Boy, it’s been a while since we’ve thought about Ryback, hasn’t it? It genuinely feels like months since we’ve reported on some Ryback quote or opinion or another. Well, surprise to me and surprise to all of you as well: it’s been a little less than one month since we had a story about the Big Guy.
One thing that may be good or bad, depending on your opinion of news and HOT GOSS, is that Ryback’s nuclear-hot takes and scorched-earth spilling of tea has really cooled off as of late. These days, his takes are more along the lines of “I like Roman Reigns” and “I don’t think Enzo Amore going to 205 Live is a promotion.” So apologies if you’re yearning for the days of him referring to John Cena as “poison.”
Maybe the Big Guy is settling down now that he’s been gone from WWE for months, because his latest reveal is more of the “oh, that’s pretty funny” variety than the “wow, he’s extremely angry” variety. To wit, it turns out that Ryback’s signature WWE look for the majority of his run was owed to Vince McMahon thinking he was fat. Which is pretty funny if you’ve ever looked at Ryback.
The Big Guy told the tale on a recent episode of Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Thanks to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript.
“It’s funny because [Vince] was the one that put me in a singlet because he thought I was fat at one point. I have never been fat at any point in my career but this was a real thing. Word had gotten back to me that I needed to lose 30 pounds, and this was right before I debuted as Ryback. I was in trunks, but they put me in a black singlet, which made me look like a black Big Show. I thought to myself that I had to do something with this, so I got a hold of RVD and asked him if It was cool that I airbrushed my singlet because I had to do something. I had done this the week before and everybody was like, oh that looks good, so I thought, OK, this is going to work.”
Ironically, at the end of Ryback’s WWE run, he was ordered to switch to trunks from the singlet, and that became a whole other issue.
“I responded back that it wasn’t happening, and that he can talk to me if he wants to, but I’m wearing my singlet. I’m in control, I’m not wearing trunks. So, afterwards I started not to trust anything that was going on. Finally, everyone was pissed off so I went to the back and talked to Vince McMahon and said that we needed to talk.
“I went to his office, we talked, and had a conversation about the singlet. I felt that I won the conversation, but not really since he controls everything. Eventually I went to trunks because I knew I was leaving and it became a mindgame at that point. John Cena approached me later and said to me, ‘Congratulations. You won that conversation.’ Ultimately, did I really win? I didn’t win on TV after that.”
Okay, so maybe the Big Guy is still a LITTLE angry. Still, that’s funny. And kind of maddening. But what better way to get back at someone who thinks you’re fat than to airbrush “FEED ME MORE” on the clothes they tell you to wear?
