Steve Carrier on February 19, 2018
Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Phoenix Marie.
A listener writes into the show and asks Ryback if he thinks we’ll ever see Chris Benoit in the WWE Hall of Fame. He doesn’t think WWE will ever induct Benoit into the Hall of Fame because of the terrible events that resulted in his own death as well as the death of his son and wife.
Ryback notes that Benoit’s in-ring career is certainly worth celebrating, but WWE will never be able to do that because they’re a publicly traded company. Even if WWE wanted to celebrate some of the things Benoit did in the ring during his life, their stockholders would go absolutely insane at the thought of it and would never allow it.
Another listener writes into the show and asks Ryback to name his most memorable moment in the wrestling business. Marie notes that her most memorable wrestling moment was the look on Bret Hart’s face after he realized he was screwed in Montreal in 1997. The moment when Hart realized what had happened and spit in McMahon’s face was one of the more memorable moments in wrestling history in her opinion.
Ryback mentions that leaving WWE was his most memorable wrestling moment. He doesn’t mean for this to sound negative by any means; he just needed to leave for health reasons and it took a lot of courage. He was very proud of himself for taking that stand, leaving WWE and venturing out on his own.
Ryback comments on Ivory’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. He says he was lucky enough to meet Ivory during one of the Tough Enough seasons and she was a very nice woman. She had a strength about her that was quite evident from their first meeting, and he thinks she’s very deserving of a Hall of Fame induction.
Speaking about next weekend’s Elimination Chamber match, Ryback says he has no idea which direction WWE is going to go with their main event match for WrestleMania but he’s looking forward to finding out. He points out that the Elimination Chamber match is basically every performer’s least favourite match because that steel hurts like hell.
He adds that the women are finally going to feel the wrath of that Chamber this weekend as well as we’ll see the first ever Women’s Elimination Chamber match. He hopes that all the girls involved in that match take care of each other to ensure that they all walk out of that match safe and healthy.
Ryback really enjoyed last week’s segment on RAW between Braun Strowman and Elias. He thought it was great that WWE added some character development to Strowman as he feels that character development is always a positive for any performer. He also adds that anything that Elias is involved in turns out great, and he comes across as a big star in Ryback’s opinion.
Ryback thinks WWE is making the right move by switching back to dual-branded PPVs. He thinks less is more when it comes to this type of programming, and he feels WWE should always leave the viewers wanting more. He compares WWE to a restaurant in the sense that a big, complicated menu sometimes leaves people confused at restaurants. A smaller, more concise menu (PPV schedule) is a much better option for WWE.
He comments on Dolph Ziggler’s new WWE contract which is reportedly a 2-year contract worth $3 Million. He says he’s very happy for his friend, and he doesn’t think Ziggler is even concerned with how he’s used on WWE’s programming at this point. He thinks it’s all about the money for Ziggler now and he has no issue with that because Ziggler’s a performer on a fake, scripted show, and financial security should be the priority.
Ryback notes that paying a performer this amount of money is a rarity for WWE nowadays. WWE’s current business model appears to be signing high profile indie performers and paying them as little as possible.
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!
February 19, 2018 12:07 pm
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