Matt Riddle went after TMZ’s Branson Quirke during an interview last week. Many fans thought the incident was a work, and the host has now reacted to those claims.
Quirke detailed the exchange with Riddle during a conversation with Paul Walter Hauser on the latest episode of TMZ’s Inside The Ring. Hauser had mentioned interacting with Riddle in MLW, which led to recapping the incident where Riddle threw Quirke on a table and slapped him.
Hauser said that he can’t speak to what happened, noting that Riddle has only been cool to him. “My hope is that a personal thing is going on. Hopefully, he’s working that out,” Hauser added. “But the guy that I’ve met? I’ve never seen that side of him.”
“Can I tell you what I think happened, and why that was very confusing?” Quirke asked.
“Please. It was very confusing,” Hauser replied. “I was like, ‘This is a work.’ And then when I talked to you guys after watching, I’m like that’s, that’s very blurry. That doesn’t feel like a work.”
Branson Quirke believes he knows the reason for Matt Riddle’s behavior
Quirke pointed out that viewers said Riddle’s smiling during the exchange “gave away” that it was a work. However, Quirke thinks Riddle was happy that he took him down. Quirke then explained another incident that he thinks could have set Riddle off in the first place.
“[Riddle] didn’t even text me that he was here yet. He was supposed to text me that he was on his way, and he didn’t do that. So I was caught off guard, we had to get the interview going.
“I go outside and he was puffing up in the parking lot, he was smoking some weed. And, I stopped him and said, ‘Hey man, you can’t do that here. You’ve got to come inside, we’ve got to do [the interview] right now.’ And he was a little upset about that, when I said that [he couldn’t smoke]. So maybe that’s what it was, and that kinda set him off. But he seemed pretty upset the whole interview.”
Quirke and Riddle ended up crossing paths again at MLW Slaughterhouse
Hauser said he could attest to having a bad publicity day, recalling how he made headlines after he took a shot at Vin Diesel during an interview with CinemaBlend. Hauser already apologized for the remark, but told Quirke that it was unfair to speak about someone he didn’t know just because he was cranky. He said he’s not sure if Riddle getting caught outside played into it, but he could understand the situation.
The interview with Hauser was recorded prior to MLW Slaughterhouse this weekend. Quirke ended up speaking with Riddle backstage at the event, with Riddle joking that Quirke was lucky he wasn’t “going to smack the sh*t out of you” again.
WrestleZone also reached out to Quirke about the interview. He said that Riddle also told him that he intentionally used the incident to gain publicity for his heel turn.
Read More: Matt Riddle Turns Heel, Adopts New Name At MLW Slaughterhouse
