. No knock to Daniel Bryan, he’s an amazing professional wrestler, one of the probably the best, if not one of the best in the world. But I was like if he can do it, and he’s using a shoot background, kind of like a jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai background, and he’s not the biggest guy in the room. When I was watching wrestling for a lot of it, the biggest guy in the room dominated and still that happens, but now it seemed like this whole new window [opened].”

He continued, “”If you could actually back it up with your background, like Brock Lesnar beating [The Undertaker’s] streak, it was a big year, a big WrestleMania. An MMA guy breaking The Streak in Brock and then Daniel Bryan being not that big, but beating Batista and Triple H [and Randy Orton] in the same night to become the Undisputed Champion. I think there’s an opening for me.”

Riddle is currently the MLW World Champion.