Ryback opens today’s show speaking about WWE Superstars exposing the business, and WWE embracing it through shows like Total Divas. He says that the wrestling business has been exposed now and everyone knows it’s fake, but there’s no need for the Superstars to drive it down our throats by posting pictures with their ‘enemies’ on social media. It’s no secret that wrestling is for kids, but there’s no point in sacrificing more mature audiences by blatantly ignoring television storylines.
He points out that good characters and good stories will make people look past the fact that the wrestling is fake, but WWE has failed to provide either as of late. He doesn’t think shows like Total Divas are doing the business any favours, because that show goes into detail about everything happening behind the scenes at WWE.
Ryback talks about the process of memorizing promos in WWE. He recalls getting the script for one of his promos during his feud with John Cena very late in the day, but he was still able to memorize it pretty accurately. When he got to the building that evening, Vince McMahon had torn the script up and the writers were in the middle of re-writing his promo.
He was set to open the show that night and received the new script right before the show went on air. He hit the bullet points of the promo as best he could because it was impossible to recite the promo word for word with so little time before the show began. He delivered the promo and McMahon was fine with it.
He points out that it’s crucial to be able to think on your feet in WWE, and memorizing your promos word for word is not always an option. It’s crucial that you can take a script and make the promo come to life without memorization, and that’s what made guys like Steve Austin and The Rock stick out on the mic.
Ryback informs that he’s going to be wrestling Joey Mercury at WrestleCade this week. Mercury is one of his favourite people, and he points out that most people will know Mercury from his most recent run as one half of J&J Security on WWE programming. Mercury is a “badass” who’s working the indie scene right now, and Ryback is very excited to work with him.
Ryback says that working as a full time professional wrestler is not all it’s cracked up to be. Travelling the world is fun for a little bit, but then your life just becomes a constant state of deja vu. From rental cars to hotels, from hotels to planes, from planes to the arena, rinse and repeat. He says that it becomes very exhausting, and it’s no secret that the lifestyle results in a lot of people ‘self-medicating’ themselves in order to get through it.
Ryback comments on WWE’s release of James Ellsworth. He says that while Ellsworth might not fit the normal wrestler’s profile, WWE utilized him pretty well in a unique role. It was nice to see Ellsworth live out his dream for over a year, and he’s sure Ellsworth will be fine moving forward.
He thinks it’s smart of WWE to book Triple H against Jinder Mahal for their upcoming tour of India. He points out that they recently had to cancel one of the shows over there due to low ticket sales, and he’s sure they brought Triple H onto the tour to boost ticket sales.
Apparently ticket prices for those shows were very high, and that might have played a role in the low sales. He points out that the crowds in India are very passionate, and he hopes that WWE lowers the ticket prices in order to allow those fans to attend the shows.
Ryback comments on the rumours that Eric Bischoff is returning to the wrestling business, taking over control of an indie promotion. He points out that owning a wrestling company hasn’t often proved financially viable, but if anyone is able to pull it off, it’d be Bischoff. However, the last time Bischoff ran a wrestling company he had Ted Turner’s chequebook to work with; that won’t be the case this time.
Ryback is happy for Jack Swagger, who signed a contract with Bellator MMA last week. He points out that Swagger is a terrific wrestler, but that’s only one aspect of MMA. He’s sure that Swagger will embrace this opportunity and will put the work in to become an all-around mixed martial artist, and he wishes him the best of luck.
That sums up this week’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!
