Matt Riddle had all the makings of a top Superstar in WWE, but his actions outside the ring constantly brought WWE the sort of negative attention they don't want.
The straw that broke the camel's back was an incident at JFK airport where a drunk Riddle claimed a TSA agent had sexually assaulted him. He'd been suspended on multiple occasions before that, of course, and event spent some time in rehab.
Now, though, Riddle has opened up on what happened in the months leading up to his WWE release, including the fact he failed the company's Wellness Policy after testing positive for cocaine on multiple occasions.
Here's what the former WWE Superstar had to say about his substance issues while in the company.
"I had two offenses. They didn’t make any of the offenses public. I think they wanted to keep it on the hush hush, which I understand. I got fined. You’re allowed to smoke weed. I went to the strip club and did cocaine a couple times. I failed a drug test for that. That was for all of them, it was cocaine each time. It was just a random night. WWE tests you randomly, any week. Sometimes, you get tested at the end of one month and the beginning of another month."
"There was one week where I failed bang bang, didn’t know I failed the second one and by the time I failed the first one, I got two at once. I think that’s why they were a little more lenient. ‘We tested you back-to-back, you failed both times.’ I was like, ‘I’ll show you, no more problems, test me for the next ten weeks.’ I did that, I was fine, didn’t fail one test. When I thought I was in the clear, went out, partied a little bit, they gave me a random test at my house, I failed that, and shortly after that, they had me go to rehab."
Riddle was then asked whether WWE forced him to go to rehab. While he did do a 30-day stint, it appears it was around this time that the company started losing faith in a wrestler who could have been a future WWE Champion before the plug was pulled on plans for him to win the Money in the Bank briefcase.
"They can’t make you do anything, but it’s ‘go or…’ ‘Okay, I’ll go.’ I went for the 30 days, I left, and when I left, they made a recommendation that they wanted me to stay for another 30 days and I was like, ‘I said I would do 30 days, I don’t want to do another 30 days.’ I missed Christmas and New Year’s. I learned my lesson. Trust me, I don’t go out there and rage it up anymore like that. I learned my lesson. ‘No, we want you to do another 30 days.’"
"I wanted to test and get my black belt, I had been waiting 10 years. I had some money because RKBro was successful, and I wanted to buy a house. I bought a house, my aunt had cancer, so I went to see her. She’s good now. I was like, ‘Let me do these couple of things before I leave.’ ‘Okay.’ I went, did those, then went back for another 30 days. Got out and I was just waiting. This was a month before WrestleMania. ‘We don’t have anything for you. Maybe Raw after Mania.’ I thought they were going to fire me."
You can watch the full interview with Riddle in the player below.