Ryback On If "Woken" Matt Hardy Can Work In WWE, Possible Women's Royal Rumble
Matt Hardy has reinvented his "Broken" persona to the delight of the WWE Universe and became "Woken." On the latest episode of the Conversation With The Big Guy podcast, Ryback gave his thoughts on whether the gimmick will work or not.
Hardy's "Broken" persona, which he used in Impact Wrestling and on the independent circuit, was one of the most popular gimmicks in all of wrestling in recent memory. After a lengthy legal battle with Anthem Sports & Entertainment, they seem to have finally come to a resolution that has allowed Hardy to use a variation of the gimmick in the WWE. Ryback said he's not sure if Hardy will be able to sustain the gimmick now that he's in the top wrestling promotion.
"I don't know if it can work," Ryback said. "Matt made it work before, but he is in a different place than he was at before. If they want it to work then they will make it work, but if they don't want it to work then they will put him in a position where it won't work."
Ryback also discussed the possibility of a Women's Royal Rumble. With the return of Paige and the main roster call-ups of NXT stars Ruby Riot, Mandy Rose and others, many have speculated that the WWE is building towards the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble at January's pay-per-view. Ryback said he's not sure the company has enough women on the roster to be able to make the match work.
"I don't think it's a bad idea by any means," he said. "I don't think they have the roster to do it yet, but that is such a time-consuming match. It's usually like an hour long, maybe a bit longer. If you start with the Women's Royal Rumble, have a couple matches in there and then the men's, I mean, it can work, they can make anything work. I get it, but not everything is like—wrestling is pre-dominantly male. There are more men in it than women. You don't have to have to do that. Women are highlighted and featured just as much as the men, there's just less of them. They are highlighted way more on different things. They have their own TV show with Total Divas. I'm all for them having opportunities, and if they can make it work, great, but it seems rushed. It's right around the corner, and there's not 30 women."
It's likely that the WWE can pull wrestlers that participated in this summer's Mae Young Classic to fill out the number of women to compete in the match. It's also likely that, as with any Royal Rumble match, there will be surprises like returning legends and debuting superstars.
"I have no idea what they are going to do with it," Ryback said. "If they are going to do it, the Royal Rumble is always a minimum of 30 people, and they can do whatever they want to do, but I don't see them having the roster yet to do it, but you never know. Whatever they choose to do is their choice."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Conversation With The Big Guy with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Conversation With The Big Guy
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.