Ricochet Reveals Restriction WWE Imposed on His In-Ring Style

Ricochet, who was with WWE from 2018 until his departure earlier this year, has now joined AEW’s roster. Reflecting on his time in WWE under Vince McMahon, he has now revealed some of the restrictions he faced.

While speaking on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Ricochet talked about his time in WWE and the numerous hurdles and frustrations he had to face there. Ricochet talked about how, despite being a smaller wrestler, he often found himself facing much larger opponents like Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and Sheamus.

Ricochet mentioned that while he could physically handle the challenge, WWE’s creative direction restricted him. He recalled an instance where he tried to pick up Drew McIntyre in a match, but backstage officials told him not to, as it would make McIntyre look bad. Despite being able to squat over 400 pounds, the restrictions on his moves were frustrating for him.

“I didn’t even really wrestle people my size. I didn’t wrestle AJ Styles a lot or I didn’t wrestle Johnny Gargano. I was always in there with Drew McIntyre or Bobby Lashley or Sheamus. I was always in there with the biggest dude. (It’s still a big man’s territory) Which is fine, which is great… And to add on to that, it’s like, I can give you a suplex or I can give — I can’t give Bobby Lashley a suplex or like, even one time, me and Drew were in there and we did something and I did something, obviously I went to pick him up and I couldn’t pick him up and then we did a story where I gave him a couple kicks and he fell into the ropes and he came out and I used his momentum to pick him up and give him a move. I came to the back and they said, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ Literally, they told me, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t pick Drew up. It makes him look bad.’ But I can squat over 400-plus pounds, so it’s like, you know what I mean?”

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Ricochet also revealed that Vince McMahon criticized him for being too spectacular in the ring. Regardless, Ricochet is more than happy to be in AEW right now and even has a huge title match lined up next week, so we’ll have to see how he performs in the match.

What do you think of what Ricochet had to say about the restrictions imposed on him in WWE? Do you feel he will truly thrive in AEW? Sound off in the comments section below!