Ryback opens today’s show by speaking about ALL IN, and how quickly the event sold out. He mentions that he was texting with Cody Rhodes a couple of days ago, and he thinks it’s phenomenal that they were able to sell out that 10,000-seat building so quickly. He notes that this was a big victory for Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and professional wrestling as a whole, but it also makes him question whether they could have sold out a bigger arena.

Ryback informs that he was invited to appear at Starrcast but he respectfully declined. He notes that he would have preferred to wrestle at ALL IN instead of doing meet-and-greets at Starrcast. Nonetheless, he hopes both events are a tremendous success. He adds that this was not an easy undertaking but Cody has always had a great mind for the business.

Ryback comments on the news that WWE recently signed a new television deal, with Smackdown set to move to FOX on Friday nights in a massive $1 Billion deal over 5 years. He says that this is obviously a crazy amount of money. He stopped trading WWE stocks many years ago but he wishes he wouldn’t have now because he would have made some serious money with the recent jump in WWE’s stock price.

He sends congratulations to WWE for this massive deal, and he notes that there are rumours circulating that Smackdown Live will switch to a 3-hour broadcast as well. He doesn’t think that’s the worst idea because it allows more talents to get air time, and with DVR fans can now just fast forward through the show anyways, allowing them to skip the things that they’re not interested in.

He says this is a huge deal for WWE and the wrestling business. He thinks it’s tremendous news for WWE, and he notes that having programming on FOX is a big advantage because FOX can promote Smackdown Live on their other programming such as Football games.

Ryback mentions that some people have been critical of the announcement that Ronda Rousey will be challenging Nia Jax for the Women’s Championship at Money in the Bank, suggesting that she’s not ready for a Title shot. Ryback says Rousey is a superstar and he has a feeling she’s going to be fine. If things don’t go quite as planned WWE can take a step backwards and give her some more time to train, but he doesn’t think that’s going to be a problem.

He notes that people just want to whine and complain about everything. He points out that wrestling is fake; it’s a scripted television show, so he urges fans to sit back and try to enjoy it. A part of him is actually glad that WWE has pissed off this portion of their audience by giving Rousey a Title shot so quickly.

Ryback comments on the upcoming Mauro Ranallo documentary, focusing on his struggle with mental illness. He notes that Ranallo is such a great announcer that added a lot to the matches when he worked on Smackdown Live. He thought Ranallo was a great guy who seemed to treat everyone with respect, and that’s what’s important. He’s happy that Ranallo has decided to talk about his mental illness, and he hopes this will help some fans out there who are struggling with similar issues.

A listener writes into the show and asks Ryback about the details surrounding his backstage segment with Curtis Axel, when their Rybaxel tag team split up. Ryback finished that segment by saying, “I’ve read a few books on politics”, and the listener was wondering what that line was all about. Ryback informs that this entire backstage break-up segment was recorded on the fly.

He notes that working as one half of Rybaxel was his ‘punishment period’, and although they’d often main event house shows they were used horribly on television. They did a bunch of backstage segments during this time, some that didn’t even air and some more that went straight to wwe.com. However, this was some of the most fun he’s ever had in his career.

In the line, “I’ve read a few books on politics”, Ryback informs that he was referencing the backstage politics in the wrestling business. Ryback was set to receive another babyface push following Rybaxel’s break-up, so this was a clever line to make Axel laugh, referencing the fact that he that he was going to be getting a big babyface push again. He notes that he and Axel laughed about it after.

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!