5. Rybacks Talks About How He Knew He Would Get Fired From OVW
During a recent edition of Ryback’s podcast “Conversation with The Big Guy”, the former Intercontinental Champion recalled his developmental days in Ohio Valley Wrestling and how he predicted that he would get fired. Below are the highlights:
On His Mentality During His Developmental Days:
“My mindset was just survive, survive, survive. I was so mentally fragile with my time in DeepSouth. Just a quick story on that; my first day in OVW, I remember when they transferred me from DeepSouth to OVW, it was very bootcamp style, very organized and, you know, you’d run a mile or two before, and then it was 500hindu squats, 100 crunches, and then it was 3 hours of drills outside of all this conditioning stuff, but I got to OVW and saw everybody laughing and having fun and like Al Snow was in the back because class hasn’t started yet, and he’s like, alright guys, let’s get warmed up, and guys were kind of, it was much more relaxed. I was standing there in awe and in fear because I was always anticipating somebody coming out and cursing at us and asking what we’re doing. It blew my mind, looking back at all that.”
On His Prediction of Being Fired From OVW:
“I didn’t even know if those rumors were true. I had no idea. At the time, I was having vivid dreams that I was going to be released, and I had a very negative mindset at that time for all those things with wrestling; till this day I look back, I didn’t say anything to anyone else, I just came up to you [Pat Buck] and we weren’t even that close yet, nowhere near where we are now, but I just felt the need, I don’t know why, but I’m getting fired today, and you said, no you’re not, and I did.”
