Ryback informs that he wrestled former WWE Superstar, Joey Mercury at last weekend’s WrestleCade event. The show was a great success but he thought it ran too long, approaching the 5-hour mark in length. He mentions that WWE live events last anywhere from 2:30-2:45, and they’ve found that to be the best length in terms of satisfying fans but also keeping their attention.
Anything under 2 and a half hours and people feel like they don’t get their money’s worth, but 3 hours or more of wrestling in a row is simply too long. He says that working with Mercury was great and he was very happy with how the match turned out. He believes it’s only a matter of time before Mercury returns to WWE again.
In regards to the rumours that WWE is planning to have an all-female Royal Rumble match at next month’s PPV, Ryback says, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. He doesn’t think WWE has the female roster to properly execute this match right now, and he thinks WWE would be rushing this idea if they plan it for next month’s show. He doesn’t think it’s a terrible idea, but he’s not sure how they’d execute it so that both Rumble matches are unique, and he just doesn’t think the timing is right at the moment.
He says that the Royal Rumble has high standards and high expectations. There are 30 men in the Royal Rumble match and he believes WWE should keep that same figure for the women’s match. That’s his main concern with the idea, because he doesn’t think WWE’s female roster is deep enough to pull that off right now. Nonetheless, he admits that WWE can do whatever they want and changing the rules of the Rumble for the female match is something they might consider.
Ryback says that wrestlers don’t kill themselves to a point that they can’t walk when they’re 70 for the fans – they do it for the money. That mightn’t be a babyface thing to say, but that’s the hard truth. He points out that lots of wrestlers might say that they wrestle for the fans but he thinks that’s complete ‘bullshit’, saying the only reason wrestlers wrestle is for the money.
Speaking about the apparent upcoming ‘Broken Hardy’ WWE debut, Ryback says that Hardy made this character work before so he assumes that Hardy can make it work again. He adds that if WWE wants it to work it will work, but if they don’t want it to work they’ll position Hardy somewhere on the card to ensure that it won’t work.
Hulk Hogan’s son went on the record last week, saying that his father is primed and ready for a return to the wrestling ring. Ryback says that 64-year old Hogan is an incredible guy and a legend in the business, but he should never take another bump again. He thinks it’d be great to see Hogan return to WWE and get physical from time to time, but his days of wrestling matches are long gone.
Ryback comments on the news that Anthem has decided to give their contracted talent legal ownership of their characters/gimmicks by saying that’s the way it should have been from day one. He commends Anthem for making the right decision here and putting their employees first, and he says that all wrestlers should stand up for themselves more often when it comes to owning their characters.
Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks made headlines last week, informing that they plan of self-financing a show in 2018 with which they intend to sell out a 10,000 seat arena. Ryback says that this doesn’t really interest him one way or another. If those guys set a goal and make it happen then great for them, but if they don’t do it he won’t lose any sleep over it either.
Speaking about Jim Johnson’s release from WWE, Ryback says he’s not sure what really happened between WWE and Johnson but he assumes they parted ways amicably. Johnson probably saw the writing on the wall with CFO$ taking over the majority of WWE’s music composition over the last couple of years. He has done incredible work over a 32-year career in WWE, but all good things must come to an end.
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!
