Ryback On His Toughest WWE Loss, What Happened When He Walked Out, How AEW Can Draw Wrestlers

Former WWE Superstar Ryback recently spoke with entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet. You can see the full interview in the video above. Chris also sent us highlights from the interview.

Regarding his WWE departure in 2016, Ryback said he dropped a F-bomb and walked out of the company. He was asked how he left WWE.

"I told them f--k you, take me off TV and I left," Ryback said. "I walked out of St. Louis and I went home. They tried to stop my pay and they weren't going to pay me while I rode out my contract so I went on injury pay and got my ear and nose fixed and they paid me all the way up until my contract expired on August 8th I believe. If you remember, I released them and wished them the best in their future endeavors in an online video because they were trying to fire me. They wanted me to get cleared and I didn't get cleared until the day my contract ran up so that they could not publicly say they fired me because that is what they will usually try to do to a talent to make them look bad in the situation. But you guys didn't get me."

Ryback said he knew he was leaving when he arrived to the arena in St. Louis that day. He recalled how he was asked then if he wanted to talk to Vince McMahon before leaving, but he passed and said he never wanted to talk to the WWE Chairman again.

"I left and I didn't talk to anyone," he recalled. "I think me and Dolph Ziggler went and got wings at Hooters. I go to St. Louis and I saw the booking for the day and I hadn't started the new contract they have given me so the games had already started. I just knew I was done. I sat there for a bit and I thought it through fully and I was already pretty close to leaving, I was just waiting. And I said this is it. I went and said what I had to say and they said 'Do you want to go talk to Vince' and I said 'I never want to f--king talk to him again' and I left."

Ryback looked back at his WrestleMania 29 loss to WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry in 2013, and said it was a tough one because it made no sense creatively.

"That was probably the toughest out of all of it," Ryback said. "That one really, really made no sense at all because I was going from that and we knew I was going on to John Cena after that. This is why I tell people that if you just look at the history you can clearly see there's something going on with momentum and stuff."

When it comes to winning and losing, The Big Guy acknowledged that you can only do what you're told. He commented on being booked to lose at times.

"You can only do what they tell you to go out and do," he said. "People that say 'Oh you lost the big one' no, I won. I played the role. You don't say to an actor because he got killed in a scene that he lost or that he was a loser. Pro wrestling is the exact same thing as far as that goes it's just portrayed a little differently."

Ryback also spoke on All Elite Wrestling and said he's excited for the new promotion. He believes every pro wrestler will want to work for AEW if they put out a great product and take care of the talent.

"I'm excited, we got AEW here and I'm very happy for Cody and everybody involved in that," he said. "They have a huge advantage in wrestling right now because they're starting fresh and and they can do it right and they can do wrestling better than WWE. Now are they going to come in and take over right away? Not right away. But if they put out a great product and they take care of the wrestlers, every pro wrestler will want to go wrestle there."