It looks like Ryback is making the most CM Punk‘s faltering reputation to rehabilitate his own image.
The former WWE Superstar has been out of the public eye for over half a decade, trying to become a social media star after he left the WWE in 2016.
The Big Guy is infamous in wrestling for his loudmouthed antics, but made even more notorious when CM Punk accused him of injuring him with a botched table spot, dropping him onto concrete.
The pair worked together in 2012 and 2013, wrestling in Hell in a Cell matches in both years. In 2012, Punk accused Ryback of causing a torn meniscus, but put their differences aside for the rematch one year later.
However, on the first night they worked together, Ryback attempted to Gorilla Press CM Punk through a table, but instead missed and sent him crashing to the ground onto the solid concrete.
This took place on the September 23, 2013 episode of Monday Night Raw, which you view below.
Punk shot on Ryback during his time on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, which soured the fans on Ryback.
He accused Ryback of throwing him onto concrete and injuring his pelvis, although Ryback has come out and accused CM Punk of lying about the entire situation.
In a recently posted Youtube video, Ryback analyzed the footage of the fall, and accused Punk of lying, not telling the fans about the padded mats that he landed on during the spot.
Ryback claimed that WWE would never let their wrestlers do spots on concrete, and that the Best in the World was simply lying to make The Big Guy look bad.
He also called CM Punk a “pathological liar”, and that there was an “illegal suppression” of the truth.
“Phil lied to, he lied to all of you, and he’s a pathological liar still. I think he’s talented in certain things, but he has serious psychological issues. So this is the infamous table spot. You could see the table did break; in fact, it was not perfect. I’ll be the first to admit that. There were multiple reasons for that.
I’ll take the full blame for it. I don’t care, I don’t give a F***. The issue I have is that your good friend, uh, Punky Brewster, told everybody that I dropped him on concrete. That is a lie. He told you that, so he had that victim mentality that you guys, ‘Oh, big bad Ryback dropped him down on the concrete.’ WWE does not do stunts where we drop people anywhere near concrete. So I just want you to look again.
So, again, the table is broke, not perfect, but we did go through the table. There’s actually padding, and if you look at Phil’s little left shoulder, there’s a line that goes down that kind of gray middle line. It is actually, I’m standing on the blue crate there. The table padding extends all the way to that gray line, if you can see, which you clearly can if you have eyes and you’re not Stevie Wonder.
That thick padding was under the table and all the way feet past the table where Punk landed on the thick padding, not on the concrete. He then rolled over onto his stomach, and he’s on concrete on the carpet there with his right arm, but you could actually see the elevation of where the carpet was. If you go back and watch the video, you could see he landed under the table, under the padding.
The second issue I have is there was no backstage altercation that would have come out instantly on the dirt sheets and different things where Phil says, ‘I guess the infamous, did you do it on purpose? Are you dumb as [ __ ]?’ That situation would never have happened, guys. Trust me.
Okay, with it. The other thing is that WWE, nobody at any point in my career has ever talked to me about being dangerous, not once. This is something that would have happened to me. I would have been pulled aside if I was such a dangerous worker.
With that, the truth always wins. You can’t argue with me. I was there. I know where the padding was. I watched him lay it down. We rehearsed the stunt, and, yeah, the big guy wins again. Hungry. Feed me more.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a H/T to Atletifo for the transcription.
This seems like a way for Ryback to jump on the current discourse around CM Punk’s lying, and change the narrative about him – although with very little evidence.
The video is not clear at all that there is padding, and looks as though CM Punk just fell onto a thin mat onto concrete.
Ryback also claims the table broke, but it’s clear Punk did not go through it cleanly, and di bang his hip on the edge, as he claimed.
Despite Ryback claiming that he was not a dangerous wrestler, he in fact injured multiple wrestlers throughout his WWE career.
This included CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, John Cena and Jack Swagger – clear here to learn more!