Steve Carrier on August 22, 2018
Ryback opens today’s show by discussing the death of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. He points out that he grew up watching Neidhart and the few times he met him he was a very sweet man. He notes that Neidhart is a very recognizable figure from WWE’s past, and his powerhouse style in the ring made him very memorable as a performer.
Ryback says it’s quite sad that Bret Hart is the only living member of the attitude era’s Hart Foundation. There’s no doubt that the previous generations of performers lived a harder lifestyle than today’s performers, but it was nice to see Neidhart conquer some of his personal demons over the last few years. He says it was also great to see Natalya wear Neidhart’s jacket to the ring at SummerSlam.
Ryback informs that he watched a couple of matches from NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4 and he had to shut it off. He notes that there were several spots during the show where talents no-sold multiple moves in a row in order to continue executing more moves. He points out that the impressive Superkick from Adam Cole to a flipping Ricochet wasn’t even followed by a cover, and he couldn’t understand that.
He points out that he’s very impressed by all the athleticism that these performers show, but he adds that anybody can go out to the ring and no-sell everything. He notes that with a few subtle changes these matches could be improved tremendously, because the way they’re presented now is exposing the business too much. The biggest babyfaces in the history of the business sold their asses off, and when devastating moves have no effect, it exposes the business.
Ryback goes on to say that the whole purpose of professional wrestling is to protect your opponent, and he’s beginning to notice that performers are taking more risks than ever in order to make it look like they’re legitimately injuring their opponent. There are more spots than ever on the outside of the ring and on the ring apron, and he fears that performers are going to injure themselves permanently, adding that they can’t make any money if they can’t wrestle.
Ryback says he loved the Miz/ Daniel Bryan match from SummerSlam. He points out that those guys told a great story and didn’t take any unnecessary risks, and it was still one of his favourite matches from the entire weekend. Unfortunately, given the lengthy runtime of SummerSlam the crowd were somewhat dead for this bout.
Ryback congratulates Dean Ambrose on a successful return to WWE during SummerSlam weekend. He points out that Ambrose looks much healthier now after putting on some weight, and he notes that being home for an extended period of time was probably exactly what the doctor ordered for Ambrose.
Ryback welcomes P.J. Black (Justin Gabriel) to the show for part two of his interview.
Ryback says Black had all the tools to be a major star in WWE. He thought Black was a “can’t miss” prospect, and he still doesn’t really understand what went wrong there. Black says he’s still determined to go back to WWE someday, win the WWE Championship, and prove everyone wrong. Ryback doesn’t doubt Black’s ability to do that if he really wants to.
Black notes that his decision to leave WWE a few years ago derived from him not being happy with his character’s position. He points out that he continuously pitched creative ideas and he even pitched the idea for a cruiserweight show several times over the years. He decided to leave the company and he’s glad he made that decision because he was able to grow as a performer and as a person, and all of his former weaknesses are now his strengths.
Black informs that it’s a goal of his to return to WWE because he wants to prove a lot of people wrong. He also wants to show that he can do so much more than he did during his first run, while correcting some of the mistakes that he made during that time.
Black points out that while some fans might love his high-flying style, he thinks the strength of his skill-set is his ability to tell stories. He’s also changed his style a bit, incorporating more submission holds and mat-based wrestling. He adds that he’s still likely to pull out a 450 splash from time to time if a certain match calls for that type of move.
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!
August 22, 2018 11:50 am
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