Matt Riddle was a recent guest on “E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness”. During the interview, he discussed who he enjoys watching, his plans for The Royal Rumble and more. Here are the highlights:

I was always into more, like, wrestling, so I was interested more in people who pushed the pace. One of my favorites and I watch him still is Rob Van Dam. And in ECW, even Tajiri. And, like, a Kurt Angle. I really liked people who pushed the boundary of it being like a show and a sport, where the pace itself is fast, it’s competitive, it makes it 100% believable to me. And that’s even why I wrestle the way I do now. I try to keep it at a real athletic and physical pace.

On Why He Got Into Amateur Wrestling:

Growing up, I was always a fan of [pro] wrestling, but I was also a fan of MMA and stuff. And I always wanted to wrestle, but, like, when you’re a kid, how do you do pro wrestling? Granted, [Edge and Christian] know what it’s like because [they have] done it, but for me, it seemed like the easiest way for me would be to get into amateur wrestling and go that route because it was a place I was allowed to go; I didn’t have to pay anything extra; and I could wrestle a couple of hours a day on mats; and it was competitive. It was like the closest thing I could get to pro wrestling. It was definitely for pro wrestling at first.

On When He Realized Smaller Wrestlers Could Make It In The WWE:

I was at home, I was recovering [from an ankle injury], and I was watching pro wrestling. It was when the Network just dropped for that $9.99, so for a guy like me, I could finally afford the pay-per-views every month. Keep up with the product easily with one destination. And, like I said, I would watch it off and on, but I hadn’t been watching it, like, hard, but I was watching it and I was like, ‘do you know what? I feel like the landscape has changed drastically.’ Like, I feel like the world of the giants isn’t just giants anymore. There [are] guys smaller than me and for a guy like me, that’s perfect.

On His Path To The WWE:

I started training at the Monster Factory, the ROH dojo, CZW, and I trained there. And eventually I had a tryout with WWE. I trained with Sean Waltman at the Monster Factory and he put in a word for me and I got a tryout at the [WWE] Performance Center. I did that and I hit him up like, ‘hey, I’ve been talking to Ring Of Honor, and I’ve been talking to other companies, and I want to do something, but if you guys aren’t going to use me right away, like, and I want to do something.’ And they were like, ‘have you heard of a company called Evolve?’ And I was like, ‘no,’ and they were like, ‘well, look them up.’ And I was like, ‘cool.

On Struggling To Gain The Support Of The Fans:

I could work decent. I wasn’t great, but I could work. But the crowds, they didn’t like me. They didn’t respect me because I didn’t put my time in. I was just some MMA guy that was put on the same pedestal as guys that have been working the indies for 10 years, so I was getting a lot of heat, as one would say.

On Wanting To Work With Larger Superstars:

In NXT, there’s a laundry list [of performers Riddle would like to face]. One that stands out at the top for me, like, that I haven’t had since I was really new in [pro] wrestling was Aleister Black. I wrestled him in Evolve when he was Tommy End, like, years ago. It was my first year in Evolve. Now, he’s where he’s at and I’m here. And I’ve definitely evolved to where I think we could really have a crazy one. Me and Kyle O’Reilly have wrestled all around the world. We’ve done good work. I’ve wrestled Keith Lee. I like wrestling the bigger guys, personally, because I can lay into them harder and they can dish it back out. So there [are] a lot of big guys, but I don’t feel like a lot of the big guys in that position right now, like in the top five title contenders. And Lars [Sullivan] was in NXT, but now he’s going up. Same thing with Heavy Machinery and I wouldn’t mind mixing it up with [Otis Dozovic].

On The 2019 Royal Rumble:

Well, I know that me and Kassius [Ohno] have some unfinished business, so I don’t know if we’re going to finish that [up] in the next couple of weeks or maybe we’ll finish it at [NXT] TakeOver [Phoenix]. I don’t know. I know the dates are coming though. You just never know what’s going to happen. There [are] only so many slots available. I’ll be around. If it’s NXT related, I’ll be there. I’m pretty sure. And I’m really hoping, I’m really hoping, in this new year… because I know TakeOver is the same weekend as the Royal Rumble. And I’ll be honest, I’m a big Rumble guy. I know there’s always [surprise entrants]. Maybe there’s a spot open. Maybe I go in. Dude, I’m aiming for the stars! It needs to happen. If not this year… yeah, it definitely needs to happen.

You can check out the full episode of E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness with Matt Riddle below