Matt Riddle Says He’s Received Death Threats Over Situation With GWK, Claims Promotion Knew He Was Not Coming & Still Advertised Him

Another recount from Matt Riddle about the situation.

Via Instagram, Matt Riddle responded to claims that he no-showed his booking for the Global Wrestling Kingdom promotion in the U.K. and did not return his deposit.

Riddle further dove into the situation during an appearance on TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast. He stated that he’s received death threats over this ordeal. He added that people questioned how he could skip a charity event, and he reiterated that it was not changed into a charity event until the last minute.

“My girlfriend had an arrangement with this company, G.W.K., Global Wrestling Kingdom, and I’ll be honest dude, I see companies like this in the U.K. all the time. These guys rented an arena, they didn’t sell 150 tickets… I’m not knocking ‘em. They’re trying. They’re trying to do their thing. But, this is garbage dude, and if they actually asked me for the money, which, they didn’t until later yesterday? And then I woke up this morning to a bunch of death threats… Death threats. ‘How dare you f*cking scam a charity’ and I’m like, dawg, four months ago, this wasn’t a charity event. Three months ago, it wasn’t a charity event. This week was the first time I got a message saying, ‘What? You’re gonna do this to a charity event?’ I’m doing Make-A-Wish in a couple weeks. I do charity events. Dude, I do multiple charity events, but I don’t get paid a dime. But I’ll tell you this, I’m not flying to London in a middle seat with no meal, with no checked bag. I don’t know why they thought that was a good idea. Dude, I don’t even know how it’s legal.”

Riddle stated in his social media video that he asked the promoter(s) to arrange some other ways he could make money, such as an appearance or meet-and-greet, so he would not be in London for two days doing nothing.

He said when he’s not active, he gets himself into trouble. He added that being in a hotel room for two days would not have been good for him.

“Well, I never decided I wasn’t going. I was still gonna go Saturday. So, this is what the deal was: When they told me two weeks out that there’s nothing there, I was like, ‘They’re gonna keep trying.’ I’m like, ‘Okay,’ and then, it was probably Tuesday of last week, and I go, ‘Any word?’ And they go, ‘I haven’t heard anything back’ and I’m like, ‘That means nothing’s happening,’ and I go, ‘Dude, I can’t sit in a hotel room for two days.’ You know, my friends told me not to say this, but man, I got idle hands. If these things aren’t doing something, I get into trouble. If I didn’t have five kids, wrestle all over the world, fight people and do this, I get in — I just do. It’s just what it is. I party. It’s whatever. I have a problem, right? So I keep myself busy. I knew if I sat in a hotel in London for two days, damn, I might not even make the show Sunday, and maybe that’s bad to say, but you know what? I think it’s very responsible to say and it’s true. So, that’s just what it is.”

He went on to state that Global Wrestling Kingdom continued advertising him even when they knew he was not coming.

“So they knew this (that I would not be coming). Do you know what they kept doing? They kept promoting me, like I was still coming. It’s a scumbag move. I’ve had other promoters do this and I’m like, dude, you sold tickets and obviously, let’s be honest, no disrespect to everybody else on the card, I’m the King of Bros.”

Later in the podcast, Riddle said he believes it was G.W.K. that leaked the news to Cultaholic about the situation.

“Yeah, yeah, it was (the promotion that leaked our situation). They did it and you know what? I guarantee you when they first did it, they were probably like, oh my God, wish we would have had this before the match. You know, more people would have showed up, and let’s say this, it’s probably what they should have done.”

Riddle is the reigning MLW World Heavyweight Champion. He is scheduled to defend the belt on 9/13 at Fightland against Donovan Dijak.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.