Ryback On Bray Wyatt's Divorce, Why WWE Ratings Are Dropping, Staying Relevant
On episode 43 of Conversation With The Big Guy, former WWE Superstar Ryback addressed a number of topics including keeping himself relevant in the pro wrestling world, WWE's sagging ratings, and Bray Wyatt's wife, Samantha Rotunda, filing for divorce.
In Ryback's view, some people think you are irrelevant if you are not constantly in the public eye.
"God forbid I take some time, start a business, and doing weekly appearances in [pro] wrestling every week. And I'm like, 'God, what's wrong with people?' Yeah, if I'm not filming Bullet Club f–king promos every week, I'm irrelevant. I'm like, 'Goddamn, guys.' No, I think it's awesome! Yeah, it's great! But I'm just saying, in some people's minds, if they can't see things you're doing, then all-of-a-sudden, you're not doing anything."
As for WWE's slumping ratings, Ryback suggested that there are so many more viewing options and viewing habits nowadays, which could have an impact on television ratings and the usefulness of said metrics. With that said, 'The Big Guy' went on to suggest that the abundance of entertainment options and the multitude of ways in which we consume media probably do not explain WWE's record low numbers, specifically in the last year.
"The audience is different today as far as viewing habits because you've got to understand that compared to 15 years ago, there [are] a lot more options on TV and with cell phones. And people, everybody has ADD now with cell phones, and just constantly, the attention spans are shorter, and social media? everything's completely different."
Ryback added, "you've got to understand, they've seemed to make money in so many different avenues with the business and the brand that maybe they don't have to put as much stock into the ratings, which they always should. As far as, obviously, they would be happier if the ratings were higher, right, because we've seen when the ratings do do good numbers, they boast about it and whatnot? So it's just I do think it's a much tougher environment today with the amount of choices that you have, but the amount of choices hasn't changed that much in the last year and the numbers are down in the last year, so that's one thing you look at. Well, there's not that many different new additions in the last year of viewing habits. It [has] all pretty much been the same in this day of social media and whatnot. It [has] been the same for a while now, but they could always [improve]. I'm sure they'll improve and whatnot, but it's definitely something that definitely raised a few eye[brows] around there, I would imagine."
Also, Ryback indicated that the ratings could improve if the product was better.
"If things were better, I think [the ratings] would be better. I don't know how much better, but I think they would be better than they are. Rather than? they're hitting lows for the year, all-time lows, or close to it, within the last year."
Ryback continued, "hopefully, they improve. It's hard to say, but, again, you can't say ratings are down overall, I think, because the big sporting events are drawing better than ever."
With respect to Wyatt's impending divorce, Ryback, who once professed his love for Wyatt's soon-to-be ex-wife while on a drunken stupor, explained that being on the road five days a week is hard on marriages.
"I don't know anything about the situation. I just know Bray has always been somebody I've gotten along with great up there and I've known him all the way from developmental. I think the only thing I could add without even touching on that is I think people have to understand who knows what's true and what's not true in anything? And it's none of my business as far as that goes. But being on the road, I will say, you've got to understand when you're on the road four or five days a week, it is, and this isn't to defend anything or anything of that nature, that job is not the ideal job of a family and a lot of guys do, but I think that's also why you see a lot of guys date within the business now because it's few and far between the amount of people who have successful marriages there that have been there any substantial length of time. When you're there too it's really easy to get caught up and be obsessed with work because that's your life and your constantly competing within that group of talent. And that is the environment that Vince [McMahon] has created of just competing. And I was inside of it. I became obsessed."
Catch up on all this and tips of the week (yay!) on this episode of 'Feed Me More Radio'. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit the Conversation With The Big Guy podcast with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: Conversation With The Big Guy