Ricky Gibson Explains How His WWE SmackDown Appearance Came Together

Of all the winners to come out of the USA Network premiere of "WWE SmackDown" this past Friday, arguably the biggest was independent wrestler Ricky Gibson. Best known for his appearances in DEFY, the Pacific Northwest native made a memorable appearance, answering the call to be Kevin Owens' partner against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. While Randy Orton would ultimately fill the role, Gibson made an impression, with "We Want Ricky" later trending on social media.

Appearing on "Busted Open Radio" Monday morning, Gibson detailed how he seized upon this opportunity.

"Gabe Sapolsky reached out to me a couple of weeks ago and said 'Hey, 'SmackDown/Raw' are going to be in Seattle and Portland," Gibson said. "'It would be great if you could make it up to Seattle for extra work.' And I just show up and...you know, like everyone does. You put on the suit, you go to catering, and you hope for the best. The difference is I was walking around the hallways, and there's Kevin Owens walking around. 

"He's literally walking around like he has no clue what he's going to be doing. So I just went 'Hey, what can I do for you man? Can I help you?' And it's just perfect, because I'm a tag team guy. I've been wrestling tag team [matches] for years...So when he was like 'I need a tag team partner,' it was easy for me to just step up and go 'Dude, I'm your guy.'"

Gibson further revealed that Owens had asked others to team with him, though they weren't as willing as Gibson was.

"I saw him ask Booker, I saw him ask RVD, I saw him ask a ton of different guys, and everyone's saying 'No,'" Gibson said. "I'm the guy, who else?"

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription