Matt Riddle is the new “stallion” of MLW as the former WWE star became the promotion’s new World Champion tonight in Dallas.
MLW fired off its 2025 with Kings of Colosseum in Texas tonight and it was main-evented by Matt Riddle challenging Satoshi Kojima for the championship. Kojima is unprecedented in Major League Wrestling as he’s the only person in company history to hold the World Title two different times. Not only that, but Kojima is MLW’s first-ever World Champion, winning it back in 2002 when he defeated Jerry Lynn. Kojima began his second reign when he unseated Alex Kane and it’s been a memorable run for Kojima. During this reign, Kojima captured the MLW World Tag Team Championships a second time with Shigeo Okumura as well.
However, the landscape changed as Riddle defeated Kojima in the main event tonight via submission. The match came to a close when Kojima attempted his Lariato finisher only to be caught in a triangle hold.
Riddle’s win became a full-circle moment for The Super King of Bros too as he was one of the early stars to take shape when MLW returned as a wrestling company back in 2018. Post-fight, a “passing of the torch” went down as Riddle was crowned the new champ and he celebrated with “Filthy” Tom Lawlor who has been an ally to Riddle in recent months.
Along with Riddle’s Title win, a new MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion was crowned in Delmi Exo who defeated Janai Kai. Much like Kojima, Kai has also had a strong run as Champion and also much like Kojima, Exo became the first person in MLW to hold the Featherweight Championship two different times.