Ryback's Rejected Pitch For WrestleMania Match Against Brock Lesnar

The Big Guy vs. The Beast: Record breaking numbers?

ryback goldberg
WWE.com

Since his recent parting of ways with WWE, Ryback has openly spoken of his time with the company and of the many things he found frustrating while under the umbrella of the world's largest sports entertainment promotion.

"The Big Guy" continues to talk candidly regarding his run, and in a recent interview with Busted Open Radio not only expressed his feeling that he should be the one working with Goldberg as opposed to Brock Lesnar, he also revealed his pitch for a 'Mania bout with The Beast.

Wrestlers are encouraged to constantly come up with ideas for their character and often have to deal with the letdown of seeing many of those be shot down by the powers that be, in this case Vince McMahon specifically. Ryback said this of the angle he proposed:

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"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*cking be that out of touch.' Maybe he didn't want me to go away for six months or whatnot. I don't know."

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In all honestly it's not a bad idea at all, and could have definitely stirred some interest behind a match that otherwise wouldn't have been all that appealing for most fans. He's a tad (okay, FAR more than "a tad") overly-optimistic in his assessment that the show would break all-time records based on that bout, but you have to give The Big Guy credit for thinking outside the box.

Perhaps he's correct in surmising that Vince didn't want to commit to an angle that would see a healthy Ryback working outside of the company for such a lengthy amount of time, but based on past history between he and the organization it's far more likely they didn't view him as a worthy opponent for the massive investment that is Brock Lesnar.

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What do you think? Would the angle have been something you'd have tuned in for?

Contributor
Contributor

Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.