Former WWE Star Matt Riddle Drops MLW Championship Following Most Recent Controversy

A new MLW World Heavyweight Champion has been crowned following a surprising cash-in at MLW Fightland in Dallas, Texas.

The September 13 event closed out with an MLW World Heavyweight Championship match that was supposed to see defending champ Matt Riddle take on Donovan Dijak. Shortly after the opening bell, however, Mads Krule Krugger emerged with his Gravity Gamble title shot contract in hand and activated it. As such, MLW elevated the world title match to a triple threat.

In the closing moments, Riddle rocked Dijak with a cutter and a piledriver. When Riddle then tried to cover Dijak, Krugger yanked him off and subsequently dropped him onto the mat for his own pinfall. With his win, Krugger begins his first reign as MLW World Heavyweight Champion. Meanwhile, Riddle's comes to an end at 245 days.

Riddle's loss comes on the heels of a controversy involving a UK charity wrestling event which he reportedly no-showed and refused to return his deposit on. According to Riddle, his absence stems from Global Wrestling Kingdom booking him on a flight that would have had him landing in the UK on Thursday, three days before the promotion's event on that Sunday. Riddle also claimed that GWK never made good on their promise to book him in additional meet and greets, matches, and appearances so he could earn additional money in the lead up to the Sunday event. Regarding the deposit debacle, the now-former MLW World Champion indicated that he still intended to pay it back to the promotion.

While Riddle is now titleless in MLW, newly-crowned champion Krugger seems to have already found his potential first challenger as he and Dijak brawled in the moments following their triple threat main event. Alex Hammerstone later joined in and cracked a chair over Krugger.