Ryback Talks Pairing With Paul Heyman, Why It Ended, Venting To Heyman Backstage, CM Punk, John Cena
Recently on The Ross Report, the voice of WWE's Attitude Era, Jim Ross, caught up with former WWE Superstar, Ryback. Among other things, Ryback talked about his issues with Paul Heyman, CM Punk, and John Cena.
Apparently, Ryback was paired with Heyman in 2013 in spite of the great potential of the bully Ryback character because Heyman needed to extend his program with Punk.
"Paul needed somebody to buy him two or three months more on TV to extend his program with Punk. And they pulled me out of the bullying role that was going so well and put me with Paul." Ryback recalled, "and that bullying role, even though ideally I would've still been babyface Ryback with the way things were the year before, I had embraced that role like I always did and I always did what was asked of me. It was actually a lot of fun. And I think they knew how much fun I was having with it and we stopped it, we put me with Paul, we let him do all his promos and do the majority of the talking, and I just stared and looked like the big, angry beast."
Although Ryback claimed to have respect for Heyman, he admitted the two did not always achieve a meeting of the minds.
"I respect Paul a lot and he has been in this business a long time, but we did not see eye-to-eye, Jim. And I had to have many discussions with Paul because, you have to remember, Paul and CM Punk were really, really good friends. And Heyman was supposed to be, from a creative standpoint, working with me and whatnot. And he was with Punk all day and they were discussing business and what they were going to do and it wasn't doing me any favors and I knew that."
Ryback added, "Paul knew he had to get away from me because I wanted to kill him at the time and he had went to Vince and Punk and they didn't do me any favors in there, talking to Vince."
Ryback said he had one final discussion with Heyman where he cut a two-hour long promo on him as 'The Advocate' held a butterknife.
"I had one last discussion with Paul at the catering table in which he bought me beers for probably about two hours and I cut a two hour promo on him, everything, and just what I thought of him, and how he did his business with me, and I didn't appreciate it. And he held a butterknife in his hand, holding it nervously for two hours. Jim, I kid you not, and Punk walked around [in] circles the entire time, like he was going to try to do something while I was talking with Paul, cutting this promo on him."
In Ryback's view, he had issues with Punk and Cena because they occupied the top positions in WWE and they were trying to protect their spots.
"You've got to remember, when you're dealing at the WWE level, and you're dealing with those top spots, you're dealing with millions of dollars. The two guys that I had all my problems with, and everybody else there, I get along with just fine, was John Cena and CM Punk. And I'm not wrong on this, there [are] only a certain amount of slots up there, and those guys had those slots, and they wanted to keep those slots. And I think everything kind of stemmed from that." Ryback said, "I think it is an issue of the whole when it comes down to that amount of money and those top, elite spots, I think [Cena]'s very sensitive to that and I saw it firsthand."
With that said, Ryback boasted that even though he had arguments with Cena, they were professional enough to never let it affect their matches together.
"I actually enjoyed wrestling John. Even when things weren't perfect with us and we had gotten into verbal altercations and it never affected us going out to that ring, performing, and doing business. Not once."
When asked whether he thinks Punk will ever return to WWE, Ryback suggested that Punk will need to rectify his UFC 203 loss to himself before he can move on. 'The Big Guy' went on to say that he has seen so many people on bad terms with the company return that it makes him comfortable in speaking his mind now.
"I feel like eventually, at some point in life, that will happen. I don't know if it will be as a performer or when those days come to an end. I don't know. I think he's hellbent on? and I think he needs to have some success as a fighter. I don't know if he necessarily needs to fight in the UFC, even though I know he wants to. But I think just from a personal standpoint, he kind of needs to rectify that first fight and the only way he's going to do that is with repetitions and more fights." Ryback continued, "I think if the option is there down the road, you never say 'never'. We've seen it with so many guys, so, and that's why I don't feel bad about speaking the truth, and about me leaving, and why I left."
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Source: The Ross Report