Matt Riddle

Matthew Frederick Riddle (born January 14, 1986) is an American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist currently signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW).

He also performs in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the current NJPW World Television Champion in his first reign.

He is best known for his tenures in the UFC and WWE.

Matthew Frederick Riddle was born on January 14, 1986, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

He later moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, where he attended Saratoga Springs High School and was a New York state wrestling champion in 2004.

Riddle would face and beat future UFC champion Jon Jones twice in high school wrestling.

Riddle later attended East Stroudsburg University on an athletic scholarship, where he was a member of its wrestling team for two years and won many championships.

After his head coach was fired, Riddle lost his wrestling scholarship and began his transition into MMA.

Riddle is 1–0 in amateur MMA.

During this career, he worked as a roofer and trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the evenings.

Riddle credits B.J. Penn's book, Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge, in helping him learn during his early years in MMA.

Riddle then fought Dan Simmler, an understudy of Matt Serra, to get into The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) house.

Riddle knocked out Simmler in the opening seconds of the second round and struck him three times in the jaw after losing consciousness, breaking Simmler's jaw into two places.

Riddle was picked second overall for Team Rampage.

During his involvement on show, Riddle was given the nickname Chipper after Rampage noticed him always smiling.

Riddle's second match was against Tim Credeur.

Credeur defeated Riddle in the second round, causing him to be knocked out of the tournament.

After the fight, Credeur bought Riddle an Xbox 360 with his earnings.

As a professional MMA fighter from 2008 to 2014, Riddle made a name for himself by appearing on SpikeTV's The Ultimate Fighter 7 and went on to hold a four-fight winning streak in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) before being fired upon testing positive for smoking marijuana in February 2013.

He also fought for Titan FC and compiled a career record of 8–3 (2).

At The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale, which was held on June 21, 2008, Riddle made his UFC and professional debut defeating fellow Ultimate Fighter castmate, Dante Rivera, via unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, 30–27).

During The Ultimate Fighter 7, Riddle was shown arguing with the older and more experienced Rivera multiple times.

Dante, on more than one occasion, stated that he would retire if Riddle defeated him - a commitment which he didn't follow through with after his loss.

Riddle was then scheduled to fight Ryan Thomas at UFC 91, but a knee injury forced Riddle out of the fight and got pinned.

The knee injury's recovery was scheduled to take about 6–8 weeks.

After his recovery, Riddle fought and defeated Steve Bruno in a unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) at UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs. Stephens.

In his third bout, Riddle defeated another one of his former Ultimate Fighter 7 castmates, Dan Cramer, via a unanimous decision on the undercard of UFC 101.

He next faced The Ultimate Fighter 9 alumni Nick Osipczak on November 14, 2009, at UFC 105.

The fight was held in Osipczak's home country of England.

Riddle lost the fight by TKO in the third round.

After his loss to Osipczak, Riddle faced newcomer Greg Soto on March 27, 2010, at UFC 111.

After a dominant first two rounds for Riddle, Soto landed an illegal upkick to Riddle's head in the third round which rendered him unable to continue, giving Riddle the victory by disqualification.

In 2014, Riddle began training at the Monster Factory for a career in professional wrestling and made his actual debut in February 2015.

Between 2015 and 2018, he worked on the independent circuit, wrestling for promotions such as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, World Wrestling Network/Evolve, and others.

He is a former Evolve Champion, WWN Champion, PWG World Tag Team Champion (with Jeff Cobb), and two-time Progress Atlas Champion.

Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recognized him as the Rookie of the Year and Most Improved wrestler of the year in 2016.

Riddle signed with WWE in 2018 and portrayed a stereotypical carefree, barefoot surfer valley boy.

Riddle was originally assigned to the NXT brand, where he was a one-time NXT Tag Team Champion with Pete Dunne as "The BroserWeights", having become champions after winning the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.

He was later promoted to the main roster, where he won the United States Championship in February 2021.

In April, Riddle began teaming with Randy Orton as RK-Bro, winning the Raw Tag Team Championship in August 2021 and March 2022, before being released in September 2023.