• Ryback Comments On Cody Rhodes & Young Bucks Proving One Can Be Successful In Pro-Wrestling Outside Of WWE
During a recent edition of ‘Conversation With The Big Guy’ podcast, former WWE Superstar Ryback talked about WWE’s deal with FOX to air SmackDown Live, ALL IN sellout opening doors for bigger shows, people saying negative things about the event’s sellout, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks proving that you can be successful in pro-wrestling business outside the WWE & more.
Below are the highlights:
On WWE’s deal with FOX to air SmackDown Live:
“Congratulations to them, that is a lot of money. That is definitely a lot more than their previous TV deal. You can’t knock them for signing that one. Exposure-wise because with the sports programming, and having it tied in, they will promote that with the other shows, which will get them more eyes now. It is not just on one channel, it is on several channels, so that is amazing for WWE.”
On All-In sellout opening doors for bigger shows:
“I was talking with Cody [Rhodes] the other day, texting with him. I think that it is phenomenal to sell out a show that fast, and again, there isn’t any matches announced outside of Cody Rhodes vs. Nick Aldis for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but I am sure they are going to have a stacked lineup all the way down the lineup, I can imagine. That is definitely a huge victory for them. It makes you wonder if they would have ran a bigger arena, how big could this have been? It is already enormous for professional wrestling and for them. It is one show but it is eventually knocking down the doors and it is opening up bigger doors for much bigger shows. Again, great start.
They can decide by then if they want to go bigger on the next one and they will have the track record of doing the one so it won’t be as much of a risk doing the second, and then if they have an amazing show, which I take it that they will, it sounds like the Starrcast deal. He actually asked me to be part of that Starrcast thing but I don’t really know what is going on during that time period because I will be doing some stuff, but I politely declined at this point because I don’t know what I have going on at that point.
I prefer to wrestle than to just go and do a meet and greet, especially with that type of audience I would much rather wrestle in front of, but you never know, we will see what happens with that, but I am extremely happy for him and all those guys. They set a goal and they did it.”
On people saying negative things about the event’s sellout:
“Those ticket agencies do that for every big event, again, that is a small number. It is crazy the amount of hate there is in the world of pro wrestling. Again, say StubHub bought 5,000 tickets, that is not in their hands; not in Cody Rhodes or The Young Bucks’ hand. That is another business buying tickets to make money. At the end of the day, they keep doing what they are doing and the show has 10,000 people then those people won’t have any arguments, but they will find something else to b***h and moan about other than that. That is what they do. They go from one thing to the next; they can’t just allow people to be successful and happy. There are billions of people on this planet and the majority of them are in a negative place. You just smile and move on because they accomplished what they set out to do.”
On Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks proving that you can be successful in pro-wrestling business outside the WWE:
“When you are not in the public eye, not everyone is using social media to keep tabs on everything going on, it’s kind of like, out of sight out of mind. For my fans and followers, they understand what is going on. The casual audience and viewers that aren’t as loyal followers who do their own thing, which is totally fine, but they assume you’re not doing anything, which blows my mind but you are out of the invisible eye. [With this event], it proves that you don’t need WWE in order to be successful, these guys are proving that. With their Hot Topic license, I am sure they are doing more than OK.”
On If CM Punk will make an appearance at All In:
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he is a part of it. I don’t think he is going to be involved in a match, but I think if the fight goes well then I definitely think he makes an appearance. If the fight doesn’t go well (which it didn’t – Punk lost a UFC 225), I don’t know. Doing the signing is one thing, but again, it is professional wrestling. I am sure he would be welcomed back. That would be one way to have people talk about the show with him doing an appearance.”
• Major Storyline Planned For SummerSlam 2018?
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, something huge might happen at SummerSlam 2018. Meltzer talked about how a source within WWE said something to him a few weeks ago regarding the possible Brock Lesnar – Roman Reigns rematch in the main event of SummerSlam 2018 and he couldn’t understand it then (as it wasn’t a clear hint), but he gets it now.
WWE could be planning for Reigns to finally defeat Lesnar for the Universal Championship in the main event of SummerSlam 2018, only to lose the Title a few minutes later to Braun Strowman via cash-in as there’s a very high chance the New York crowd goes crazy (in a negative way) over Reigns’ win.
It’s official. I am Mr. Monster in the Bank. Not much longer until I come looking for you Brock. #MITB
— Braun Strowman (@BraunStrowman) June 18, 2018
SummerSlam 2018 is still two months away and we’ll get another PPV before it – Extreme Rules 2018.