Ryback Comments on Mocking Punk, Being Told What to Do

Former WWE employee Ryback has spoken about mocking CM Punk, and how he refused to take off his ‘Pre-show Stopper’ weightlifting belt.

On the latest episode of podcast Conversation with the Big Guy (quotes via WrestlingInc), Ryback recalls WWE referee John Cone requesting that he take off the belt, and stop using CM Punk’s repertoire.

“They were so furious with that weight belt,” says Ryback.

“Yeah, they were so mad. Cone kept telling me, ‘they go ‘take off the weight belt’ and I kept saying, ‘tell them to f–k off.’ And during the match I was already checked out, I was gone, and I said, ‘I’m going to have fun one way or another.’

“I had to cut out, like Cone kept going, ‘no more CM Punk stuff, no more CM Punk stuff’ and I was going to do the running knee into the GTS and not cover him to really… they were eating it up, but we got cut on time, as always.”

Ryback then goes on to discuss his final year, and how despite everything that had transpired, he still wanted to stay with WWE, but had interests outside of the company he wouldn’t have been allowed to pursue. He also says the reason for being on PPV pre-shows so often was due to him refusing the sign a new contract.

“I wanted to see if [Vince McMahon] was going to [keep] his word to me, and he didn’t. And he probably booked me that way and didn’t do what he said, for the most part, although he has lied to me before, it was because I didn’t sign that contract right away. And so, it was sort of a game of chicken and I was sticking to my guns[…].”

The Big Guy left the company in August. After his departure, he revealed one of his big pitches to Vince McMahon, which would have seen him vanish from the company for six months to train with an MMA camp and then return and take on Brock Lesnar. The pitch, as you can probably guess, was never picked up.

Image credit WWE.com