As reported earlier this week, Ryback appeared on Steve Austin’s audio podcast for a new interview. You can listen to it in full here; some highlights are below:
On his relationship with Vince McMahon: “I don’t want to go to him just all the time for everything and it has to have meaning behind it and it always has because I feel some people abuse that power. He’s a busy man. He’s pulled in a million different directions, so it’s when I truly feel I need to talk to him about something.”
On a conversation he had with Vince McMahon when he was feeling underutilized: “I remember I said something about ‘your company’ to him at one point and at the end of the conversation, he goes, ‘you’ll be ready when you realize it is our company’ and I said, ‘our company’ and I walked out of there. I was like, ‘damn it,’ thinking, ‘how long do I have to wait now before I go talk to him and somehow sneak in ‘our company” and, luckily though, everything was on track, and, I believe, I debuted a week or two after that.”
On believing he’s the guy to replace John Cena: “I told Vince this. I am here for the long haul. Like, I want to be my absolute best and my best is going to end up pretty damn good, at the end of this, but the key to that is staying healthy and longevity here. People are going to take themselves out, people get injured, and opportunities open up. And I’ve said from day one, I’ve told Vince this to his face, I am the guy that can replace John Cena and I’m not John Cena, I’m Ryback. But I’m the guy that can do that and I can sell [tickets], but I need to be healthy and I need to be here everyday for that to happen.”
On the politics backstage: “Every week is a fight here, as you know, and it is truly a challenge, but it is an exciting challenge. Sometimes I wish it was a little easier at times, but, again, it’s an every week thing. I heard Brock [Lesnar] last week say you kind of have to be selfish with this and truer words have never been spoken.”
On learning to speak up for himself: “I could be number one. I could sell tickets. I have a look to me and I know what I’m doing out there, where I can draw people in and people believe in me, so I get pissed off sometimes when we go in another direction. I don’t like that because I know what I’m capable of and when we were doing that, what it was doing.”
