In an interview with the United Kingdom’s Metro newspaper, Matt Riddle commented on his camel entrance from the 2021 Crown Jewel PPV event in Saudi Arabia. Riddle mentioned that Randy Orton wanted to ride a camel as well but Vince McMahon shot down the request:
“The camel was a good time! I highly recommend, if you haven’t ridden a camel, get yourself a camel, get yourself the opportunity to ride one. Especially if you get the opportunity to ride one in Saudi, embrace the culture there and everything else – and the fans loved it. I’ll be honest – I loved it. You know who wasn’t happy about it though, because they didn’t get to ride a camel either? Randy. Randy wanted to ride a camel and Vince wouldn’t let him. He goes, ‘Randy, that’s not your character, riding a camel.’ He’s like, ‘What does that mean man?! My character doesn’t ride a camel?!’ I’m like, ‘Randy, I’m sorry bro, sometimes you’re just not the dude that rides camels.’”
“I have no idea who pitched it. All I know is that the morning of the show, seven o’clock in the morning, I was jetlagged so I didn’t get any sleep that night and I was still awake. I get a call and they’re like, ‘We need you at the show early to rehearse and stuff.’ I’m like, ‘Rehearse what?’ They go, Rehearse riding a camel.’ I was like, ‘A real camel?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah!’ So, that’s what happened – it was great, I enjoyed it. The camel was great too.”
