If you thought Ryback was done criticizing the WWE, well you sir were mistaken.
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Typically Ryback dishes out his opinions regarding his former employer via his Conversations With The Big Guy podcast, but recently he hopped on The Buzzards Wrestling Podcast (via SEScoops) to talk some WWE, and this time around it involved his merchandise sales.
Ryback is adamant that his merchandise sales were rivaling Cena’s at one point and credits the company, specifically Vince McMahon, for putting a big boot on his selling potential as well as his push. He said “I absolutely was ready [for a WWE Title run] and we would’ve created a new star right then and there but with the ankle injury, WWE were never going to let that happen. If people knew the merchandise numbers and how well we were doing on everything and I was sometimes beating John Cena. I had to fight to get all the merchandise that I had and I still had a core of what John had at the time, or half of what he had, and they wouldn’t let it go anymore, whereas now, they can’t make enough stuff for people. They were not allowing me that opportunity when the numbers were there and the crowd support was there.”
He also recalls one particular conversation with Vince, where he was told firmly that his merchandise was going to be throttled. “Vince personally came up to me and told me ‘I want your merchandise to tank’ and they quit promoting it,” Ryback claims. “So, from a business standpoint, he told me ‘I don’t want you selling merchandise as a heel.’ Kevin Owens is a heel, Seth Rollins was a heel and all their other heels all have merchandise, so explain that. It all goes back to my ankle situation.”
Regarding that ankle injury, Ryback has described the process of surgery and WWE even trying to fire him after it in great detail in the past. He even said there was a lawsuit in the works until WWE just put him back in developmental.
The saga continues.
The Royal Rumble airs on the WWE Network this Sunday.
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