Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Phoenix Marie.

Ryback opens today’s show speaking about a recent indie appearance where the promoter botched his entrance. He says that he has had mostly great experiences on indie scene thus far since leaving WWE nearly two years ago. Unfortunately, he recently appeared at an event which was the promoter’s first crack at putting off a live event.

He says that things went fine for the most part but his entrance was botched. His music was stopped as he was in the middle of his entrance and he didn’t know what was going on. After some time he screamed at the tech guy to start his music again and he went on with his entrance. He says the fans were great throughout the whole thing, and they continued to be great throughout what turned out to be a short match because his opponent unfortunately hurt his shoulder.

Ryback talks about his experience dealing with rude fans. He says he can recall eBay collectors showing up at airports early in the morning using their kids as bait to get autographs from wrestlers, so they could then sell the autographs on eBay and turn a profit. Ryback says that kind of stuff would really bother him, but he had no issue signing or taking pictures with respectful fans.

He call recall some of the collectors telling him to ‘F*** off” when he respectfully declined to sign for them, and he had no issue returning that sentiment to those rude fans. He says that when young guys show up on the main roster they fall into the trap of these collectors but over time everyone figures out what’s going on there, and eventually some performers develop the unfair and unfortunate reputation of being rude.

Ryback comments on the fact that Nia Jax has apparently been granted a leave of absence from WWE. He says he’s not sure what issues Jax is dealing with right now, but that’s her business and it’s nice of WWE to let he have some time to figure those things out. He also mentions that Kevin Owens was sent home from a recent European tour due to personal reasons as well.

While both Jax and Owens are out of action due to personal reasons, both Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt are out due to illness. This resulted in a flurry of changes to Sunday night’s TLC PPV, and Ryback credits WWE for going all out to save this PPV. He points out that TLC wasn’t a stacked card to begin with, relying heavily on The Shield’s reunion and the main event bout.

With Reigns out, WWE had to do something to save the show and Kurt Angle’s return was a great back up plan. Angle hadn’t wrestled in a WWE ring in 11 years so that was a big moment for him and a lot of fans.

Marie asks Ryback if wrestling locker rooms are a free-for-all in terms of sexual activity. Ryback says that professional wrestlers don’t talk about sexual relationships in the locker room. For a long period of time WWE basically forbid relationships within the locker room, but they’ve become much more lenient about that over the last few years.

Ryback points out that it’s tough to have a normal relationship as a professional wrestler because you spend so much time on the road away from your families and loved ones. For most wrestlers, the only way to have a civilized relationship is to date someone else on the roster, and that’s why we’ve seen an increase in those types of relationships over the last few years.

Ryback says he’s okay with the rumoured Jinder Mahal/Brock Lesnar matchup at Survivor Series. He believes this will be a great opportunity for Mahal to step up and challenge himself from a wrestling perspective, and he hopes they get some time to tell a story. However, Lesnar has a lot to say in his booking and if he doesn’t think an opponent stacks up to him physically, the match won’t go long.

Marie points out that Wade Barrett spoke about his future in the wrestling business this past week, saying that some days he misses the wrestling ring, and more days he’s thrilled that he doesn’t have to wrestle. Ryback thinks that much like himself, Barrett just needed some time away from the ring to recharge.

That sums up today’s episode of Conversation with the Big Guy. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!