Riley Matthews is carving her own path in professional wrestling. She is also paying homage to the performers who inspired her to pursue it as a career.
Last month, Riley Matthews celebrated the two-year anniversary of her professional wrestling debut. Now in the start of year three, the young indie star hopes to continue building her resume. Reflecting back on her career thus far, Matthews credits some of WWE’s finest for motivating her to enter the squared circle.
Matthews was influenced by many names growing up. Her biggest influence however, came from the work of former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee. Speaking with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Matthews further explained why Lee connected with her the most.
“AJ. That is the first girl that I saw on my TV where I was like, ‘Man, I really want to do this.’ I’m the smaller girl in this business. Everyone that I wrestle was always bigger than me. So I kind of have to just kind of adapt to that. It’s just how it is. And she was also always the smaller girl, but that never held her back because she’s seriously one of the greatest of all time, women wise and pretty much just overall. She really impacted my career,” Matthews said. “My gear [inspiration] comes from a lot of her with the checkered print and stuff because she had a little bit of that going with her. “
In addition to Lee, Matthews noted that she also looks up to the likes of Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Mercedes Moné, and Charlotte Flair. “If I have comfort wrestlers to watch, just to watch, I always go to any of them because I could just sit there and watch all day. I’m obsessed,” Matthews said.
The Tipping Point
Within AJ Lee’s collection of work, Matthews was especially drawn to her feud with Paige as the two battled back and forth over the Divas Championship. The moment that finally convinced Matthews to pursue wrestling, though, originates from a triple-threat match that occurred at WrestleMania 32.
“A match that I saw where I was like, ‘All right, I’m putting my foot down and I’m going to be a women’s wrestler,’ it was the triple-threat match where it was going from the Divas title to the women’s title at WrestleMania [32] where Charlotte Flair won. It was Charlotte, Becky [Lynch] and Sasha [Banks]. Oh, my gosh, I saw that, and I was like, ‘Man, women are freaking awesome.’ Ever since I saw that, that’s when I knew.”
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