Matt Riddle Quotes

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me.

It's good to go out and entertain these people, and you've got them on the edge of their seat, they're standing up. Then you know that you've done your job, you've entertained them. My way of entertaining them is going out and wrestling. Everyone's got their different ways.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

In wrestling, sports entertainment, I get to fight in front of people; I get to wrestle in front of people; I get to entertain people sometimes four times a week - all around the country, all around the world.

I loved DDT for the freedom; I was able to tell the wackiest and wildest of stories but also test myself as an athlete.

I think wrestling is the one that presents theater for people who want to see some theater but don't necessarily have to dress up or be quiet while they're watching.

Being a pro wrestler can be kind of difficult sometimes. We have a perception about what we do - and I totally understand the perception, because we're a weekly episodic program, and we're having fun all the time, so people think that's kind of the most talented thing I could do.

As you evolve, you learn that wrestling is not necessarily about stunts or spots. You need to go out and show the audience that they can love you for the persona you are - not because of the risk you're willing to take or the jeopardy you're willing to put your body in.

When I wasn't wrestling, I was always at the circus or at a show watching all these people - 'how do they make their stuff work for their audience?' That used to fascinate me as a child.

I love wrestling, and I love telling a story to the audience.

The whole wrestling art, it's a whole form, is performance, and that's what makes it so exciting to do.

My goal in wrestling was always to take people on a journey to get a reaction and make people feel like they had seen something special. Thankfully, I get reminded of that every day.

Wrestling is to go out there and perform and make people believe that either of the performers in the ring can win - either the bad guy or the good guy.

I've always liked being on the performance end of it. I've come up with different ideas, but as far as being a creative writer, I'm not sure about that. I've always liked the performance end of it and wrestling, getting in the ring in front of a live crowd.

Sometimes you experience magic out in the ring.

When you go into a 'WWE' ring, you know you're going to compete. You know that things are going to hurt. It is a dangerous, dangerous place. No matter what people think or say, it's a very, very dangerous thing.

This isn't a competitive sport. Wrestling is not the NFL or the NHL. It's not really sports. It's entertainment. And in order to be entertaining, you have to create emotion. And you can't create emotion by simply having a wrestling match.

I was like, 'Hey, I love highflying. I love lucha libre. Can I just put on a mask and pass myself off as a luchador?' Everyone was like, 'You're going to do what you want to do,' so that's what I did for the first four or five years. I just put on a mask and pretended to be this luchador.

In the grand spectrum of things in WWE, you are wrestling for that camera and that camera and that camera - and all the cameras they have - and you have to make things work that way because, through that camera, there's a million people watching.

There were people that grabbed you just by talking, and that's what I loved about professional wrestling when I started out. That's why I'm already so good. That's why people literally hang on the edge of their seats when I have a mic because they want to know what I'm going to say.

Johnny Blaze was my character at OVW. I had all these fancy fire catchphrases: 'Call the fire department,' 'Get your fire extinguishers out, ladies.' 'By the time you hear the thunder, it's going to be too late because the lightning will have already struck.' That was all my thing.

The trick is for Divas to find what works for them. I've done some ridiculous stuff in my career, but there's still nothing that's gotten a reaction as big as me skipping around the ring.

Some of my fans want me to just dance and go crazy and wear flashy outfits.

Some acts are tricky. Eartha Kitt was tricky in a wonderful, old-style way. She did yoga on the piano and put her hands over her ears when the other acts were on.

I've always got into stunts; even at drama school, I was falling down trap doors, and swinging in on ropes.