Matt Riddle Admits To Having An Affair, Denies Assault Allegations

Jul 8, 2020

Recently the #SpeakingOut movement has made big waves on social media, and people have been coming forth with allegations against performers in the wrestling community.

Candy Cartwright accused Matt Riddle of assaulting her when they rode together back in 2018, but today Riddle released a video denying the allegations.

“I have never in my entire life sexually assaulted a man, woman, or anybody. That includes Samantha Tavel, Candy Cartwright. I never sexually assaulted you. That story about that van trip, and the driver being asleep, and me forcing you to do stuff, and hop on… whatever, it’s a complete lie. It’s a fabricated story because you’re still mad.”

The former NXT star went on to admit that he had an affair with Candy Cartwright, and he noted that he’s embarrassed to admit he cheated on his wife.

“You know why you’re mad? Because yes, you’re right – we had an affair. You have plenty of evidence of that. And you know what? I never denied it, because it happened. Do I want to talk about it, do I want really want to share about it? No, it’s embarrassing, because I feel like a real piece of crap cheating on my wife and doing that. And now having to talk about it publicly, but I have to. We had a relationship, we had a fling. I started to get sad and depressed because I was lying to my wife so much to hide what I was doing. I was lying to all my friends because I didn’t want anybody to know, because it’s not something cool. I didn’t want to brag about it, I tried to end it. I told my wife about you and us. I tried to end it. I blocked you, I blocked your social media. You then started using messaging apps and you kept coming. I blocked those. I got a new number, you got my new number and kept messaging me. You literally got on social media accounts for other companies, kept messaging me until I blocked them.”

Riddle added that Cartwright allegedly showed up at his hotels and harassed his friends. He also said that he didn’t feel good about having an affair, and when he tried to get out of the relationship she started stalking him. Riddle closed out the video by saying that Candy Cartwright is using #SpeakingOut as a way to hurt his career.

The full video statement can be seen below.