Conversation With the Big Guy Recap w/ P.J. Black (Justin Gabriel) – Black’s Recovery From Devastating Injury, Should WWE Confiscate Phones? Ryback Returning to Television in 2019? More!

Ryback opens today’s show by congratulating Renee Young, who was a guest commentator on Monday’s episode of RAW, becoming the first woman to ever commentate for an entire episode of RAW. Ryback points out that Young is a great person and a great employee for WWE, and the timing of this works out perfectly as it coincides with the recently announced “Evolution” PPV.

Ryback points out that Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks recently announced that ALL IN will be available to watch live thru the FITE TV app and on PPV. Ryback thinks this is a great idea, pointing out that these guys are literally going “all in” financially and mentally. He thinks the decision to run on PPV will turn out to be a success financially for them, and he’s really looking forward to seeing how the numbers turn out.

Ryback notes that several wrestling outlets reported that WWE was trying to prevent spoilers for the Mae Young Classic during the show’s tapings last week. Apparently WWE employees targeted fans who were tweeting out spoilers and Ryback isn’t really surprised by this. He notes that wrestling was so fun in years past because there were no spoilers, but nowadays it’s so easy to find information online.

Ryback says the best advice he can give any wrestling fan is to stop reading the dirt sheets and reading spoilers. He thinks it’s so much easier for fans to enjoy the product if they don’t know everything about the inner workings of the business. Professional wrestling is scripted programming, and if you know what’s going to happen it’s hard for it to be entertaining.

When surprise returns are executed perfectly, like Shane McMahon & The Hardy Boyz, there’s nothing more exciting. On the contrary, the recent debut of Bobby Lashley was talked about for months prior, so when he finally debuted it wasn’t a huge surprise.

Ryback points out that fans can’t control themselves so they read spoilers, then when WWE does what the spoilers suggested the fans get angry and call the product “predictable”.  Ryback notes that WWE should consider confiscating cell phones at television tapings so fans will be forced to watch the show. They wouldn’t be able to tweet out spoilers because there phones would be kept in ziplock bags and returned at the end of the show.

Ryback welcomes P.J. Black (former WWE Superstar, Justin Gabriel) to the show.

Black informs that this year has been going great for him which is a refreshing change because last year was terrible. He had a devastating injury that made him miss the entire year and he basically had to learn how to walk again. He’s a risk-taker in real life, and is a huge fan of base jumping and sky-diving. He was doing a jump in South Africa and things didn’t go as planned. He smashed into a building, which resulted in him losing a piece of his right ring finger and breaking his ankle.

Ryback notes that Black is truly lucky to be alive, but this had to be a significant financial loss as well. Black was forced to pay for the satellite dishes he tore down with his parachute, as well as his hospital bills. Black agrees, but points out that this was a life-changing experience, and meditation was a huge part of his recovery.

Ryback recalls working with Black in WWE’s developmental territory, FCW. He notes that Black was the Champion there at the time, and was working 20-minute matches regularly. Ryback thought Black was a “can’t miss” prospect for WWE.

After a short run in WWE as “Justin Gabriel”, Black has moved onto working for Lucha Underground and on the independent scene. Ryback notes that since he’s starting to feel like himself again, he’s been telling people that he’s going to return to television at some point in 2019. He jokes that Black should put a word in at Lucha Underground for him.

Part two of this interview will air on next week’s episode of Conversation With the Big Guy.

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!