Matt Riddle Says He's Still Willing To Fight Chris Jericho, Talks Why He Took Shots Goldberg

It's been a little over a year since Matt Riddle signed with WWE, and he has already made his mark in NXT. In addition to facing Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Championship at NXT TakeOver: New York, Riddle has also found himself butting heads on social media with WCW legends like Goldberg, Chris Jericho and even Booker T.

Riddle spoke to Gary Cassidy for Sportskeeda Wrestling's Dropkick DiSKussions. During the interview, Riddle noted that his first year in WWE has been good despite his social media tiffs.

"The past year was good," Riddle said. "It's been busy.I don't know. It's great. When you wrestle in the WWE and stuff like that, there's so much going on but it's all one company, you know. When I was wrestling on the indies and stuff, I would wrestle every weekend, four times a weekend but it was for four different companies, every weekend, or at least three. Now just wrestling for one company all the time, it's just as awesome. I think that was the biggest transition. Then, you know, TV and stuff like that. But it's been a great year. I've gotten a bunch of raises, I'm making decent money.

"I spent a lot of time at the house during the week. I live in Florida, I train in Florida, and all of that. Yeah, trying not to get beat up by WCW legends. Or maybe I'm trying to get beat up by him. But, you know, it's been a good year. NXT has been treating me pretty good. Not too bad."

While Riddle has been critical of Goldberg in the past, he really ramped up his verbal attacks following Goldberg's match with The Undertaker at Super ShowDown this past June. Riddle ran into Goldberg backstage at SummerSlam last month, and the two exchanged a few words. Riddle claims that he's not looking for a match with Goldberg, but he would gladly accept it.

"With Goldberg, I was never even really wanting a match," Riddle said. "I mean, I would take it for sure. He's Bill Goldberg, you know? The guy is money. At the same time, I never wanted a match. It was more so my opinion on his workrate and his wrestling – not his ability to generate money or put butts in seats. It was his salary, his workrate. And I talked to Goldberg, we talked about it, he thought I was being disrespectful. I was like, 'Okay, man, that's my opinion. I'm just not a huge fan of your work. I'm just not. It's not great pro wrestling.' It's like, 'You've got a great jackhammer, great spear but the wrestling... Uhh.'

"I'm not lying. I feel like if I'm not lying, I'm not being disrespectful. Especially as that's how you make your money."

The feud with Goldberg prompted Jericho to chime in. Riddle ended up releasing a video and telling Jericho that he was "soft as hell" and that he would "beat the sh-t" out of Jericho if it came to that. Riddle noted that he does not have any other messages for Y2J.

"No, no messages for him, no messages for him," stated Riddle. "I'm not gonna give him that. I already have my one video, he knows what I think.

"He told me to listen and learn, or whatever – which wasn't even directed properly towards me. Like I said, I wasn't trying to get him mad. It was just my opinion on somebody, in multiple interviews and whatever. Then I just watched that match and it was just too much. It was just too much.

"So, I think maybe he should listen and learn. If he wants to get his ass kicked, he can – but I doubt he wants that."

Despite threatening to get physical with Jericho, Riddle admitted that he would rather get stuck in an elevator with the AEW World Champion than Goldberg.

"Probably Jericho, because Goldberg is just... I told you that I talked to him. He's not a fun guy," Riddle claimed. "At least he's not fun for me, I'll say that. He could be fun. Maybe it's just because of things that had been said already but we did not click. It would just be very terrible.

"With Jericho, when he posted that video making fun of my face and all that stuff, like the look, I thought it was hilarious. Personally I think we'd have more fun, even though we are not fans of one other per se, I think we could make each other laugh, regardless.

"Goldberg not so much, nobody is laughing in that confined space."