Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ryback: Why I said “F you” to WWE

Episode Date: June 20, 2019

“The Big Guy” Ryback is best known for his time in WWE but he has grown to become a successful entrepreneur and podcaster since leaving. He talks with Chris about why he said “F you” to WWE, the heat he had with CM Punk and John Cena, the positive attitude he has now and much more. Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, y'all? It's Druski, and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Do Zone with Drusky. Learn the backstories of your favorite ballers and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no? Was the Raptors even started around that time? Come on, bro. I ain't that old, fam.

You're talking like I'm 50. Taylor, Rokes, Asian Wilson, and many more. You won't want to miss this. Listen to the Doozone with Drusky on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you. man with the powerful questions

this is the Chris Van Vleet show Chris Van Vleet show Ladies and gentlemen Chris I don't love that intro there from Justin Roberts What a voice Welcome to the Chris Van Vleet show So great to have you with us

Today we're chatting with a man who I had the pleasure of being a guest on his podcast recently Ryback hosts conversation with the big guy Which I highly recommend Especially the episode that I was You'll see in this interview that Ryback is an incredibly well-spoken, articulate guy, just a smart dude, very different from what we saw on TV. Before we get to that chat, though, the Chris Van Fleet Show is brought to you, as always, by Green Roads. And I know you've heard a lot about CBD.

For me, it's been a game changer. Green Roads has the best ingredients because they're a pharmacist-founded company that's focused on making the lives of their customers better. There's CBD oil, gummies, tea, cream, capsules, all their other products are the real deal. And they even have CBD oil for pets, so you can get that for Fido or whatever your dog's name is. Use my code Chris 15 for 15% off your order of CBD products at greenroads.com. The CVV show also brought into your ears from the mics and cables and mixers from Samson Technologies. They have very affordable audio solutions. headphones that I'm wearing are top of the line. SamsonTech.com is where you can see their

entire lineup. So I had been talking with Ryback for a while. We've been DMing and texting to try to schedule this interview and make it happen. And since he lives in Las Vegas, it made perfect sense to do it when I was there for double or nothing. He's told me several times since we released this interview on YouTube that it was the most important interview he's ever done. And honestly, as a massive wrestling fan myself, having him say that is so humbling and such high praise. So Ryeback, if you're listening. First of all, I hope you are listening Ryeback. Thank you. And I hope that when you listen, everyone who's not Ryeback, that you appreciate this and you can see why this was so important to him. So without

further ado, here we go. My conversation with the big guy, Ryeback. Do I look super small sitting? Do I look super big? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to not make you look big. You're pretty big guy yourself. I'm not the big guy, though. But you are a big guy. Not the, but A. I'll be a big guy, and you can be the big guy.

I'm very happy with that, Chris. So I'm in Las Vegas, obviously, for double or nothing. I know that you live here, so I knew we had to make this interview happen. You actually drove to the strip and came to us for that. I do, and I don't like to go out, Chris, but this is a very special occasion. I got all dressed up for you. You did. And also, like I mentioned, to outdo Heel Ziegler.

and my good friend, Dolf Ziegler, and who has done many interviews with you, I believe. Yeah, so many interviews. I feel very underdressed, though. That was what I was going for. Well, you've succeeded. I don't get to wear suits very often. I'm typically wearing my Feed Me More Nutrition gym clothes and attire everywhere I go, so much so that a guy that did some work at my house, he knew me from the gym.

And not from wrestling? Not from wrestling? No, but he knew me from, yeah. Just for working out. You're the big guy from the gym, right? Yeah, yeah, that silly guy. He did some work for my podcast room. I think it's great.

A guy like you of your caliber, you just wear everyday regular clothes. But all he's ever seen me that was at the gym, and was I supposed to wear. Right. So I throw on a suit here. Get some pictures for Instagram later and for the IG, for the gram. Maybe I can get one or two of your million followers to follow me. You never know. Your Instagram is a very interesting place.

I've changed my whole outlook on social media, Chris. I've realized that I'm a very positive guy, but I get very, I get angry at times. That's not a gimmick? And I was looking at it. I was focusing on the negatives a little too much, which is very easy to do. Sure. And I realized Gary Vaynerchuk, I'm big.

I love Gary V. And he had reached out years ago to me, and he just said, keep doing what you're doing. And I was on a plain, true story. And this is after my book came out and I'd left WWE. And I go, are you fucking with me? And he goes, no. He goes, you're on your way. And I didn't, at the time, really understand.

understand it, a huge compliment coming from a guy like that who I've been able to reach out to. But I realized I have this, we have millions of people worldwide that know me and follow me that like me. And I was focusing on the minority that don't. And Gary's always putting out social media is the greatest thing ever, the greatest thing ever. And it is. But I was looking at it of all these negatives. And I just, something just finally I woke up and it clicked. And I was just like, How can I motivate enrich or enable somebody today? And I started using social media and in a positive light and feeling a million times better about it. Rather than going on there and feeling bad, it was making me feel good.

And that just was recent. And I've been much more active in my engagement shot up because it tanked for a little bit. And that was my fault because it was my outlook on social media. So just little things like that, man. It's game changer. So it's great to be able to go on there and interact with my fans. doing Instagram lives every day, doing my morning cardio, my hour and a half cardio trying to get back in shape here. And it's trying to get back in shape.

If you've seen anything that Ryback's posted on Instagram, you're ripped at almost 300 pounds. It is. I'm heavy. But I'm very thankful because it's been a journey here. And I left WWE and my health took a turn for the worse. And it was bad when I was there. What specifically happened? So on that end, I, so I was hurt when I was.

there and again there's a lot of good lot of good there and stuff but I always try to just tell the truth and everything that's gone on and my last two years there I started getting really bad back pain shoulder pain and I was given cortisone and my shoulder joint regularly unfortunately I was told that I'd be all right I believed it I have to take the blame on that I believed it and it ate away all my cartilage of my shoulder joint all of it not just just some of it, all of it. So essentially getting full-blown arthritis in my shoulder. So I was dealing with that. And I started noticing that my last year really, really bad in my back. I had real bad pains in my back and I was given toward all almost for the last probably year consistently, which covers up a lot of pain. And a lot of people use it there.

And I was told it safe. And it is, I guess, relatively harmless as far as not using it long. long term or anything of that nature, but it was covering up a lot of my pain. And towards the end there, and I've talked about this, I wanted to let my contract run out, and I was threatened, I was told they're going to job me out, pull me off TV, and fire me. That was just straight up exactly what I was told. After being there my entire life, I just said, nope. Who is it that delivers that news?

Mark Corrado, specifically was the one that delivered that. And I'd had meetings with Hunter and Vince already many times at that point. And I was just unhappy. I wanted just, I wanted just to get away. And once that was the tone that came back in me, it was like, I'm not, you're not ruining this. And I left. Went and got MRIs done. I was told.

So imagine being, I think I was 34, just turning 35. And I was told I needed a five disc back fusion, my L1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and I needed a full blown shoulder replacement. Like you're 80 years old. Like I'm 80 years old. Yeah. So, and so in my mind, when I left, I got my ear and nose fixed. I could never breathe through my nose. I could never hear out of my left ear from a ruptured eard drum my first year

in wrestling and a broken nose my first year. So I wanted to get my health in line. And I thought my back and shoulder would have healed on their own. It went the opposite way where I could wake up in the morning. I'd fall to my knees. And I was like, what is going on? I finally, because as wrestlers and every wrestler knows this, you're kind of afraid to go get an MRI on different things

because you don't really want to know how hurt you are, which is something I think is a pro wrestler. you should get it done every once or twice a year on things that are injured because these injuries are going to show back up later in life and we've seen it with the older wrestlers. Yeah. And it was something, man, it was scary. And I luckily, with all of this, I was, do I go get my back fused and get my shoulder replaced because I was in tremendous pain and I didn't want to get addicted to pain pills?

I've never gone that route. And I didn't know what to do. So my chiropractor, God bless him. He just said, you know, there's this guy in Vegas doing stem cells. And he's done some of the UFC guys. And it's in Nevada spine clinic. I made an appointment and went down. He happened to actually be a wrestling fan, which was pretty cool and all that.

And I'm pretty much been a test subject for him. I've had more stem cell procedures than he knows that has been done on anyone. I've had 11 procedures so far. Wow. Four on my back, seven on my shoulder. I got two more in the summer in July, but I'm nearly almost all better. So if it was a percentage, how much of a percent are you healed? So I would say now as of recently in doing different rehab work, I would say I think I'm probably, I'm over 80 percent.

Okay. I would say 80 to 85 percent. Do you want to get back into the ring? Absolutely. And I think it's something I'm very happy with what I'm doing now. And I never wanted to leave wrestling. I left in my prime. And it wasn't something I wanted to do.

But something inside of me was screaming to get out. And luckily I did. If I would have stayed there and they told me probably another six months, the back, my disc, I caught it just in time that if I would have not got it when I did, they wouldn't have been able to regrow my disc. So I was getting, I had atrophy all down my right side. I had atrophy all in my arm from the shoulder. And I've got a glimpse into old age.

And we live in amazing times, and it's not something, this is, health just took over for me, where I was like, I want to be healthy as much as possible. And I've always pushed myself extremely hard, and I want to once again. But now I just see things in a little bit of a different light. Yeah. I was telling you down there, like I look at wrestling now. And I view wrestling, like fighting that you see these fighters, they fight two or three times a year, and it's special and whatnot.

And I was like, I don't want to wrestle five days a week. I think there's too much wrestling. Now, I think wrestlers, and I think for protecting your brand, and it's just, I'm thankful for everything and the way it all worked, but I just look at it a little differently now than I did in the past. Well, I was just on your podcast. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the show. And I think a lot of people might not even know that you have a podcast.

Yeah, conversation with the big guy Ryback. Yeah. And I appreciate you coming on. I'm super grateful for the opportunity. You're very open, and you speak very honestly there. And you just had an episode last week with Raj Gehry from Wrestling Eng. Yeah. And you spoke really openly about.

how the travel in WWE is just ridiculous. Yeah, but that's what it is. And I think there's some people how they view it. Just giving my experience when I was there and what it is. And there are a lot of dangers with it and the guys and being on the road. And once you get inside those walls, as I said, you figure out what it is really quickly and you either sink or swim and you adapt. And it's like wrestlers, and I've always said this in interviews in the past, you take great pride

actually doing that because it toughens you up. But it's not something you're thinking about how is this going to affect me down the road when I'm not there anymore and they're not covering my health insurance because I'll tell you, you're going to be the one covering it the way the current system is. And it's a very scary thing. And I just, I feel just being honest, I've been honest from day one. And people will respect and love you for it. And then there's another group of people that will hate you for it. And they refuse to accept it. And that's fine.

That's their choice. But been there, done. it, have the experience at the highest level. So, and that's, from everything I do, I just put it all out there. And I've always accepted people will love you, I hate you. I want them to at least hate me for being me. Unfortunately, there's a lot of fans out there that will hear you saying negative things and go, oh, he's just jaded because he doesn't work there anymore.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you hear he's bitter, he's angry, he got fired. Not true, I walked away. And it was by choice and things. I'm speaking up for the people there because I want wrestling to be better. Yeah. And I'm excited. We got AEW here, and I'm very happy for Cody and everybody involved in that.

And they have a huge advantage with wrestling and wrestling right now because they're starting fresh, and they could do it right. And they could do wrestling better than WWE. Now, are they going to come in and take over right away? Not right away. But if they put out a great product and they take care of the wrestlers, every pro wrestler will want to go wrestle there. One particular quote in your last podcast was that you were surprised more wrestlers didn't die on the road, like driving on 45 minutes sleep or whatever. happens to be. When you go to these new cities, you're basically on your own to find a rental car, find a hotel when you're working for WWA. Yeah, absolutely. And you have to, that's something,

that's why younger guys, you got to, it's, they told us, Steve Kern always told us in Florida Championship Wrestling. You're not just a pro wrestler. He goes, you're a professional traveler. He goes, you've got to be a professional. He's like, it's like a rock star lifestyle on top of, you got to be, you got to be capable of finding gyms in every, every city that you go to, finding good food on the road to take care of yourself, being sociable with people and just being approachable at different times when you don't want to be and then you've got to be a pro wrestler on top of all that.

And it's just you have to have nerves of steel. There's not a job in the world like it, but it's up to you to take care of all that stuff and not a lot of people understand that. It's not just show up to the building and take a flight out of there. You're driving late at night and there was somebody that, who are you to talk about?

the travel and been there my entire adult life and I've seen it and I've been I've been on 45 minutes of sleep doing media on a on a Tuesday for Smackdown or a Monday coming in and in driving to the next town and my head bobbing up and down and whatnot and trying to drink a coffee pulling over on the side of the road and semi trucks are driving by the car. It happens to the guys all the time and we've talked about it. It's amazing that nothing has happened in just the situations that you're put in all the time. And that's what it is. Everybody knows what it is and whatnot. But it's just telling a very realistic side of what pro wrestlers go through. Would the solution be to treat this like an NHL, NFL, MLB team where everybody rides the bus? Everybody stays in the same hotel. Yeah. See,

that's so that's a tough thing because like I always love the freedom of it in all seriousness. I loved being able to listen to audio books driving by myself all the time. And again, on the European tours, you're kind of all, you're around each other so much as it is. Yeah. So you enjoy when you're able to kind of get away for those brief periods. At least I enjoyed that because I enjoyed being around everyone when you're there for the most part. But I don't know if busing is the answer. Because again, so there's an offseason in that stuff. There's no off season in wrestling and it's a very tedious lifestyle.

And I don't know if that's the answer either. Yeah. Or is there, do you have drivers for everybody? I don't know. There's definitely a better way. I know that much. Now, it's finding a happy medium from what wrestlers want. and what's good overall.

What is your last official match as of right now? My last match I've had was last. So that was, it was happened by, it was a blessing, actually, everything. And I'll tell you about my dog, Sophie, how what life works out in really weird ways. It was an appearance in Michigan where I was supposed to, I signed for nine shows. Nine indie shows. Nine, you know, yeah, it was a contract to do nine shows for him. And they did one show, they brought in a bunch of,

of names. I wasn't even wrestling on the show. I wasn't advertised. It was a surprise appearance at the end. Come out and hit a spine buster, meat hook, and shell shock somebody, and build up for the other eight shows. Well, they didn't draw very well. And they had, I think they had like six

or seven different names there. And then the guy, the other eight shows didn't happen. So that, my last appearance was last year, and I don't know if it's been about eight months now. Was that, though, it wasn't even a regular match. The one before that was a couple weeks before that. It was probably, I'd have to go back, but it was later last year and whatnot. But my dog,

Sophie, is randomly, she's three and a half years old. When she was two, a little after two, she got diagnosed with disc disease in her back. And I'm going through all my stuff. Yeah. And they always say like dogs take on their owners. And she's broke her back four times in the last 16, 17 months. What kind of dog is she? A little French bulldog. So if you follow it on the Instagram, The people, they could see I got Sophie and Little Guy, which I named him a nickname. Big guy and little guy. And no, so I love, if you know me, I love dogs more than anything. She became my number one priority along with the Feed Me More Nutrition in the podcast.

And luckily, with investing, I work from home and I'm okay. These are all the jobs that Ryb-I have, by the way. Social media is a job. It's a very, very serious job. And she, I didn't know. not want to put her down, but they've never seen a dog break their back four times. It was all under a year that she broke her back essentially four times or just over a year. And she was fully paralyzed the first two times. So she could never play or run again because she has three more

discs still susceptible to being broken. And she's the happiest most loving dog I've ever had. So I'm very fortunate to be able to take care of her, but it's been tough. I had to cancel some appearances and I've not traveled for a bit because I can't I don't have anything to do with her I can't I have to carry her up and downstairs every every day I have to take her out on a leash I have little guy I can't have play with her they listen to me and I have to control them I'm very scared I can't take her to a boarding because with other dogs she's and this has happened already like another dog came around her and she freaked out and she broke her back again so I'm in a very kind of tough position with it I'm just enjoying my time with her as much as I can.

I'm hoping. I'm praying that she's going to be cool, but I need to figure out down the road when I am traveling a little more again how I'm going to fix on this. But it's a tough situation, but she's the best. I know you were sending some tweets out to people in AEW basically saying, hey, I'm ready to go if you want to hire me. Have you heard anything back from them?

No, so I haven't said that. That might be a... Maybe took some liberties there, okay? I congratulated them as a pro wrestling fan that I'm happy for pro wrestling and for pro wrestlers. I can be honest, I don't know if I'm ever going to wrestle another day in my life. And I would be, I don't know. I don't know what the future holds. I feel better than I felt in a long time.

If the right opportunity comes along, I need, and I said all along, I need to be, I need to be able to be better than I was that when I left. I need to come back in better shape. I need to come back a better wrestler. And I believe I'm close to being able to do that. So with a, and they're going to do two more stem cells in July. And they're going to, they got a new process. I think with exosomes, they hook you up to an IV and why they do the procedure. And it helps with healing even further.

And like this is a job in itself every day. I do rehab stuff with like softballs and lacrosse balls and all these different shoulder exercises that are on top of my training. And it's been a very mentally. if you would ask me like two years ago, and I tell people this is why I didn't sign with anybody or anything, I couldn't physically couldn't. I knew an independence gave me enough. I shouldn't even have done the independence when I left.

And my doctor told me not too. Money was great for two years, and I took full advantage of it because as you know, when you start a supplement company and do other business ventures, it takes a lot of capital to get that going. And I bet on myself, I didn't take a loan. I used all my own money because I'm so confident in what I'm doing

and I want to hold myself accountable that if this, fails it failed because of me yeah and it failed and it's my money and I don't want to I don't want to lose anyone else's money so and it holds me accountable but we're getting close and I said I told you down there I said if I like to give it to the end of the year and see see how I feel because I don't want to what I don't want to happen is I don't want to come back and come back and be in the same position I was in yeah but granted that was from the backpack

stunner doing that move the the ass bumps that can is what caused my... Rino was just talking about that. He said it was a blessing in disguise that they banned the pile driver. Yeah. Because he didn't have to bump on his ass. And that's if you look at Hogan

with all his hips and back problems. And so... Austin with the stunner. The backpack stunner is all the guys wait on my back. And I would be the one that took the whole blow landing so they wouldn't have to take it

on it. And William Regal told me when I was Skip Sheffield, he said, he goes, you're going to destroy yourself doing that. And I go, he goes, I would pick a different finisher, which I ended up doing, but then as I came back, I started doing it on like live events and you don't feel anything while you're doing it. And then I just, I didn't put it together for a while. Then finally, I just realized, I wonder if this is what's doing it. So I didn't do it as much, but the damage had been done. So because like I said, it's the disc were completely worn out and,

getting the nerve and the pain and waking up. And I sympathize with people with back pain. And like, It puts you, it's really hard to be positive when you're hurting all the time, too. But you are a very positive person. I am, but I also will acknowledge negativity and use it at times with the anger. And then I take a breath and I regroup, very Hulk-like and smash something. And then once I smash something, I'm back to doing my meditation and being at peace. I feel like maybe with you wearing the suit, you know, with all the business ventures, maybe you're looking. Tricking people. We're all just tricking people.

But maybe you're looking to get into politics. No, no, no. Stay in a way. We'll leave that to Dolf Ziegler. Yeah, okay. And Rhino, too. Rino is, you know, running for office as well. I just believe in just doing my thing and putting out a good message and trying to help people. Like I said, and I like Tony Robbins. I like Tony Robbins. He just helps people. He's himself. He's done well for himself. Gary Vaynerchuk. Not Tony Robbins, but he's Gary Vaynerchuk. He says, fuck you all the time. And I love him. I love you, Gary. And that's it. I'm kind of a blend of all that. I feel so I just, and for me, for me,

me and that's what I've just, with social media and my podcast, I was like, I'm just going to be me. And that's my best advice for people, just be yourself. And people will love you or hate you, but at least they will love or hate you for you being you and not being fake. Are you keeping up with WWE's current product? I do. I still watch. They have not canceled my network subscription. I'm sure that's by design to keep me watching. And I keep track of my friends and everybody up there. A lot of people I care about there, believe it or not. Well, as a wrestling fan, and I'm with you on this one, it feels like this might be the perfect time for AEW to debut, because WWE is just kind of giving us the same stuff.

Yeah. So, again, they're running it like a business. They're putting out a lot of product, and I've said this on the podcast time and time again. And this was part of my issue with my ankle stuff I've talked about, but how they book talent and whatnot is. and those creative meetings if the directive of the meetings was we sit down and we have all these superstars

and we have a TV show and if the directive and the mindset was how are we going to make superstars today? How are we going to make these guys worth more money than they're going to this week next week than they are this week or next month than they are this month? If that was the mindset they had and they used to have it at one point for the most part

if that was the mindset wrestling would be in a completely different place right now but instead it's how can we control guys, how can we take away momentum? Who could we use that? We could use in a top slot, but maybe not let get that over. And that's just the way that the company runs its business. And that's their choice. And they're allowed to do that. And they're very successful at it.

Like I think that. From a financial standpoint, they are, they are. But from a pro wrestling standpoint in creating superstars, that is it's not good for the fans and it's not good for the pro wrestlers. Pro wrestlers don't make as much money as they should. And the fans don't get the product that they should. And it is, it's not, it's not that hard. It's not rocket science. It's not hard to go out and make superstars.

Braun Stromen's red hot. Make Braun Stromen even hotter. How hard is that? It's not hard. Rousseff is hot. How do you make Roussev hotter? Figure it out. That's the question you got to ask rather than, let's just have them lose every pay-per-view.

So that's their choice and that's what they're allowed to do. Now, Cody, A-E-W, everybody there, they're allowed to come and do it their way. What was your reaction when you heard CM Punk's comments about you on? Colt's podcast. I didn't, so I didn't, I've still not listened to the entire thing. I don't need to. Colt came up to me and apologized at an independent show years ago, said he was deeply sorry for even being a part of that and whatnot.

And I've always said, you know, punk, I'm happy that he went on and did his thing and tried, you know, whether he won or lost, that he took a chance in bed on himself. I commend that. it's one steroid guy completely false. That's an insecurity of his because he has a shit physique. And I like Phil. He has a great work ethic and he was a great pro wrestler. But that's just jealousy and insecurity straight up.

So you're saying you're completely clean. Completely clean. I'm completely against steroid use. So the fact that he even has to, that's part of his argument on that. And second, there was personal issues with that. We always got along up until that whole thing. When money comes into play, I always tell people in this, I got along with everybody in pro wrestling.

everybody except for two people and who are the top people the two top people see m punk and john sena you don't get along with seen no neither of those guys and so and it is when i i respect and admire everything they've done with their lives but people have to look at it and it is a business it's very political and i'm okay not getting along with those two guys and it doesn't i do not lose any sleep over it so well john sina is a very nice man to me no john's very nice to a lot of people yeah but when money comes into play and i just there's situations and stories, and I've talked about it, people change and whatnot. And you're not, you're not in competition with them. So, and that sometimes can bring out the worst in people in that

environment. So is that what hurt your push? Because you were clearly on pace to be the champion. I can't tell you. I honestly, only WWE can tell you that. And I always tell people, I was, I played every role to a T that it was asked to me. Whether win or lose, I went out there, I was believable. And I think it's a testament to everything. And a lot of people think that. I think I should have won the WWE title. Yeah. So I think it's a testament to how I played every role. And every, like every talent there, they only do,

you can only do what they tell you to go out and do. So it's people that say, oh, you lost the big one or this, the big ones. It's, I won, I played the role. It's like you don't say an actor because he gets killed in the scene that he lost, he was a loser. And so pro wrestling is the exact same thing as far as that goes, but it's just portrayed a little differently. So, like, you were obviously on the path to win the title.

What changed? I don't know. I think in everything, the momentum, everything was there. Yeah. And we had lightning in a bottle. And it was, I'm very thankful for the fans during that period and the reactions and the talent. Yeah. From the local talent to all the WWE superstars, it was a really cool about one year period with all of that.

But it was, like I said, it was showing up every week. And, oh, God, what are we going to do this week to take the momentum away? And that is what happened. And I've talked about it with my ankle injury and having to get attorneys before I ever came back as ride back. I was fired before I ever after Nexus. They sent me to a doctor that botched the entire surgery. They thought I would never be able to wrestle again because I had permanent nerve damage from it. And they fired me.

And I had to get attorneys and keep my job and threaten them back. And it ended up finally got an opportunity to come back. And I butted heads with them a little bit and they brought me back. And I told them straight up, I told John Laurinitis, I said, you put me back on TV and one year I'll be the biggest superstar you have. And then I could honestly say, and I was right up there. And that one year from the time that phone call took place. And unfortunately, though, I always, I feel knowing things that I know that they always held that against me. And along with their mindset of people not getting too big anyways, unless they want you to get to a certain level.

So, but all I can say, I played every role to a T asked of me, and that's all anyone can do. Well, people don't realize that you have such a business mind and an entrepreneurial line. It's actually kind of what led to your firing. Like, you were counting the gate and the money and figuring, like, where's my money? Like, why is it not? No, so I never was fired. No, I would have walked away from WWA. Your release, yeah.

Yeah, no, but it wasn't even. You leaving that. Yeah, okay. My contract expired. I did not resign with them. And so that was another thing. And I think people need to understand in this. And this, WWE puts out false information on people to try to get them to hurt their brand,

especially when people leaving tell them, tell them fuck you when they leave. They're not happy about that. So my apologies. Yeah, no, it was. So my, and I could tell you the exact situation that happened with that, I told them, fuck you, take me off your TV. And I left. I walked out of St. Louis and I went home.

They tried to stop my pay. And they weren't going to pay me while I wrote out my contract. So I went on injury pain and got my ear and nose fixed, and they paid me all the way up until my contract expired on August 8th, I believe. And if you remember, I released them and wish them the best in their future endeavors in an online video because they were trying to fire me. They wanted me to get cleared. I didn't get cleared until the day my contract ran up so that they could not publicly say they fired me because that is what they usually will try to do to a talent to make them look bad in the situation. But you guys didn't get me. So

When you were in the ring Who came up with the you yelling stupid at people? I don't know whether I just I just say things It was great That was a Adults like that a lot

Actually believe it or not And uh Kids parents would come up to me And hit their head and do the stupid And uh I like it when you do that And they go I don't know why but I do And uh yeah just in the ring one

I don't know if it was like a local talent I don't know if they messed up on something And I just, I would just act and react. That was always down at Florida Championship Wrestling, act and react. And I think that makes the best pro wrestlers. That's just good life advice too. Yeah. Feed me more was just, I just screamed it.

And I'd said it years ago when I was down and out working at Smokey Bones. And the cooks would always make me food. And I would always, they'd always call me feed me more because they would, they would cook and I'd always eat. And I was going to use that. And I would say it in the restaurant. and it just came out one day. And then it was like, we have something with that. And then it caught on.

And then if, correct me, if I'm wrong, they asked you to stop using it once you were really, really over. Yeah, they actually, so I was the number two merchandise seller at the time. And they were going to turn me heel after, and that was the other thing, the Mark Henry deal falling on my face, which was, that was probably the toughest out of all of it. That one really, really made no sense at all because I was going from that. And we knew I was going on to John Cena after that.

So it just, this is why I tell people, if you just look at the history, you can clearly see there's something going on with momentum and stuff. But Vince, this came directly from Vince. I actually took away the Feed Me More because I didn't want Feed Me More to be affiliated with me with what they were doing. Vince came up and said, we're taking away all your merchandise, which makes no sense. He goes, you're going to be a heel. You're not going to sell merchandise. This was just their way of destroying everything fully. And then I said, I go, we'll take away, feed me more, too, if you're going to do that.

And so they took it away. And that was it for the time being on that until I came back. What was your last official WWE match? Calisto. Payback, I believe, in Chicago, where I mocked C.M. Punk, the pre-show stopper belt, which they were furious over. and Kevin Dunn was in John Cohen's ear the entire time and I just told him I go tell them to go fuck themselves

Wow and that was I left I didn't talk to anyone went and I think me and Ziegler went and got wings at Hooters The best! The best. Yeah. I go to St. Louis and I saw the booking for the day and they were going to start because I hadn't signed the new contract they gave me so the games had already started and I just I'm done And I just, I sat there for a bit and I thought it through fully.

And I already was close to, it was just kind of just waiting. Yeah. And I went and said what I had to say. And they said, do you want to go talk to Vince? And I said, I never want to fucking talk to him again. And I left. Wow. Yeah.

I guess the most important question, though, is what flavor of wings? I always go the hot. Hot, okay. I'm a Casey barbecue guy. If I'm doing Buffalo Wild Wings, though, I like Parmesan garlic. Okay. I honestly can't believe that someone like you eat wings. Yeah, I don't, not a lot anymore, though. I have a low-fat diet for the most part. But if I'm going to have a cheat, a good pizza and wings, man, you can't, you can't beat that.

That's pretty much what's running through my blood at all times. How do you stay in shape? Feed me more nutrition? That's it, yeah. No, it's, we talked about this a bit on your podcast. I'm like something green, a protein, and a carb for every meal. Yeah. And then I figure if I'm eating five-ish, sixest times a day, if I have pizza, once or twice a week, it's fine. Yeah.

Because I've eaten 42 meals that week. Who cares if two of them are pizza? Yeah. I know you're eating, and you're on a completely different diet than that. Yeah, it's constant work. Because when you're, I've actually, I've tried, it was intermittent fasting for a long time. I was doing 18 or 20-hour fast every day, only eating in a four-hour window. So I was a fraud.

Feed me more was literally. Feed me less. Feed me less. And, no, it was, it ended up actually slowing my metabolism down because I need a certain level of calories. I probably need between 4,000 and 5,000 calories a day for how active I am. I burn anywhere from keeping track. I burn anywhere from 2 to 3,000 calories easily a day. Wow.

So I actually was going, my metabolism, it slowed down doing that. And it's starting to kick back up now. And I'm starting to finally, like I had to adjust, I haven't been able to squat deadlift. I just started last week doing all this again, doing a lot of machine workouts for the last two years, because I had to work around my injuries and allow myself to heal and whatnot. But I tell people, it's really mentally I knew I stopped doing like my boxing, my jiu-jitsu, my Muay Thai, the things. I was physically going, even when I left W.W. You really pushing myself.

And I just said, I have to stop all of this. And it was the toughest thing I've ever had to do in my life as far as shutting down. and not knowing because I knew if I didn't, I might be able to go for another year maybe and kind of ride through the pain. But I was like, I'm going to be, I'm going to be in a wheelchair after this if I keep this up. And so I had to take this,

I had to let go of the competitive, just driving me. Yeah. And just look from within and just focus on my business stuff, focus on my dogs and in life. Because otherwise there was going to be no future in wrestling or just being active in the quality of your life. And it was tough, man.

It was a really tough thing. Well, I know you're a really positive person. You put out a lot of positive messages. Are you okay holding this animosity against punk, Sina, and Vince? So, no, those guys, I don't give them any thought. Okay. If you ask a question, I'm going to just answer, honestly. I don't go home and, like, have a dartboard of fucking CM Punk and John Cena and Vince.

I actually just, Rod McMahon, Vince's brother just messaged me yesterday and we were going back and forth. He bought my supplements. Thank you, Rod. and just I don't like he was asking me about a few things and and he said oh Vince always spoke highly of you and I'm not gonna I don't don't bash Vince to him it's his brother and whatnot but like I don't lose any sleepover I'm just I'm so confident I believe I wish more wrestlers I just say how I feel and I'm confident if Vince called me and wanted to talk to me I would talk to him okay but I would honestly I've always just been direct and I believe that is the best way to be and not be a fraud and not say one thing if you ask me about my thoughts on them, I'm going to tell you my thoughts, and I wish them the best. They've done great for themselves, and I want nothing but the best. But in that environment, when we were competing, I did not like it. And that's, and that's, we, that's just the, the, the truth of the situation. What exactly is a rye back? Because that's now your, that's now your name. Yeah, it's my name.

Yeah. And, uh, you're not Ryan anymore. It's a silverback and Ryan, born Ryan and the first nicknamed Silverback. And when you drink a whole bottle of Burnett's vodka in Louisville, Kentucky, Chris, and maybe you have a little grisly chewing tobacco in your lip, and Terminator 2 comes on, Ryeback is created. So your license says Ryeback? Everything says Ryeback. Wow. Yeah, full-blown. It's the valet girl. I just went down in valet, the Red Devil, and she looks at me, she goes, what's your name? I go, Ryback Reeves. She goes, what? So it's, it had to be done, though, for the time. For a trademark?

For everything, for legal, for legal reasons to use it on independence. And I'm the proud owner of Feed Me More and the big guy in dietary supplements and entertainment and clothing and soon to be Ryeback. So it is a really, really cool thing. And then maybe down the road I'll change my name back to Ryan once all that's all squared up. It sounds like even if you don't go back into the ring, you've got things pretty figured out right now. You're doing really well. We live in a day and age, Chris.

where with social media, we could do and be whatever we want. And all you have to do is apply yourself and try. And that's when I told you social media is a job. I had to stop the fact, I had to tell myself this. I might not ever wrestle again. Even though I'm positive, I'm going to wrestle again. I had to tell myself that so that I would focus on these other things. Because if I kept just held in my head, I'm going to be a pro wrestler.

I can go back. The money is going to be there. I had to know, I have to create new revenue streams. and I have to take advantage of what we have now. And back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, this technology wasn't available to us. And now we can literally do and be anything we want. There's no filter.

There's no, I could put content out, and people are going to tell me if they like it or not. And so if they don't like it, I got to figure out what they do like. And it's like I told you with the social media. And I kind of took the wrong approach for a while because I didn't care. And I was selling,

I was like, well, I'm just going to put my shit out there. And I'm not going to, I don't want to deal with the negativity. And I didn't look at it. I had apps putting out everything for me. And it was a really tough lesson to learn. I was not engaging with people that actually liked me. And so that was a really, it was something that just changed everything in my mindset. But, yeah, this day and age, I just tell people, just ask yourself what you want to do and do it.

So, but pro wrestling is always going to be there. It's not going anywhere. That is honestly, that is great advice. Yeah. I appreciate your time. Thank you for making this happen. Conversation with the big guy. Feed me more nutrition.

Available on FeedMemore.com and Amazon. Podcast conversation with the big guy on iTunes, Google Play, and any other podcast platforms. That's awesome. Ryback. Thank you very much, buddy. It's a large hand. All right.

Thank you for hanging out with us for my conversation with the big guy, Ryback. It's not hard after listening to that to have a whole new respect for him. That interview is now. closing it on half a million views on YouTube. And if you haven't seen it on there, uh, if for no other reason, you should check this out just to see how small I look, a normal-sized human next to a 300-pound monster. So thanks for listening. Thanks to our sponsors, Greenroads. Go to greenroads world.com to get 15% off your order of CBD products. And also Samson

Technologies for this bad ass podcasting gear. SamsonTech.com is where you can find them at. And of course, you can find me all across social media. I am at Chris Van Vleet on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and of course on YouTube. The Hammer Alley Podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand

bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard it in to rock bottom dude i was born in nineteen eighty seven i can't believe he's doing this hammer alley

follow and listen on your favorite platform