WWE: Matt Riddle should prevent Brock Lesnar’s cash-in on Raw

When news broke that Brock Lesnar would cash in his Money in the Bank contract on Raw this week, Matt Riddle vowed to “ruin it.” Many took it as a joke, but why shouldn’t ‘The King of Bros’ make his WWE main roster debut right now?

It’s no secret that Matt Riddle has one main goal before his WWE career ends — he wants to be the man to retire Brock Lesnar. Long before Riddle signed a contract with Lesnar’s employer, he casually mentioned his ultimate goal of conquering The Beast at WrestleMania.

Shortly after debuting in NXT, ‘The King of Bro’s again let the world know that he had set a lofty goal for himself. In a sit-down with Jeremy Borash back in February, Riddle just casually stated not that he wanted to retire Brock, but he promised to do so. Hey, at least Riddle is consistent, right?

Last week, Brock Lesnar was in hot water with Stephanie McMahon after he made a mockery of his standing as Mr. Money in the Bank.

Personally, I found the boom box briefcase refreshing and hilarious, but Stephanie didn’t share my sentiments, I guess. And to avoid potential trouble, Paul Heyman announced that Lesnar would really honest to goodness cash-in his opportunity this week on WWE Raw.

And, well, Matt Riddle had something to say about that:

As you can see in the tweet above, Riddle hasn’t forgotten about his promise. Judging by his social media game here, ‘The King of Bros’ is heading to Austin with a Beast in his sights.

Of course, this is likely just an instance of a superstar testing the waters. Maybe the Lesnar feud never happens; maybe it happens, but down the road. Perhaps there’s a WrestleMania match between the two former Ultimate Fighters; perhaps they never cross paths in WWE.

Odds are, if anything is in the cards for a program with these two, it’s not starting this week.

But why shouldn’t it? Ratings for Raw have been in the toilet for some time, and every attempt to combat that so far has been unsuccessful. The “Wild Card Rule” has made the brand split all but obsolete, the 24/7 Championship has yet to take off (and may never do so), and WWE’s television partners are allegedly offering suggestions to fix the ratings problem.

Maybe Riddle can give the product a much-needed boost.

Judging on his record in NXT, Matt Riddle won’t need much longer before he’s deemed “ready” for the main roster. He just competed in arguably his greatest match with the company this past weekend at TakeOver XXV against Roderick Strong. The win makes it likely he’ll stick around in NXT for a bit longer to continue his quest to take down The Undisputed Era.

More from Raw

• WWE Raw Predictions: Seth Rollins Will BURY Jey Uso
• Three feuds for CM Punk on WWE Monday Night Raw
• Three candidates to take the Women’s World Championship from Rhea Ripley
• WWE Raw Predictions: LA Knight Will Return The Favor To Cody Rhodes
• Why Drew McIntyre turned heel during WWE Monday Night Raw

However, nothing would stop him from performing a bit of double duty for a few weeks or months. NXT tapings are one or two days a month — pull Riddle off the live events, and let him head to Raw to be a thorn in Brock Lesnar’s side.

At very least, planting the seeds for a bigger match down the road is something that could pop a rating.

The sad reality is that WWE main roster programming is in a serious rut. It has been for a long time — it’s been like eight months since I did a proper review of Raw, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of difference from the two years I recapped the flagship show.

Doing something outside the box is a low-risk high-reward situation — you can’t really lose more of the audience, but maybe a Hail Mary can pull a few lapsed viewers back into the mix.

Plus, this would give Brock Lesnar something to do away from the specter of the Universal Championship. For too long, the title has been around The Beast’s waist, and the longer he lurks around the title, the more fans will voice their displeasure.

As much as Riddle is beloved by his fans, going straight for the Universal Championship would be an impossible situation for a main roster rookie.

No, let ‘The King of Bros’ show up on Monday, and prevent Lesnar from becoming a three-time Universal Champion. Brock can go to his farm for a bit to recharge the batteries, and Riddle can stick around on Raw to establish himself with the WWE Universe outside the NXT bubble.

When Lesnar is ready to return, probably around SummerSlam, he can seek revenge on Riddle.

It may not get to a WrestleMania match, but the fact is that Lesnar is getting up there in years. He’s the most part-time of all the part-timers, and the number of matches he has left in the tank is likely low. If anything is going to come out of a Riddle/Lesnar feud, it has to start soon.

Why not this week on Raw?