Ryback On WWE Backstage Not Getting Many Viewers, Vince McMahon Burning Fans Out

WWE Backstage has provided many soundclips in its short run but it hasn't attracted that many viewers. After averaging over 500,000 viewers with its first two special previews, the show hasn't garnered more than 200,000 viewers in any episode since.

Ryback discussed the whole setup of the show when Wrestling Inc's Raj Giri joined his podcast, Conversations With The Big Guy.

"Very weird place on Tuesday in my opinion and keeping it there. It's weird how that whole production of the show they are doing. It reminds me of Talking Dead, and that's entertainment. I don't know, wrestling it feels like that it is being exposed a little too much by the company," said Ryback. "It's one thing to express your views and you talk about it when you are out of the element, but you are taking guys and you're critiquing creative and storylines. It has a weird vibe to me. They're working still kind of in a way; I don't know. I don't see the appeal and having it on Tuesday with SmackDown on Friday and then the weekend goes by. It's just not a good place for it."

With Backstage on FS1 and NXT on USA, WWE now has eight hours of content to fill on cable and network TV after having just five hours three months ago. Ryback thinks the WWE fan is being stretched too thin with all of this programming at their disposal.

"There's too much content. WWE is responsible for that. Vince McMahon just wants to make as much money as possible. He doesn't care about the well-being of the talent. He's whored them out from the beginning when he took the company over from his dad. All he cares about is making more and more money at any cost," stated Ryback. "This late in the game, the fact that he hasn't implemented any more positive changes into the welfare of pro wrestlers, been more lenient with their schedules, he just works them to the bone and that is all he cares about.

"When people look back at the history of this they're going to see all that Vince McMahon cares about is him having this obsession with money and it never being enough. It happens a lot with people who get to that level of success and riches. That is why none of this makes sense. He has found ways to make money on the back end of the talent. He's gotten away with paying talent less and less until AEW came around and they had to force to start paying more money again, but he doesn't care about any of this at the end of the day. He has told me, 'Ryan, this is a business and I am a business man.'"

Even Becky Lynch recently lamented the overabundance of WWE content during a Q&A in the UK last week. Ryback said it's impossible to put out that many hours of weekly content and still make it all interesting.

"There is only so much pro wrestling you can have out there. It's with anything. Just imagine what TV show can put that much content out there and still be captivating at the same time. All he cares about is putting out as much content as possible and monetizing it at every avenue possible; whether it's good for the talents and the fans it doesn't matter," said Ryback. "Of course, the other promotions aren't putting out too much content, they're putting out enough content and doing a good job. But there's just so much of it now, so how much of this can you watch with today's styles and what is going on, especially with today's lack of storylines and character development? What we are seeing is that the audience that was very vocal about that are starting to get miserable about that as well."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Conversations With The Big Guy with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.