Oh, Big Guy.
Give Ryback credit. He doesn’t just talk about stuff like the law of attraction and positive visualization, he lives it. Just last week, we were talking about the story making the rounds - which Ryback shared on Busted Open Radio - about how he felt he should be facing Goldberg in a WWE ring instead of Brock Lesnar.
Now, in some quotes from that same interview, the Big Guy explains how he pitched Vince McMahon on a WrestleMania match between himself and Lesnar... and how shocked he was the Chairman didn’t go for it.
My idea was, and I went to Vince, I've been asking for Brock Lesnar for WrestleMania for the last three years. But I told Vince, “You have to build me up properly.” And I go, “This pay-per-view, it will break all-time records if you build this match up properly.” And I asked him, I go, 'you need to let me go away for six months' and I go, 'I live in Las Vegas [Nevada]. MMA is hugely, insanely popular. It's pretty much the breeding ground here in Las Vegas of MMA.” I said, “Let me go join a fight camp, full-time, for six months. We will make it look like I'm about to go out and do a real fight. I come back to WWE though, challenge Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.”
Vince, just completely, it went over his head and I just remember sitting there dumbfounded. Like, 'Jesus Christ! You can't f--king be that out of touch.' Maybe he didn't want me to go away for six months or whatnot. I don't know.
That Vince didn’t greenlight a six month build for Ryback to face Lesnar is basically the least shocking thing I’ve ever heard. But you’ve gotta admire the Big Guy’s belief in himself.
Don’t stop believing, Ryback.