The WWE may have forgotten Ryback, but The Big Guy certainly hasn’t forgotten about them. On the latest episode of his podcast, Conversation with the Big Guy, Ryback discussed how the WWE handled his ankle injury and why he nearly considered bringing a lawsuit against the company that would have “brought them to their knees.”
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I was maybe awake for like an hour after surgery. Who do you think calls me at the time who was in charge? Yep, John Laurinaitis who was in charge at the time. And the phone call was being recorded. I could hear the echo on the phone. Yeah, to this day. And he was like, “Well, we did everything we could to get you better, right? Right?’ and was asking me questions and I wouldn’t answer because I knew.
I was like, “They’re going to f***king fire me.”
A couple of months went by and it was when Chris Masters, Johnny Prime, and I forget, there were a couple of other people released. They had all been released during the day. I was the last one, I guess, because I was keeping up with all of it at the time. I was in Gold’s Gym in St. Petersburg, Florida. I get a call from John Laurinaitis and he tries to fire me while I’m still f–ked up with my ankle injury… and I have to stop and cut a 20 minute promo on him on how he’s not firing me and telling him everything that I’ve been through.
I had to get attorneys and look into all of this at this time because now I knew they just tried to fire me. So then, the next step was then they try to put me in developmental again and leave me in developmental rather than bring me back to the main roster because before I was on the main roster.
I never had to wrestle another day in my life if I didn’t want to. The lawsuit we could have brought to WWE could have brought them to their f***king knees based on the ankle and how this was handled from beginning to end. Deep down I knew that by getting attorneys and fending for myself and having the courage to have an opportunity to live my dream, they were forever going to f–k with me. So that is what I was playing with my entire career.
They can deny this all they want, but this is f***king the truth. They wanted to f***k with me based on everything from that.
While Ryback’s story seems a bit dramatic, it does resemble similar stories we’ve heard from other former WWE stars; including Ryback’s nemesis, CM Punk.
The Big Guy went on to say that the way the WWE dealt with the injury changed his outlook on the business forever.
it f***ing not only hurt me, but it also lit a f***ing fire under me that I am playing with the devil in all of this and that woke me up. That’s when everything [changed]. Whatever mark was in me at that point left that f–king moment in time. I was like, “f*** this – I’m now dealing with this piece of s*** across the board this entire company?” That’s what changed my whole outlook on the wrestling business forever.
Whether Ryback‘s words are true or not, they are burning whatever bridge may have been left between him and the sports entertainment giant.
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