During the fourth episode of his podcast, Conversation With the Big Guy, former WWE Superstar Ryback discussed how he received help earlier in his career from Luke Gallows, and how then-OVW booker Roadkill disliked him. Below are some highlights:
Ryback on having nightmares when he first got into wrestling: “During that whole period, my first couple years wrestling, I had [nightmares]. I never was a guy [to have nightmares]. Like, I used to have dreams and I started having nightmares because my mindset had gotten so negative. I don’t have nightmares anymore.” Reeves continued, “my circumstances in my life, things that had happened overwhelmed me and even in my sleep I couldn’t escape it. And with the drinking during the day, I couldn’t get rid of this. Not even in my sleep was I safe.”
Ryback on how he received help from Luke Gallows after he was released from WWE developmental: “Luke Gallows, who was Festus at the time in the WWE, I think he’d gotten wind that things were not good with me. Probably all the guys talking because, for him to come into Smokey Bones, he never would come in there and I think he wanted to see me. And I believe he came in there for a reason. He came in though and he ordered and he was having lunch. He goes, ‘I hate seeing you like this’ and I go, ‘like what?’ I’m in denial, ‘what do you mean? I’m f–king great. life is good.’ And he goes, ‘no, it’s not. You need to be wrestling. You belong in wrestling. You are a wrestler.’ And I was like, ‘well, I don’t know what to do right now. I can’t get by. Like, I have to work all the time.’ And I think at that point in time, he was having a little run with Undertaker as Festus. For him, his booking as Festus, that was kind of a high point during that. Yeah, and he goes, ‘I had just read this book called The Secret.’ And he goes, ‘it has changed the way I think and it’s helping me a lot.’ And so he left me a tip for $30.00 or $25.00, whatever it was. And there was a bookstore across the street and he goes, ‘I want you to go get this book as soon as you can.’ And it was one of those things. I think I had left work that day and just ran across the street and bought it. And then, I read that book. When I read it and went through it, it was so overwhelming because it made me realize just how negative I was being.”
Ryback on OVW booker Roadkill disliking him in developmental: “Who I just found out, by the way, through J.D. Michaels, who does my weight belts and he [has] always been the guy that’s made my singlets. And he [has] always been a good guy to me and he has always kind of been in that circle of guys and I talk to him a lot on Voxer still with everything and we, just recently, were talking about this. He was telling me, I didn’t know this, that Roadkill didn’t like me.”
