{"id":117521,"date":"2014-11-02T09:59:51","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T17:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backend.bjpenn.com\/?p=117521"},"modified":"2022-02-04T20:12:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T04:12:45","slug":"former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/","title":{"rendered":"Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/backend.bjpenn.com\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/riddle\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-117523\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/backend.bjpenn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Riddle.jpg\" alt=\"Riddle\" width=\"550\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-117523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Riddle.jpg 550w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Riddle-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Riddle-361x250.jpg 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Former TUF competitor, Matt Riddle, who was released by the UFC after failing two drug tests is currently training to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a pro-wrestler.<\/p>\n<p>It has long been rumored that Ronda Rousey may make the jump to pro-wrestling sometime in the future after several videos were posted of Rousey doing WWE moves in training for fun (See that <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/rowdy-ronda-rousey-goes-full-wwe-mode-in-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a>).  Just last week, former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen announced that the WWE had once offered him $5 million to compete for them (Read about that <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/chael-sonnen-offered-5-million-by-wwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Riddle spoke to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2014\/11\/1\/7141639\/former-ufc-fighter-matt-riddle-thinks-pro-wrestling-might-be-his-shot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAFighting <\/a>about his new routine with his wife, which includes driving 90-minutes each way to the famed &#8216;The Monster Factory&#8217; where the pair train pro-wrestling.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We get here early.  At 7:20 p.m., we start practicing what we know. Then we go over new material. I train Tuesday and Thursdays in MMA. I lift every day. This is the next part of my life. This is what I&#8217;m committed to. Tuesday and Thursday I&#8217;m doing MMA to pay the bills, and it covers the groceries for now. I make a decent penny doing privates (MMA lessons) and stuff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I watch wrestling today, it&#8217;s not the mat technicians, but the guys who can draw you in with `Oh My God&#8217; moments, `Holy s*** moments, those are the moments I want to create.  Even when I fought in the UFC, I wanted to get fight of the night. You get into a fight and get the fans roaring, I like guys like Seth Rollins, because they&#8217;re willing to push the tempo harder than other people. If someone does something big earlier in the night, he&#8217;s going to go out and take it that much farther. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s everyone&#8217;s goal in wrestling, but I want people to get excited.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The one thing that&#8217;s square one, is getting in the ring trusting people.  Running off the ropes, jumping, that came natural to me. It&#8217;s the fundamentals I need to learn. I need to learn how not to get hurt, and how not to hurt other people. I&#8217;m pretty sure I already have x, y and z, but I need a, b and c. That&#8217;s why I came to The Monster Factory. I was told that&#8217;s where you need to be to pick up the basics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to come off bad, but I have a lot of potential at this.  I&#8217;m a world-class athlete and what I always wanted to do was be a pro wrestler. It was always my passion. I&#8217;m not in the UFC anymore so I&#8217;m not getting paid decent money to fight, so I wanted to do something I love. I&#8217;d rather wrestle professionally and have fun than fight for no reason at all.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on MMA fighters making the jump to pro-wrestling? Does it damage MMA&#8217;s credibility, or should it be looked at separately from MMA? <\/p>\n<p>Sound off in the comments section!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former TUF competitor, Matt Riddle, who was released by the UFC after failing two drug tests is currently training to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a pro-wrestler. It has long been rumored that Ronda Rousey may make the jump to pro-wrestling sometime in the future after several videos were posted of Rousey doing WWE [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":117523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[10040,9,589,11,911,934,15,1042,1082,1083],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former TUF competitor, Matt Riddle, who was released by the UFC after failing two drug tests is currently training to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a pro-wrestler. It has long been rumored that Ronda Rousey may make the jump to pro-wrestling sometime in the future after several videos were posted of Rousey doing WWE [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-02T17:59:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T04:12:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Riddle.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"381\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BJPENN.COM News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/c76eda1459929ee246658565d177d029\"},\"headline\":\"Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-02T17:59:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T04:12:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bellator\",\"featured\",\"Matt Riddle\",\"mma\",\"titan fc\",\"TUF\",\"ufc\",\"ultimate fighter\",\"wrestling\",\"WWE\"],\"articleSection\":[\"UFC NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\",\"name\":\"Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-02T17:59:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T04:12:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/former-tuf-competitor-training-to-make-pro-wrestling-jump\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UFC NEWS\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Former TUF Competitor Training To Make Pro-Wrestling Jump\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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