Matt Riddle wanted to turn on Randy Orton.
In April 2021, Riddle defeated Orton in singles competition on RAW before the two were paired together for a tag team match the following week. What started out as a one-off to set up a feud turned into a longer tag team run.
During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Hour, Riddle recalled his tag team with Orton taking off despite the idea that Orton would quickly turn on him.
“There was a couple ideas,” Riddle recalled. “I’d say the first one that was pitched was eventually, ‘Randy turns on you, you guys have a feud,’ whatever. That was originally was supposed to happen when we first started teaming. But then, ‘Hey, we’ll have Riddle beat you in like a quick one, and then we’ll have you team up. Then Randy will turn on you after you guys lose a match. RKO you, punt you, whatever.’ Set up for a match at Backlash, because it was WrestleMania Backlash. We wrestled, we tagged, we just hit it off, and the crowd was really behind us.
Matt Riddle then noted his knack for finding himself in random tag teams in WWE, citing his NXT stint with Pete Dunne before RK-Bro formed. Whether it was the clash of personalities or not, it just happened that way.
Even if you boo him, you’d love to boo him.
“The original plan was for [Orton] to turn on me,” Riddle continued. “But then when we got to the end of it. This was my suggestion, and talking to everybody in the office. And even Randy agreed — was the smarter idea would be if I turned on him. Because Randy being the legend that he is, and me just being a babyface, even if Randy turned on me and is a bad guy, he is a legend. He is Randy. He has done more pay-per-views, more RAWs, more than like everybody. Even if you boo him, you’d love to boo him.
“So, I’m like, ‘Guys, me trying to get sympathy when Randy is beating me up isn’t going to work. They are just going to cheer Randy beating me up.’ Now, if I attack Randy when you’re not expecting it and hurt Randy, and I take him away, the crowd is going to be really mad at me, and I’m going to get nuclear heat. And we have good chemistry, and the story will play out as it shall.”
A true RK-Bro breakup never made it to television. Orton was written out of storylines after they lost the RAW Tag Team Championship to The Usos in a unification match in May 2022. Orton would go on to have back surgery that kept him out of action for over a year, while Riddle was eventually released in September 2023.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit MMA Hour with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
