Ryback opens today’s show by talking about the passing of Matt Cappotelli. Ryback says this is a truly unfortunate situation. He didn’t know Cappotelli very well, but it’s evident from the outpouring of love and support that he was well liked by everyone he came into contact with. Ryback sends his condolences and prayers to all of Cappotelli’s family and friends.
Ryback notes that it’s even more unfortunate that Cappotelli had to deal with those health issues twice. He had tremendous upside as a professional wrestling talent before his first battle with cancer, and it’s very sad that he was never able to live his dream as a wrestler. Ryback adds that Cappotelli was initially supposed to be called up to the main roster with The Miz many years ago, but his health troubles prevented that.
Ryback says he’s excited to watch the new Hardy Boyz documentary that recently aired on the WWE Network. He notes that he’s met them both before and he actually wrestled Matt on one occasion which was a really cool experience. He thinks they’re both great guys and he points out that although they’ve had long careers they’re still at the top of their game.
Ryback speaks about the iconic Hell in A Cell match between The Undertaker and Mick Foley which occured 20 years ago at King of the Ring 1998. He points out that although some people critique the risks that were taken in this match, those two men told an amazing story. They’d been involved in a feud for months leading up to this match, and all the risks that were taken here was the story’s climax. He’s not sure if those risks were necessary, but that’s the style that Foley was accustomed to working back then.
Commenting on the fact that The Revival picked up a win over Roman Reigns & Bobby Lashley on RAW last week, Ryback says he was surprised by that finish. He assumes this will lead to a larger program featuring Reigns, Lashley and The Revival, and this finish was just a way to get to next week’s show.
Ryback talks about Daniel Bryan’s current positioning on the Smackdown Live roster. It appears that Team Hell No has reformed and this will slot Bryan into an upper-midcard role for the foreseeable future. Ryback doesn’t have any issue with that, noting that that’s where Bryan has been positioned for the majority of his WWE career. Bryan had a short run in the main event, but performers can’t stay in the main event all the time either.
He’s quite happy that Rusev is getting a chance to be in a main event position. He’s a big fan of Rusev personally and professionally, and he thinks it would be a wise move to let Rusev have a main event run as WWE Champion. He’d like to see what Rusev could do with a Title run in terms of producing entertaining content and delivering merchandise sales.
Rumours are circulating that WWE might be headed for a Roman Reigns/Brock Lesnar Universal Title match at SummerSlam in Brooklyn. Ryback’s fairly certain that if Reigns wins the Title from Lesnar in Brooklyn the reception is going to be quite negative, and for this reason he’d have Braun Strowman cash in his Money in the Bank contract at this event.
He thinks a Strowman cash-in would raise the budding Superstar to a whole new level, and he’s sure the Brooklyn crowd would eat it up.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ryback if he’d ever be interested in starting a wrestling school. Quite simply, Ryback says, “No”. He points out that if you start a wrestling school you have to be very hands on and it requires a lot of time, and he thinks he’s better suited using his time and money for different things.
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!
