Ryback recalls heated confrontation with Vince McMahon and being lied to about his heel turn in WWE

Former WWE star Ryback shared some stories from his time in WWE during his latest podcast. You can read some of the transcribed highlights below:

Ryback talked about his heel turn the night after WrestleMania 29: “They brought me into the production meeting. After the meeting was over, it was Vince, Hunter and Stephanie at their table. They brought me in. I sat down and they explained to me that they wanted to turn me heel, which at the time I was in the top babyface discussion being used and I was red hot. I didn’t understand. At that stage of the game, you do what’s told to you.  But they worded it where they said, ‘You are essentially going to be very figured into this company for a long time. We want you to work as a top heel and get that experience calling matches and being more in control as the heel.’ The way they presented it sounded very good. That was, I want to say 2 or 3 months in advance (of the heel turn). That was the direction we were going to go. Then at the end of the Mark Henry match (WM 29), that was for me to get some real steam before I turned heel on Cena. Then days before WrestleMania, Fit Finlay was the agent and he said, ‘You’re falling on your face with Mark Henry on your back.’ I said, what? I couldn’t even get a hold of Vince. I couldn’t find him. I had a meeting with him at WrestleMania that day in gorilla where he explained that this was going to be the big moment that you fail as a babyface on WrestleMania. You fell on your face and that’s where the aggression and anger will fuel the heel turn with Cena who was the top babyface. But the way it was presented to me was what was going to win the championship. So as a talent, why wouldn’t I go do this even though this doesn’t feel right because I botched my own move. That’s what he wanted but it was promises that weren’t delivered. None of that makes any sense from a creative standpoint to lose and then be the number one contender the next night. How? This is why I have the issues I have with them with the lies because you go out and do business and your professional and then they are not professional. That bothered me a lot because none of that made any sense.”

Ryback was asked if he got heat for his Pre-show Stopper gimmick: “They were not happy when I wore the weight belt out there. John Cone, and I love John Cone and he is a great guy. He was the referee for the match and repeatedly kept telling me that Kevin Dunn or Vince in the truck were adamant about me taking the belt off during the match. I was already on my way out. I was so focused to put Kalisto over and make that match as good as possible. The crowd was on fire for that. Great heat for that match. I was very proud of that match. We didn’t have a lot of TV time because my contract stuff was not going well so they were not putting me on TV to build the program. We had very little steam going into that so that was my way of getting heat in Chicago and I was not going to have them take that away from me. I knew I was leaving. I remember, I told Cone multiple times that you can tell them to go f**k themselves. No one said a word. No one is going to. I already had a situation with Vince where Vince, me and Kalisto, actually the buildup was on TV a few weeks before that. I was being lied to again. I was a tweener and beating the s**t out of people. I was out there for the second time. They had me and Kalisto do a faceoff and the crowd didn’t know who the babyface was. It wasn’t generating a reaction. I didn’t like it so I did the ‘Feed me more’ and the crowd wanted more of it. I’ll never forget that when I got to the back, Vince was furious because he didn’t want me to do the Feed Me More thing. They took that away from me before. The crowd was dead and as a performer, you do what you do to get people interested in your program. Vince was irate and he got up at of gorilla when I got to the back and he said, “What the f**k is wrong with you? Are you stupid?” I said, ‘No, are you stupid?’ I stared right at him until he sat back down and put on his headset. He didn’t say anything. I was like, ‘Don’t f***ing try to insult me old man. I’ll beat your ass.’ I was dead serious. As a man, don’t talk to me like that. You can’t. I don’t care who you are. You don’t talk to me that way. Vince is used to doing that to people and people bending over for him. That isn’t going to happen with The Big Guy, motherf**ker.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Ryback Show with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription