WWE star and current Raw tag champion Riddle recently spoke to BT Sport about his alliance with Randy Orton, better known to fans as RK-Bro. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he always wanted to tag with Orton and explains how RK-Bro formed:
Years ago, I was a huge Randy Orton fan, playing the video game, watching the product. I always wanted to tag with him, wrestling him, do anything. Now, on the main roster, I was the United States Champion and Randy had his thing with The Fiend at the time so we weren't really crossing paths. At WrestleMania, I lost the title, and even before I lost the title, I said to Randy and a couple of people, 'How cool would it be if we formed a team? We can call ourselves RK-Bro. Like the O, but Bro.' A bunch of people laughed like, 'Yeah, that's a stupid idea, hahaha.' The next night on Raw after WrestleMania, I got beat up by Bobby Lashley. He smoked me. I didn't know what was going to happen. I lost my title at Mania, got beat up by the World Champion. The following week they're like, 'You're wrestling Randy Orton.' I was like, 'No way.' I got the win, earned his respect, and RK-Bro was formed.
How the duo started out hot but had some momentum slowed down when Orton was sidelined with injury:
A lot of times, when you say stuff to the writing team or just in general, they may not say, 'Oh yeah, we're going to do that idea,' but if you're talking to people and socializing and you're like, 'how cool would this be? could you imagine?' All of a sudden, you see it in the program. I've noticed that and I think that's how RK-Bro started. We started off hot, selling merch, killing it, and then Randy took some time off, he had to heal up and take care of some things. I was kind of worried because I didn't know if Randy was just carrying it or if people were invested in me. For two months, I kept RK-Bro going and when Randy finally came back, I was so excited. He hit him with the RKO, but I earned his respect back.
Says he and Orton enjoy each other's company:
It's crazy, you think about how it started it's just like, 'how funny would it be if we're RK-Bro' and then we do it and the story and that's the thing with wrestling. You can pitch it, but you never know who is going to be the next big thing or what's going to attract a mass audience. When RK-Bro started getting legs and taking off, because it wasn't supposed to last this long, at all. Randy was supposed to beat me up, probably, but the people loved it so much and they just went with it. I'm glad, Randy is glad. He is extremely happy. We work well together and enjoy each other's company. I enjoy Randy's company. Deep down, I think he enjoys my company as well. We make work easier for one another. We push each other and at the same time elevate each other. He knows I bring it.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)