On the most recent edition of “Conversations with The Big Guy”, which you can listen to in full at this link, former WWE star Ryback had the following to say regarding a number of topics:
On Wrestling Shirts Being Accepted in Society:
I look at things differently than I used to. Wrestling shirts are more acceptable now than they used to be. But again, I’m not walking through the halls of an elementary school and junior high—you know how those kids can be. There’s a lot of kids out there that say that wrestling is fake and it’s stupid, which they are dead right—they’re smart kids. I mean, you can’t get mad at them, they’re just telling the truth. Kids are wearing the shirts, their heroes are playing a part and I understand it. That is why I didn’t wear wrestling shirts if that makes sense. There are certain designs, but that is not to say that certain wrestling shirts—it can remind you of wrestling and still sell really well, like there were some Austin shirts that remind you of wrestling shirts, but he was so ‘in’ that it didn’t really matter at the time, but you never want to, if you look at some of the New Day shirts, which is great for wrestling fans, but if a regular guy was wearing it to school with three black guys on a unicorn with dildos on their heads, they might be made fun of. That shirt is great in the wrestling world, but maybe not in an elementary or junior high so it all depends on the wrestlers, who aren’t really worried about it. They’re not worried about what kids will buy because they watch the product, which is who you are selling it to on the grand scheme of things. I feel like they are a little more accepted as they used to be, but I’m not a little kid roaming the hallways, but I imagine it’s something similar to what it used to be.
On Sheamus Working Stiff in the Ring:
A lot of guys always say that Sheamus is always rough. I have been in the ring with him many times—done a lot of live events together and he is totally fine. Again, I was always taught by Bill DeMott to hit hard in the same places, especially if you are a bigger guy. I know that Miz used to get s*it because he used to throw a lot of light things that did not look good and he got ripped apart early on in his career because he had to tighten up some of his stuff and work a little more aggressive, but I Sheamus—we’ve had our differences on a few things before in the past on little things, but never in the ring. He has always been a pleasure. He’s an aggressive Irishman. Vince will tell him to work aggressively because he’s always been that way so in all fairness, again, hit hard in the same places. Accidents happen from time to time, but he never struck me as a guy, but then again, I am the type of guy if someone hits me I’m not going to take offense to it.
On the Bench Pressing Competition Against Mark Henry:
The 225 bench presses are used as a measuring stick at the combine of guys coming out of college into the NFL. 225 is considered, I would imagine in the NFL, it’s probably considered a good amount of weight because a lot of guys are at that body weight. On average it’s kind of like a number that is well received. So, they like to take that weight and see how many times you can bench press it before you can’t bench press it anymore. I believe the NFL record is around 50 or 49 or somewhere in that area. WWE wanted to take the World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry vs Ryback and do the Strongman Competition. We talked about actually using real weights for this. This was huge for me, I would really have had a good run if I had won this match. John Cena used to always b*tch about working with Mark Henry, I feel like he probably had something to do with that, just my opinion, because I used to have to hear him b*tching about working with Mark Henry all the time and I feel like he was saying, well why not have Ryback work with Henry because I was going after John Cena at the time. I’m not hating on John, but that’s the God-honest truth of what I really think of how that all came together. Mark, at one point, was really one of the World’s Strongest Man, and strongest in certain lifts. Obviously wrestling his whole entire career, his joints are beaten up now and is at a different stage in his life now. He’s still really strong, especially if you make him angry. The actual weights were between 135 and 155. They were real weights but they were less than 225. I believe it was between 135 and 155. I’m pretty sure it was 155 that they told us, or in that vicinity. The plates were the 45-pound plates, but they weren’t real plates. They were real metal, you can hear them and they still clanked. I feel like the adrenaline with everyone watching, I believe we could have done the 225 because we knew everyone was watching. I really believe that, but why risk it when you don’t have to in the world of entertainment? I think they put on Wikipedia, they actually have it on there that we legitimately broke the record, and I remember seeing that and saying that they are f**ing stupid. It’s not official, like f**k off. It just goes to show how stupid people are. Like, you wouldn’t think that a fake wrestling show would use fake weights? But no, we’ll put it up as facts online. It was a big deal, it got him a good amount of heat and there was nothing wrong with that segment at all.
