Ryback's Comments & Future: Keep It All Here

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Excuse me, a bus? Why are you mentioning buses? Your career peaked four years ago, Mr. Dooly. Unless you mean specifically Greyhound bus fare, I don't even know what planet you're on.

Some wrestlers negotiate in their contracts that they get a personal bus to travel in. It's decked out like a motor home basically with a bed and bathroom and the like. They're on the road 300 days out of the year. It saves from renting a car and allows them to sleep on the road.

 

[Cats Pajamas]

I know that... how many wrestlers get a bus, though? Serious question.

 

[BaconBits]

There is no way Ryback makes $700-900K a year. He makes $400K MAX and that's me being generous.

After googling WWE salaries 2015, a chart came up. Ryback made 655K last year. You should actually look stuff up before posting.

 

[stingray11214]

One of the big things about a Union is that Unions prize SENIORITY above most else. If you include his WWE Developmental, Ryback would be a grizzled veteran as he started in Deep South in 2005. He would still be behind Dolph Ziggler, Cena, Orton, Kane, Taker, Show and Mark Henry. Now, can you picture a WM32 Main Event between Kane and Ryback for the WWE Championship? Roman Reigns? He sits at the Rookies table until the veterans invite him to sit with them. Trips? He's Management! He cannot perform in a Union title. Divas? Can you say "Rosa Mendes, WWE Divas Champion"? She is a qualified wrestler with super-high seniority amongst the women. So is Alicia Fox. So, could you picture a Divas match at WM32 featuring Rosa Mendes and Alicia Fox?

And, do you really want a Union in Wrestling?

 

[Just Do It]

I think your opinion of what a Union is is weird. If your example were the case, my workplace (large international) would be dominated by old people, which it isn't. Nor is it in any other company I can think of. Unions don't dictate who gets promoted in an environment. This is fact.

 

[Kizzani]

I read Ryback's blog, I read cameron's blog and I read LaBar's two sided comments.
Note: Ryback currently makes 655k per year

First I find it cute how LaBar picked a nice cute statement to quote from Ryback's blog, Clearly a fan of the man. which was nice since he was going to defend the man for being a big baby about money.

It is funny how Mr. Labar has jumped on sort of, he clearly left himself an out with his side swiper comments about how performers need to take some of the hit.
CSR is not ran by 1 person, I find it hard to believe. LaBar, Gilesh and Isenberg all get equal pay, what about the cameraman, Sound guy....yea I didn't think so. But "Without them" blah blah.

Every Business in the world uses this method, we reward people based on performance and tenure, not on just being a part of the program, You don't pay a cameraman the same price as a on screen personality, and even then you pay the most to the person who is the serious draw.

Looks at all sports, QB's are far higher pay scale than a Kicker, They both workout, they both show up to meetings. Kickers win a few games but honestly they do little else.

As for Ryback I am going to toss some quotes from his blog in here.

all I ever wanted to do was work for WWE

No, no you don't, if you did the money wouldn't be an issue. I know there are a few true wrestling fans here and would gladly join the WWE for 1/100th of the pay Ryback is getting. Oh I need proof....Unpaid internships are ALWAYS full at WWE, I tried getting an internship there all 4 of my college years and got nothing. ( it could have been me, maybe I wanted it to much) once I had kids, I knew I could no longer get up and go. So the dream is put on hold.

contrary to reports it isn’t over money

Really? they why is the entirety of your blog about Equal pay? I mean if it is not about money then what is it about, please enlighten the whole world, we are listening.

It blows my mind how in a sport which is predetermined from a company standpoint winners are paid so much more than the losers.

Like scripted TV shows and Movies....Who pay actors upwards of 20 million a picture like The Rock, but do you think the little honey pot Ashley Scott he works with constantly is fetching even 1/2 that no and she never will, She is cute, but she lacks talent. I know I know this is entertainment not sports (I already touched on sports) so let's dive deeper but let's focus on pro wrestling.

If you are a fan of wrestlezone then you have see the post about who is the top paid guy. Below is a link if you need a refresher.
http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/704465-top-ten-highest-paid-wwe-wrestlers

Triple H.....Lost his last 2/3 matches? Roman Reigns beat him...Guess who gets paid less.....the Winner.

Big and Kane both round out the top ten and both haven't won since....wooo damn it has been awhile. Winning and losing in wrestling is the mere tip of the iceberg, the show that is supposed to be put on is the huge chunk of unseen importance.

So win/lose record = Merch sales....So no one ever bought a Brooklyn Brawler shirt? he won what 1 match.

The facts remain the same winning and losing is based on fan support, it is based on how you carry yourself as a person and how well you can perform. Just because a crowd chants "feed me more" for a few months, doesn't mean it has staying power. The attention span of humans in general is shorter, you need to stay fresh. If Ryback really wanted to get over and cared as much for the business as he says he would do so.

Look at Goldust, Stardust, Rick Rude, Kane as Fake Diesel,Ringmaster and Kerwin White aka Chavo.
All of these guys and more have had horrible gimmicks and they made the most of them. I think back to the first time I saw Issac Yankem dds, this was Kane's first WWE gimmick and it was full of suck, then they repackaged him as Fake Diesel which again was full of suck. Yet he embraced the suck and gave it his all. Which eventually lead to Kane, brother of the Taker and he was a machine, kids feared Kane and through the year he has had his ups and downs as with most wrestlers in the business. But if you are going to get a crappy gimmick you have to take it in and give it your all, you are playing a character not yourself.
If Ryback gave even 50% effort it would be noticed, however you can tell on his face, his mannerism and in ring work when he will win or lose. This is why you are a low paid tool who can't get over.


Why is it a guy who is told he is going to go out and lose and does everything he is told be paid not only less, but much less than said winner over a period of time. Every single performer for WWE sacrifices the same amount of time from home and their families and every single man or woman goes out and does what they are told.

This is where the problem lies right here, You are not doing what you are told, I am 100% sure that Vince, or whoever is running the show doesn't say "hey go put on a mediocre performance, botch some moves and twist up your words so you sound lost". I mean if this is what they say then I do apologize, But I am betting it sounds more like this "Focus, get your dialogue right and put on a great show."

Oh yeah evidence. Go back and watch the Wrestlemania pre show watch Ryback's match with Kalisto, then go watch the Woman's title match you can judge for yourself which is better, well performed match. Some wrestlers give 30% others give 100%.

The winners have more MERCH as it is or are supposed to anyways so they get that extra perk, but why make the guy who is told to and agrees to lose earn less and sacrifice spots in big pay per view match ups etc.

I took a quick stop off at WWE shop and found this Lie to be nothing more than cry baby BS.
Charlotte is the Woman's champion, she has done almost nothing but WIN since she got to the WWE main roster. She has 2 (yes only 2) pieces of MERCH as it is called.
Ryback has 14. What other winners have less I wonder

Woods 13
Neville 3
Cesaro 10
Aj Styles 10 (yeah this was just to be a Douche)

His logic is flawed....Oh yeah he said "Supposed too". So he admits this is the way it should be? Or? yeah whatever cry baby.

It isn’t soley about money, it is about commitment. Commitment to a guy who fucking cares and who loves this more than anything in the world and wants to know that his passion his efforts and his determination to constantly improve is going to be recognized and taken care of.

It is funny to me because he acts like other's don't.Seth Rollins, Cena and others coming back from Injury earlier than expected, but still working even on their recovery time. Please, I find it hard to believe more than 2% aren't committed to the wrestling business.

Constantly improve he said?
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Dolph Ziggler received a concussion from a stiff clothesline by Reeves in a January 2014 match

In November 2014, CM Punk labelled Reeves as a "steroid guy" and said that wrestling him "took 20 years off" his life. Punk also claimed Reeves purposely broke his ribs.

People not wanting to work with you might be a clue as to why you lose a lot, if the other wrestlers don't feel safe around you then maybe you should take a closer look at what you do as a wrestler.

I thank every WWE superstar from top to bottom for their sacrifices and for working with me.

Looks like even the Big Guy realizes there is a clear and defined pecking order, Why not just say "Every WWE superstar" No you went out of your way to add a few extra words to show you understand there is a pecking order.

Final Thoughts

Ryback can post all these blogs about this that and what not, But if you have to keep telling people throughout how good you are and how much you work on your craft, then there is an issue, people will see it.
I don't hear people saying Ohh Ryback is being done dirty....I hear it about Bray Wyatt, I hear it about Titus o'Neil, and Dean Ambrose.

Saying you work just as hard as others is just a straight faced lie. Look at make a wish, you don't even make the list. How about the troops? This that and what not. Movies? Tv Shows? etc etc. you don't work nearly as hard as some other guys and it shows in that pay scale. Sure you go out and wrestle a match and lose like a good dog, but connecting with the fans is a far different beast.

LaBar claims Sandow and Ryder are two special examples since they are SOOOO over with the crowd yet still get nothing from WWE. Ryder has 129k subscribers to his oh so boring Youtube channel (and that is free) The Network has over 1.8 million subs. less than 1/10th, let's stop pretending he has a huge following.

These are just my opinions based on facts and logic, not just one butt hurt man's point of view.

But hey if equality is what Ryback wants I say we give it to him. We will give Ryback a contract worth 9.5 million same price as John Cena, However since he wants equality, we will take that and 9.5 and anyone getting less will get a piece of that pie too.
9.5 divided by 69 = So all talent gets 137k

Let's Note
http://www.totalsportek.com/money/wwe-wrestlers-salaries/

Ryback currently makes 655k per year More than EVERY women wrestler....
More than
Cesaro
Sandow
All of New Day combined.

Shame Ryback Shame

 

[stingray11214]

I think your opinion of what a Union is is weird. If your example were the case, my workplace (large international) would be dominated by old people, which it isn't. Nor is it in any other company I can think of. Unions don't dictate who gets promoted in an environment. This is fact.

You are right in "not getting promoted". It is more about "PROTECTION of one's place". Seniority is about being able to select "choice" slots for you to work, in the titles that the Union has authority of. So, A guy who has 20+ years in a job has a better chance of getting Weekends and Holidays and summer vacations off than a guy who has only 2 years on the job. And, the fact that your company is not dominated by old people probably shows one thing: Your Union negotiated a pension plan, and those older people retired for a nice retirement. Just like my job. When you turn 55 and have 25 years of service, you can retire at half-pay forever. You an go out with a bang, or a whimper. If you have a long time in your job title, you can choose.

So, do you really want a Union in Pro Wrestling? If they were allowed to pick their slots in Seniority order for 18 men and 4 women (5 singles matches, 2 tag, two Divas) for WM as per contract, you would get some really weird matches out there. Welcome to the Union.

 

[Rayne]

Since we've got multiple related Ryback topics going, I'll try to address them with neat paragraphs in bolded sections. Those of you whose preferred posting format is the run-on sentence, take note.

On the idea of a Wrestlers' Union

The common take on a wrestlers' union is that it wouldn't work, on account of either/both of a) there is a wide disparity in pay scale, and b) performers would work their deal with the 'union', then turn around and sell the union out for more money. To which I present examples of unions in other similar industries; the Screen Actors Guild and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

In the case of SAG, becoming a member is as simple as cutting them a check; which a lot of people do, because there's a lot of work in acting which you can't get unless you're a SAG member. (The whole 'is the way unions work good' discussion is one for another time, in which I could give a hot middle-of-the-road take which would piss everyone off.) In baseball, the only thing keeping the MLBPA afloat- the very strong thing keeping the MLBPA afloat- is the memories of recent unionization battles and how unionization has been an unambiguously Good Thing for anyone to step onto a major league baseball field.

The idea that the unionization format doesn't fit the professional wrestling business model isn't quite correct, because people are thinking of unions in terms of more traditional ones, like the Teamsters or SEIU, where workers are making in the same order of magnitude of each other. It would be far less likely that professional wrestlers would create their own union, and much more likely that they'd associate with a union such as SAG.

However, that isn't very likely either. What will keep professional wrestlers from organizing is that any successful unionization movement requires management to be caught somewhat off-guard by a critical mass of people too crucial to replace who desire unionization- and wrestlers talk. So a professional wrestlers' union is crippled in two different directions before it starts; one, that the Top Guys like John Cena have no reason beyond good will to support a unionization bid, and two, there are plenty of people who would happily improve their favor with the WWE by talking about who's doing the organizing, preventing that critical mass from building.

So long as the top guys feel that everyone else is doing well enough that they don't feel bad about it, and so long as everyone else feels they're making enough that it's not worth sticking their necks out, you won't see a wrestlers' union.

On the "Winners and Losers" talk

I actually resisted answering this for a few days, because I had my gut reaction of "of course the people that draw get more"- but after thinking about it some, he has part of a point.

First thing being said, and affecting anything else said here; I think that Ryback is pretty decent in the role he's playing. I also think that he is completely replaceable without anyone particularly noticing. It's the nature of the role he's playing. (In the same sense, I think that Dolph Ziggler is a doing great in his role as "WWE gatekeeper", but most people wouldn't overtly notice a difference if he left.) So if the role Ryback is playing is very replaceable, the salary for that position is what the (qualified) guy willing to do it for the least amount of money will take. Sorry Ryback, but you're a front line worker asking for specialist pay.

What throws a wrench into all this and leaves me unable to take a firm stance is the extent to which the WWE controls their script. I don't begrudge the WWE for having a set script for their actors and sticking to it- that's the way just about all television works- but it does make it difficult for people to increase their value with fans, and hence the amount they're able to earn from the company. Which leads to the case of Zack Ryder. I'm not big on the "this guy got buried" line that happens every time someone fails to make an uninterrupted rise to the world title, but in Zack Ryder's case, the WWE went out of their way to neuter his marketing power (and hence his value.) On the OTHER hand....... if Zack Ryder hadn't produced his web series while on Creative Has Nothing For You status, do you think he'd still be employed by the WWE so many years later?

So it's one of those cases where I get why things are the way they are, and it doesn't cut into clean, easily defined moral lines where you can say "this guy is right", because it's just a system of various groups who are all trying to get the best deal they can. You don't have to like that idea, and I don't, but it is what it is.

 

[Navi]

Might be a precursor of things to come, but today WWEshop.com moved all of Ryback's merchandise to the "sale" section. To me it sounds like the WWE has already made their decision.

It will be interesting to see if it was contract demands that started the is shitstorm, or the blog he put out. Could be a combination of both, but it looks like Rybacks days in the WWE might be coming to an end.

 

[LionheartY2J]

Ryback is the exact same situation as Ahmed Johnson; he was catapulted to the top based on his look alone, and it wasn't until it was too late that they realized that it wasn't enough. He sounded like a goof on the mic, and he was wreckless and perhaps improperly trained in the ring.