From Buzzards Wrestling Podcast:

Former WWE Superstar Ryback thinks he should’ve been given a WWE Championship run during his time with the company but claims he was held back over fitness concerns and by John Cena, despite having some of the best merchandise figures. Speaking to North East Online Wrestling in an interview broadcast on the Buzzards Wrestling Podcast, the man known as ‘The Big Guy’ believes he was ready for the top title, when he was thrust into a main event feud with CM Punk in 2012. He went into their clash at the Hell In A Cell PPV off the back of an undefeated streak but revealed the company still had reservations about him. He says it stemmed from a previous injury, in which he broke his ankle, 2 years earlier:

“I absolutely was ready (to win the WWE Championship) and we would’ve created a new star right then and there but with the ankle injury, WWE were never going to let that happen. If people knew the merchandise numbers and how well we were doing on everything and I was sometimes beating John Cena… I had to fight to get all the merchandise that I had and I still had a core of what John had at the time, or half of what he had, and they wouldn’t let it go anymore, whereas now, they can’t make enough stuff for people. They were not allowing me that opportunity when the numbers were there and the crowd support was there.”

The 35-year-old also criticized WWE’s decision to turn him heel the night after Wrestlemania 29. He claims he lost out on a lot of those merchandise sales, as a result, but says the company’s chairman, Vince McMahon, didn’t mind that:

“Vince personally came up to me and told me ‘I want your merchandise to tank’ and they quit promoting it. So, from a business standpoint, he told me ‘I don’t want you selling merchandise as a heel.’ Kevin Owens is a heel, Seth Rollins was a heel and all their other heels all have merchandise, so explain that. It all goes back to my ankle situation.”

Ryback’s first feud as a heel was with John Cena, who’d just won the WWE Championship from The Rock at Mania in New Jersey in 2013. He didn’t hold back with his thoughts on him:

“I think John Cena as a person outside of wrestling is probably not a bad human being. My encounters with him in WWE have been different. You’ve got to remember that we play characters and his character is the ultimate good guy. I think sometimes people mistake that for who you really are. I’ve seen different from him, time and time again. I know it may not be the popular thing to say but it’s the truth and everybody in the business, who knows anything about the business, knows the truth. Outside of it, I don’t think he’s as bad. Personally, he’s done me no favours and never did.”

Ryback also revealed in the interview, recorded at a North East Events Q&A in Gateshead, UK, that a clash between himself and Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania could be a ‘money match’ and it’s the one feud he would go back to WWE for.

You can listen to the full interview and an extract from the Q&A here. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @TheBuzzardsPod and our Facebook page, which you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/thebuzzardspod/ and we’re also on Instagram: @buzzardswrestlingpodcast. You can find North East Online Wrestling on Twitter @NEONWRESTLING and online here: https://www.neonlinemagazine.com. North East Sporting Events are online here: https://www.nesportingevents.co.uk

The Buzzards Wrestling Podcast is the home of the best wrestling banter and interviews from the British wrestling scene and beyond. We are a bi-weekly podcast hosted on Audioboom and you can also download and subscribe on iTunes and listen on Stitcher and Tune In Radio. Past interviews include, Rob Van Dam, WWE United Kingdom Championship competitors Trent Seven and Pete Dunne, Cody Rhodes and WWE Cruiserweight Classic participant Clement Petiot.