Ryback On XFL Filing For Bankruptcy, AEW Advertising Double Or Nothing PPV
The second version of the XFL came to a stop in March due to the coronavirus pandemic and it then came to an end in April after laying off all its employees. The final nail in the coffin then took place on April 13 when the company filed for bankruptcy and put itself up for sale.
Bankruptcy filings revealed that WWE owned 23.5 percent of the XFL after Vince McMahon had previously stated that there was no crossover whatsoever between the two. Ryback discussed the demise of the XFL and how this makes McMahon look on "Ryback TV Shooting Blanks Wrestling Report With Raj Giri."
"A lot of people I know aren't happy with the way he's going about business right now," Ryback said of McMahon. "This virus is changing things drastically and the bigger you are, the harder you can fall with all of this. The fact that he's lied doesn't look good. Once you start lying to people, it's really hard to distinguish to people when you are telling the truth or when you're lying to them further. This is opening up a bigger can of worms than even Vince McMahon can handle."
The pandemic is affecting everyone including AEW who is also holding no-crowd shows like WWE. AEW's next big event is their Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23 and they've announced that they are still planning on holding the event.
AEW did put out a press release in which they said they will listen to the advice of global health authorities regarding the event and Ryback weighed in on their approach to Double or Nothing.
"I'm not happy but I'm glad they're at least taking the lead and taking some time off to sort things out. I'm hoping that maybe this is a best case scenario. You can go either way with this ? they're announcing it but if things are still bad then they cancel it, no harm no foul. Or you can say let's just cancel it right now and if it's looking good then we're gonna do this show still, even if it's not a public show," stated Ryback.
"I think they're looking at it from a business standpoint and advertising it hoping that everything improves. But if things are not better, I would hope for the sake of the talent they choose not to do it. I don't think anyone would be upset at it.
"Everything else is just not putting people in jeopardy until more is known and wrestling has kinda gone the other way. I don't understand it."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Shooting Blanks Wrestling Report with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.