Matt Riddle’s Callup Affects EIGHT Wrestlers (Interesting Stuff)

That’s a domino effect. One of the most fascinating things to see in the world of WWE is a callup from NXT. Sometimes you see a new star come up from the developmental system and they can make an immediate impact. However, there is a little more to it than just that. When someone leaves their ranks, NXT is hurt in the process. This time, it was a bigger effect than usual.

On the May 27 edition of NXT, Matt Riddle wrestled his farewell match against Timothy Thatcher. Two days later, Kurt Angle announced that Riddle would be moving to SmackDown. That is an interesting story in and of itself, but it turns out that there was a little more to it than that. Riddle moved up, but there were a lot more changes taking place than just the promotion.

According to Fightful.com, Riddle’s promotion affected eight different NXT wrestlers. The decision to move Riddle (#1) to the main roster came when he and Pete Dunne (#2) were still NXT Tag Team Champions. Dunne was stranded in the UK due to the Coronavirus though, leaving Riddle on his own. Indus Sher and Malcolm Bivens (#3, #4 and #5) were all brought up to feud with Riddle until Dunne could get back to defend the titles. However, management felt that the team was not ready, so Imperium (#6 and #7) were brought in to replace them. Dunne was stuck for too long so Thatcher (#8) took Dunne’s spot on the team.

Talk about making an impact. Check out what’s causing all this:

Opinion: This kind of stuff can be fascinating in a way as a lot of people (myself included) may never see how one thing can change so many others. Riddle moving up was a cool moment for him, but it turns out that he altered the careers of several people, with Thatcher and Imperium all looking a lot better than they did when they were brought into the picture. That’s not too bad, and it worked out well for a lot of people.

What do you think of Riddle? Who got the most out of this entire situation? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!