Ryback On Possible Nixed Idea For Him To Wrestle Ultimate Warrior At WrestleMania, Facing Kurt Angle
On episode 46 of Conversation With The Big Guy, former WWE Superstar Ryback talked about current WWE RAW General Manager Kurt Angle's favourable comments about him and the rumors that Ryback was slated to face off against The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 30.
After engaging in an unexpected and unsolicited freestyle rap on the program, Ryback talked about Angle recently saying he wanted to work Ryback on the indies. The former Skip Sheffield claimed the match could happen eventually and went on to say that 'The Most Celebrated Real Athlete In WWE History' was always cool with him.
"I actually messaged something to Kurt just saying thank you. That was great. I guess he was saying he wants to or wanted to wrestle me on the independents or something along the lines of that, which was really cool of him. I'm sure at some point in time that could happen." Ryback continued, "he [has] always been really cool to me from Day 1, so I thought that was nice to bring me up in a 2K18 interview. He didn't have to, so I look forward? I think? I would love to wrestle him."
On the subject of Angle, Ryback suggested that he believes 'Your Olympic Hero' will be cleared to compete by WWE.
"Yeah, [Angle will be medically cleared by WWE officials to wrestle again]. I've seen him wrestle on the independents recently and stuff, so I'm sure he can get himself ready to go if it's? I don't know about him doing full-time, five days a week, but I think if you, like he did on the independents, he'd do a match here, get ready, take a little time off, a match here, a match there, just to stay kind of sharp enough. I think with his training regimen, and just his past, and his mindset, if he knows [about an upcoming match, he will be able to prepare himself accordingly]. And maybe it's just one big match. Maybe that's all that there is left. I don't know. He'll be more than ready."
With respect to the rumors that Ryback was pencilled in to square off with The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 30, 'The Big Guy' explained that Mark Carrano from WWE Talent Relations showed him a tentative WrestleMania card that had Ryback pen in a match with Warrior. Ryback believed the match would not have done much for his professional wrestling career, but he would have done it anyway.
"I remember seeing my buddy, one of my great friends in life, Mark Carrano, actually showed me the WrestleMania card early. They kind of have an idea of what they want to do, obviously, ahead of time, and they had on it Ryback vs. Ultimate Warrior. And I just said, 'cool.' But in my head, at the time, it was kind of during my heel deal, that first one, where it probably wasn't going to be a favorable position for me as far as all that, but I was excited because I figured that's his one last moment in WWE, so I thought it would be really cool. I didn't think I would necessarily be the right guy for that, probably not, but I didn't know anything about what kind of shape he was in or if he could wrestle or not. But I 100% would have done it. I always did what was asked of me there."
Ryback reflected, "especially being in the position that I was in and having success without necessarily being allowed to go higher, but I didn't think it was because it probably? Much like when Hunter did the favors for him the WrestleMania before he came back early on, Hunter never broken through yet and whatnot. But I thought I didn't think it was necessarily going to be the perfect, but at the same time, I loved The Ultimate Warrior was a kid. In this business, you can't be a f–king mark. Especially, a lot of guys have a problem with this. It's business and I'm looking at it like, 'well, how the f–k do I recover from that [match at WrestleMania]?' It's not necessarily going to be a joke, but it's probably going to be one of those one or two minute deals."
In Ryback's estimation, being part of Warrior's last match would have been a memorable moment.
"It would have been cool because it would live on forever and whatnot in the grand scheme of things." Ryback admitted, "from a personal standpoint, it would've been cool to be part of his last moment [in WWE ring], as far as his last match, probably, in WWE, to give him, to go out in one big bang."
Additionally, Ryback pointed out that it would have been nice to perform on a the main card of a pay-per-view for once.
"It would have been better than what [Ryback ended up doing at WrestleMania]. I was probably in a preshow tag match or something." Ryback added, "it would have been a much better position because it would have been on the show."
While Ryback believes that the match with Warrior never happened because WWE's plans changed, the master of the meathook clothesline acknowledged that the whole thing may have been nothing more than a rib.
"Yeah, so that was one of those deals, and this is again, I don't know how serious it was," Ryback said. "That was a real thing at one point or it was presented as a real thing. Again, you never know with WWE. Mark Carrano, they could've had his sheet [forged]. 'Let's f–k with Ryback and make him think he's going to be on WrestleMania.' I'm not kidding. It could've been that. But I did see the sheet where it said 'Ryback vs. Ultimate Warrior' and they had other matches on that card that did end up happening. But things change and that ended up not happening."
Check out the Notorious B.I.G. Guy's rap game here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Conversation With The Big Guy with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: Conversation With The Big Guy
Luis Abreu contributed to this article.