Riddle Reveals How He Explained His Gimmick To Vince McMahon

Riddle Reveals How He Explained His Gimmick To Vince McMahon

On the latest Episode of the WWE Podcast After the Bell, Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle joined Corey Graves to discuss his career within WWE.

He first spoke about his tag team with Randy Orton, and how Orton owns his own private tour bus. He admitted he’s never actually been on Randy’s bus, but it’s something he’d love to do one day.

“I’ve probably spent more time on AJ Styles’ bus just saying hi. This was a different time, this was the ThunderDome era. He asked me to come on the bus to ask me a couple questions. Randy, I’ve seen Randy’s bus but I have not been in Randy’s bus. It’s kind of like Vince McMahon hugging me, I’ve seen Vince McMahon hugging lots of people, Vince has yet to hug me but I’ve seen it happen. I know it’s a possibility, me getting on Randy’s bus is a possibility, a hug from Vince McMahon is a possibility. These are all things that I’m just waiting for the day.”

He spoke about his in-ring gimmick being very close to how he is outside the ring, and feels it’s his flexibility and authenticity that have allowed him to stay close to his true character while in WWE.

“I think the reason I can still be mostly me 100% is because I’m very flexible. On certain things, I won’t budge, and on a lot of things, I do budge. The WWE is a lot of give and take, and for me, my biggest strength is how well I work with other people, especially in the back. I’m doing the right things, I’m saying the right things, and I’m very flexible. I feel like one of the main reasons I get to wrestle barefoot, and I get to keep my last name, and get to do all this stuff and they don’t want to change this stuff about me is because I am authentic.

“It’s different, it’s new, and WWE is a huge company. They might want to change a couple things to cater to a worldwide audience, but also, if you show them what you are and how authentic you are, how creative you are, how charismatic you can be, if you can show them your strengths in the stuff they give you, they’re going to start pushing that. I think, for me, I try to go out with the other wrestlers because I want to build a relationship with them. I want them to get to know me more so that when we do anything, they can say, ‘Oh, I can see Riddle doing that, remember the other night when we were out and he said this?’ I feel like, by being around them, they can pick up the jist of what I do and how I act.”

Riddle also appeared on Out of Character with Ryan Satin recently, where he spoke about having to try and explain his gimmick to Vince McMahon.

“At first, they didn’t get it. Nobody got it, Vince didn’t get it. He’s like, ‘You’re a goof,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I’m a goof that can, like, kick your ass dude.’ I know I’m goofy, but when I get in that ring, I turn it up. At first they didn’t see it, but now they see the in-ring ability with the entertainment side of it. There will probably be a time where they’ll ask me to be serious, and I can be serious too. I just like the range I’ll be able to have because I got to do this at the very beginning and probably at the end of my career – I’ll get to be very serious. The fans, the audience, everybody that I work with will be able to see the range of emotions and characters I can play.”

Credit to WrestlingInc for the transcription.

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2 years ago by Andy Datson

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