On the most recent edition of “Conversations with the Big Guy,” hosted by former WWE star Ryback, The Big Guy and co-host Pat Buck run down the top 5 new gimmicks for Ryback’s run on the independent scene. Below are some highlights, and you can listen to the full podcast at this link.
Ryback:
5. This is very simple, very effective, it gets the crowd behind you and I feel like—I look around all the rosters and you know what, I really don’t see anybody else that is doing this right now, and it’s the All American Big Guy. USA Singlet, Patriot Mask, All-American Big Guy where you blend in all the greats: Patriot, little bit of Kurt Angle, with the All-American Singlet, just f***n USA! USA! Just f***ng milking it for all its worth. Meet & greets are great; who doesn’t want to meet an All-American Guy?
Pat Buck:
Let’s meet in the middle here because one of my #5 on the list, much like we have ‘Samoa Joe,’ we have ‘American Ryback’ and I don’t know if you thought about theme music because it’s part of the package and it’s an independent run, but we get a little ‘Eye of the Tiger’ playing. You have to exchange your power moves with Karate kicks. You’re just an American guy that just does American things. You sell $1 Flags, little mini American Flags at the gimmick table. Red, White & Blue glasses, or all three for $2 a piece, and can get all three for $2.95. This is big money. Angle isn’t doing it anymore and I like the mask idea too.
Ryback:
The All-American Big Guy. I think you need to. I have the singlet; we go All-American with the singlet, and then I have the mask as well. I have to reinvent myself, and I have to embrace the All-American Big Guy.
Pat Buck:
4. ‘Homeless Ryback.’ So here’s the whole persona. The theme music is ‘Freebird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Something a little sad, Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump. You have a gimp limp. You limp into the ring. Your catchphrase will go from ‘Feed Me More’ to ‘Feed Me Please’ and will be a little thinner. I will need you to drop 90lbs. You’re going to grow out the beard a little bit and I’m thinking you have to grow the hair back. Your singlet will have to have a few rips in it. You can keep it but it’s going to have some little holes. One of your boots has to flap a little bit, like when it tears away. The weight belts will be missing a few letters. Every match has to start with a promo how the internet has destroyed you and you are on tough times now. You’re basically like Randy ‘The Ram’ but are on tough times. During the match you have to buy drugs from the crowd. You take a couple of photos, get the money. It’ll be like a $100. You buy a bag, helps you get through the match—Balls Mahoney, RVD style.
Ryback:
I saved my good ones for the top of the list. My #4 I go ahead and lose 50 lbs, I go to Kick pads and Nike: Air Max’s and call myself ‘Flyback.’ I’m all about the high flying, the dives. Typically when I am at my normal weight I’m 285, 290, I’m at 275 now. So, okay, I’ll have to lose more weight, same as ‘Homeless Ryback’ but without—okay, I’m cool. BTW, I’m writing down 90 lbs on my notes now as if this was a real thing. I need to remember this. The big catchphrase for ‘Flyback’ is the no-selling, dive-flying, wheelin’ dealin, springboard flinging, backflip dinging son of a gun. That is what ‘Flyback’ is all about. I can’t wait for my #3.
Pat Buck:
My other one, I don’t think you will get upset by this. This was actually a tag-team that was pitched during WrestleMania weekend. I don’t know if it is on your list, but the ‘Indy Fat Guys.’
Ryback:
Stu Bennett [Wade Barrett] is very serious about this by the way. I’m all for it too. I think it’s money.
Pat Buck:
This will put buzz—plant the seed in people’s brains where you guys start teaming on independent shows.
Ryback:
Me and Wade on a tag team is money by the way from the whole Nexus deal.
Pat Buck:
Dressed in fat suits with t-shirts and shorts on and the whole thing is that ‘we’ve tried to do things our own way. We want to relate to you independent folks out there; just very sluggish, even though he is just wearing a fat suit.
Ryback:
We don’t do it a lot. We keep it very basic and are the biggest heels in the territories.
Pat Buck:
But you’ve agreed to cut the rates as well.
Ryback:
Is it ‘Indy Fat Boyz’ or ‘Fat Guyz?’
Pat Buck:
Either way it ends with a ‘Z’, that’s the most important part.
Ryback:
The rate, if we did agree to do this, is that the rate eventually will go up, but at first to get people to get it booked, we would cut the rate for the ‘Indy Fat Boyz’ for anybody listening. Stu Bennett and myself aka Wade Barrett, to team as the ‘Indy Fat Boyz,’ very real thing. The fat suits have been selected. We have done our homework on it. I told him that I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, but if you want to book it we will cut the rate for it.
Pat Buck:
But you are not getting out of the suits the entire show?
Ryback:
Nope, we come in, ‘Indy Fat Boyz.’ Up, strong; we come in and do our shit and move on. My #3 is stepping outside the box [Pat] Buck. I messaged this to you outside as I was thinking about it in the car. This idea came to me on different gimmicks for the ‘Big Guy’ on the independence. This one is really out there everybody, but sometimes you just have to say, F**k it. The ‘Big Gay’ Ryback. ‘Baby Got Ryback,’ Dicks all over the singlet and catchphrase is ‘Feed Me Dicks.’ I’m the last guy you want to see be gay because I can forcefully throw my will upon you and you can’t stop me. I’m the ‘Big Gay.’ You thought Goldust was bad back in the day, you haven’t seen anything yet. Throw myself with anyone and watch what I do. There won’t be a lot of kids watching, and God dammit it’ll be entertaining.
Pat Buck:
I had the same thing for mine and I thought the theme song if Eddie can play, ‘It’s Raining Men,’ more feminists color on the singlet, penises on the singlet I agree. Do you stay bald or do you bring back the old bleached hair?
Ryback:
No, I stay bald for that one.
Pat Buck:
I think you’ll need a new finish. It reminded me of—
Ryback:
I do a Piledriver but I fall back into the ‘69’ position and pin myself every match.
Pat Buck:
There was an independent tag team called the ‘Christopher Street Connection’ in the New York area, but I don’t know if they are gay in real life, but they would do criss-cross spots; the old ‘dosey-doe’ shoot them in the corner, normally babyfaces like clotheslines, or duck something, but they would just make out and the whole crowd would be in shock as they start kissing. I do think though that something here where there hasn’t been a gay character where he is an a** kicker. I know Darren Young came out, but they never embraced that on television; they’re too scared to be like, hey, I’m a gay dude, and beat the s**t out of someone.
Ryback:
Yeah, it’s always been very feminine it feels like. I wonder—it’s funny, because back in the day, if you look at old ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin images; he’s wearing like tight jean shorts, his ears are pierced, but when I was a kid I never looked at him like a bad a**, but the way you think about that, like, he had big f’n legs where no shorts fit him. He’s a big son of a b**ch, and he’s not gay, but that character, imagine him being gay, but still do the same thing. It’s never been done. I’ve always heard rumors—-we won’t say any names, but of other wrestlers, big menacing men that are—possibly, I don’t know, people’s perceptions are a big thing, but the ‘Big Gay’ you can’t stop him, even if you wanted to, you can’t. Holy s**t, what are we doing on this show?
We’ve hit an all-time low, but our listeners by the way, thank you for listening. We hit a record high this past week. We’re at a whole new level. We continue to grow and continue to grow at a great rate so please continue to share this podcast with your friends; it’s humbling that this many people are following me, and following Pat on this part of our life and in this journey we call life, so thank you, and wanted to throw that in there.
Pat Buck:
#2, and I’m going back and forth. I have a couple more, but I think you have one similar; I call him, ‘American-Indian Ryback.’ So, you think, when you hear this name that he’s Native-American. You’re a proud American, but because of all this stuff with Indian culture; that heat magnet they put on you, you fully embrace and go full throttle and become an Indian citizen. I believe you go back to trunks. You have to get thinner again, but you’re going to have to look more like Dhalsim from Street Fighter. You have to bear foot, and have to bleach your beard, but not blonde, but full white. You will have to have this leathery, have a real tan from the sun, strong bronze tan, white beard and that is what I have.
Ryback:
So, my #2 is the exact same thing, but I’m going to go more in-debt with this, but before I say my name and what I have, but this past week, and for everybody out there, we talked about the comments on this podcast that Pat and I did, with WWE merchandise not doing well in India. I said it in a joking; it was never meant to be taken serious, but we talked about it more in debt than what was quoted online by a lot of places I believe where I said, well no s*it, people in India don’t have money, and then we elaborated on that further where they are really poor or really rich, there is no middle class over there. I’ve been there plenty of times, we said it on the podcast that I am very sympathetic on that situation. This podcast is meant for entertainment purposes only, to get people to laugh and forget about life while they listen to this podcast, but there are people out there that make me want to look bad and want to report things. What happened is that a lot of the online Reporters took a portion, or a small portion of what I said and didn’t get the entire conversation, so unless you listen to the podcast you don’t know any different, and they tried to paint me in a negative light. I Tweeted this past week that I love India and love their culture and the people there. If you YouTube Ryback in India and see the thousands of people—it was a great experience, and been there multiple times, it’s like God dammit guys, quit trying to f***ing look for things that aren’t there.
Recently, this past week Ryan Satin—that Reporter guy. I wish these guys didn’t report on this, I wish they would get real jobs. I feel that it is not a real job, it’s not. It’s like guys, go do something that really makes the world better, but they do it. They love wrestling and they feel like they want to make money on it, so they report on these people’s lives. If you are going to report on people’s lives do your homework, right? That is the truth on this situation. Recently there was an interview with Alberto Del Rio, and that interview was from a wrestling site that asked the question—they completely misquoted and came up with whatever they wanted to come up with and said that I said it to him.
Pat Buck:
You can take anything out of anything, like a sentence out of context and switch it around completely.
Ryback:
Yeah, you have to get the full thing and these places don’t do that. They take a little thing, make a headline click-bait out of it and they try to get clicks. That is all they do, and that is what I want to raise awareness with people; it’s not just with me, it’s with everybody. This s**t is happening left and right, so anyways, Alberto was asked something that I never said. He was very positive towards me; he mentioned that it was a stupid comment, and it was. If I had said that it was a stupid comment, but it doesn’t bother me because I never said that. What bothers me is that other places take this quote and then regurgitate it and try to change it up. So anyways, that Ryan Satin guy came up with something that Ryback retracts his statements about India, saying that he loves Indian people and their culture. I had to contact this guy and find him because one of my fans had to send it over to me from Twitter and I said, what are you talking about? I never retracted anything. I said that I like India and liked Indian people on my podcast weeks ago. I was referencing a misquote that was since taken off and changed. I asked what he was talking about? He does that; he puts the old quote, which he didn’t do his homework on by not listening to my podcast, which wasn’t the entire quote to begin with, and he ends it with, I’m not sure what part was misinterpreted about it. The guy is completely f***ing wrong in what he reported to begin with. I’m sure he’s not a bad guy, but it’s like these guys report s**t, they don’t realize that they hurt your brand and your image when they don’t f***ng do your homework. It’s like, guys, be better than that. Don’t report s**t unless you know it is a fact. Do you know how it is a fact? Go back and listen to the podcast and listen to the entire thing and make your judgement on it before you go to a f**ing dirt sheet headline and say that you are going to go off on that. It really bothers me. With that said, in good spirits about this whole thing, I believe that the character needs to be called, ‘Rybu.’ It’s a man that represents India. It’s not ‘Feed Me More,’ It’s ‘Feed Them More.’ It’s not about me anymore, and all people on Indian descent, if you are from India, you get free ‘Feed Me More’ Nutrition for life. ‘Rybu’ is about being an Indian-Patriarch, and I want to make this right, and ‘Rybu,’ starting riots. This is fun. I like it. I want your #1, because I know your #1 isn’t mine. The one that I can legit pull off on #1, as I believe it’ll be #1 on the polls and I believe that’ll win.
Pat Buck:
Really? I don’t know.
Ryback:
I can 100% pull it off and make it my own. It’s been done numerous times. It’s been a main event character numerous times.
Pat Buck:
My #1, there was massive rumors about your MMA stuff, or Bellator stuff, this one trumps it all. Mind you, we are independent wrestling, but this is where it starts; the name is ‘Butterback.’ So, this is what we are going to do. We are going book Butterbean for a few appearances. So, the way ‘Butterback’ would work is that we would book Butterbean for Wrestle-Pro, and you would take him on, and this would be your investment. You would beat him with one punch; and after the match he would give you his trunks and then announces that you are new Tough Man, and you transform to ‘Butterback.’ He’s passing the torch. He has another pair made for you. So, you are clean shaven now, no beard. You have to stop working out and then we just start having boxing matches on independent wrestling shows and be 450lbs. He was 425lbs. Rates go down, but people come in record numbers to see Ryback let himself go. The food is included, but the rate goes down. I think there is longevity to this and looking forward to the ‘Butterback’ run.
Ryback:
Outside of the Big Gay and Rybu, I can make all these work, but Homeless Ryback would be a lot of fun. Homeless Ryback, I wasn’t thinking about that. The photo ops and buying drugs during the match, alright, #1 for me, and I think I can pull this off, I know I can make this work, but Big Daddy Ryback.’ Grow my hair out just short length. Bleach my hair and beard; essentially do Superstar Billy Graham and Hulk Hogan, Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner where I am passed the torch from those characters. I grow my hair out still pretty good. As you know I was a big fan of all of them growing up. Maybe I hop on a little gas, especially since I am not drug tested and say f*** it, and go against everything I believe in. ‘The Big Guy Ryback is on the Attack. Feed me if you need me.’ That is the catchphrase.
Pat Buck:
I think you need Phoenix Marie to come out with you.
Ryback:
Coming out with pornstar Phoenix Marie would be a little edgy. I would come out in biker shorts and airbrush an image of me on my a**, and Phoenix Marie; me and Cody Rhodes have discussed having her come on the road with me where she sells my Big Guy tea booster, testosterone booster at the gimmick table for me. We do our rates together, in which, I can’t remember in detail, but we had a long car ride in Europe talking about this gimmick. Whenever she picks up the microphone, she puts it in her mouth and I have to pull it back a little bit, but she holds it upside down a little bit and doesn’t realize it needs to be upside down. There could be legs behind that gimmick. I texted her over that before and she said she would 100% do wrestling appearances with me.
Pat Buck:
I’m a big fan of passing the torch. Do you think Scott Steiner would, as a Manager, as an added attraction…
Ryback:
I don’t think that’ll work. When was the last time that worked? I can’t remember one time that it has gotten over. I think maybe for a show that’s a deal, but not in a package deal. Big Daddy Ryback, ‘Feed me, if you need me.’
