Ryback discusses some matches from this past Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV. He informs that he needs to go back and re-watch the Elias/Seth Rollins match. He notes that Elias has tremendous upside and he proved that he could hang with Rollins on a physical level Sunday night. He points out that if a performer can hang with Rollins they can basically hang with anyone.
WWE’s commentary team focused heavily on Rollins being a “fighting Champion” during this match, unlike Brock Lesnar. This could lead to a potential feud between Rollins and Brock Lesnar, but Rollins ultimately lost the Intercontinental Title on RAW last night. Ryback points out that the negative thing about being a fighting Champion is you can lose your Title on any given night.
Ryback comments on some of the criticism of the PPV. Some fans complained about Carmella’s victory over Asuka, which Ryback finds hilarious. WWE creative accomplished their goal of making fans angry by booking the heel to win. He continues by saying that a performers in-ring wrestling ability is extremely important, but that’s still only one piece of the puzzle. Ryback thinks Carmella’s on the right track and is doing a great job right now.
Ryback thinks that winning the Money in the Bank briefcase is a hell of a momentum booster for Braun Strowman. He feels that at some point the creative team has to pull the trigger on talents, and hopefully this is Braun’s time. He adds that sometimes WWE appears to be getting behind a talent only to not follow through, so hopefully that isn’t the case here with Strowman.
He notes that the commentary team plays a huge part in getting talents over. He admits that professional wrestlers can’t tell a great story in the ring every night, especially if there are time constraints, but if it’s at all possible performers should do everything they can to tell a story.
He feels that stories are what makes matches and the business as a whole popular. Moves mean nothing if fans don’t care about the performers or the storyline they’re watching. He goes on to say that all of WWE’s top stars of the past had great storylines around them. As a result of this, fans invested in them and not the moves they were executing.
Ryback comments on the news that Paige was assaulted by a fan while leaving the arena after Money In The Bank. Apparently the fan pie-faced her through the window, and Ryback calls this a horrible act. He says that’s about as disrespectful as it gets. In his opinion that person’s not a fan, that’s a “piece of shit” who doesn’t even deserve to watch wrestling. If WWE can determine the identity of this person, Ryback thinks WWE should make an example out of him.
In another unfortunate turn of events, Rusev and Lana were robbed recently at a hotel they were staying at. Ryback hopes the hotel helped them, reimbursing them in one way or another for their inconvenience. He thinks the hotel should be accommodating WWE and WWE employees as best they can. He adds that there are horrible people everywhere and this was an unfortunate situation.
WWE recently announced a huge show that will take place in Australia in October. Ryback thinks this is great news because it means another big payday for WWE and their performers. He points out that the company is doing big business around the world with these huge live events. He’s not sure if WWE’s going to do a few live events around that area as well, because common sense says that would be the smart thing to do and would ensure an even better payday for most talents since they’re making the lengthy trip to Australia anyways.
He’s also very curious to see if they can sell out that huge building in Australia because wrestling isn’t as big there as it is in the United Kingdom and North America.
Ryback comments on the news that former WWE employee, The Godfather almost signed with WCW during the Monday Night Wars. Godfather almost signed with WCW to portray the NWO bodyguard, a role that ultimately went to another ex-WWE talent, Virgil. Ryback says it’s Incredible how things play out in the wrestling business, but there’s no doubt that Godfather went on to have tremendous success on WWE’s roster during the attitude era.
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!
