Matt Riddle’s Wellness Policy Failure Was Likely His Second

WWE’s Matt Riddle has reportedly been suspended for failing a drug test. This is allegedly not his first failed drug test of the year. As a result, attention has been called to the severity of celebrity punishment.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez recently discussed Matt Riddle’s policy violations on Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer said that this appears to be Matt Riddle’s second infraction.

They went on to discuss the drug test policy and how WWE delivers it. The time range of violations was also called into doubt, with both parties delving more into Riddle’s story.

Meltzer: If that story is accurate, there are a lot of questions on that one because the claim is, it’s a second failure. But he was never suspended for the first failure. And they’re supposed to announce every failure on the main roster, and they haven’t announced either failure.

Alvarez: Well, there’s been a lot of weirdness, because sometimes people allegedly get popped and don’t get suspended. Sometimes they get popped, and they don’t get suspended, they just get fired.

Meltzer: Well, every situation’s different, and they should treat every situation based on…

Alvarez: Well, actually they should treat them all the same if there’s a policy. If the policy is ‘you fail, you get suspended’, then you shouldn’t be fired. Unless it’s some egregious offense.

Meltzer: If it’s really, really bad and they say, ‘You’re in bad shape, you gotta go to rehab’, even if it’s the first time, and you say no, they absolutely can fire you, and I don’t have a problem with that at all.

Alvarez: There was one person this year that I believe was popped for something – I don’t wanna be too specific about this – but they were fired. And it was not a situation where this was something egregious or there was something that was drastically affecting their immediate wellbeing or anything like that. It was that they got popped for something that a ton of people are doing and somehow not getting popped for, and they were immediately fired.

Meltzer said, “Just the way that (Riddle) story came out, it was like ‘something happened in the summer’ – he didn’t take any time off this summer, he was there every week.”

Alvarez then responded to say, “I think he did disappear but it was for a short period of time, it was like three weeks or something like that. It was something weird.”

Meltzer then went on to explain that this appears to be Matt Riddle’s second wellness policy test failure. After all, a first failure is a 30-day suspension, but they can also decide to suspend people well after their failures.

Not 30 days. Other times, a guy will pop, and like months later, he’ll be suspended for it, when it’s more convenient.

Matt Riddle is set to be out of commission for six weeks, after an attack by Solo Sikoa on December 5th. That is the reason cited as the plot cause. Despite the stated predicament, Riddle was widely mentioned on last night’s episode of Raw, with Elias hosting him in a tribute concert. Keep an eye on Ringside News for more.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!