Candy Cartwright has zero plans to back down from the allegations she has made against Matt Riddle.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting that Cartwright (real name Samantha Tavel) has filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against Riddle, WWE, EVOLVE and its owner, Gabe Sapolsky. The lawsuit seeks $10 million from each defendant stemming from allegations Cartwright made accusing Riddle of sexual assault in 2017 that includes Riddle bragging about it to Sapolsky.
Also included in the lawsuit are allegations that Riddle forced Cartwright to perform oral sex on him by choking her during a bus ride to EVOLVE 104 back in 2018. The lawsuit cites that misogynistic culture ran rampant in the promotion which encouraged such behavior.
The lawsuit does claim that Cartwright had bookings with WWE and EVOLVE up until January of this year and alleges that Riddle hung the threat of losing bookings with the promotions over her head unless she performed sexual acts on him. The lawsuit states she refused to continue. Riddle then told the companies to stop using her and was told “issues with talent” was the reason for her not being used.
Riddle has denied these allegations which stem all the way back over the summer’s Speaking Out movement that swept the wrestling world over social media.
Fightful does note that there are errors in the document filed, including incorrect dates as to when Riddle signed with WWE and a conflicting timeline as to the length of existence with Evolve Wrestling Inc.
Sapp did receive the following statement from John Chwarynski Jr., Cartwright’s attorney:
“The lawsuit was filed against each defendant seeking $10 million each. There’s an issue with each defendant and it needs to be addressed within professional wrestling. WWE has profited from toxic misogyny since its inception.”
Last month, Riddle did file a defamation civil suit against Cartwright for the allegations made against him hours after he voluntarily dropped the restraining order request made against her.
