Four years ago Ryan Reeves broke his ankle
and with that his time in the successful faction The Nexus ended, in which he was called Skip Sheffield. It wasn't until 2012 when he returned with his previous name, Ryback, starting a series of advantageous fights against wrestlers 50 kilos lighter than him, and with that a great winning streak. In the past, this angle used to be successful, but due to the similarity between Ryback and Bill Goldberg, the audience voiced their discontent. Ryback had a hard time winning over the fans, avoiding something that could have even ended his career. Although they continued shouting "Goldberg", he knew how to motivate the audience to chant his catchphrase, "Feed me more!"
Soon he was a main event wrestler. Many expected Ryback to eventually become a world champion and potentially John Cena's successor, but when he headlined Hell in a Cell, he lost to CM Punk, and with that loss he also lost the streak and much of what his character meant – which was the same thing that happened to Goldberg when he lost the streak to Kevin Nash.
Ryback was invited to The Steve Austin Show podcast, where he remembered a lot about that time, especially his relationship with Vince McMahon:
About his reboot as Ryback:
"I don't like going to Vince all the time for anything. It has to be for something major, because I feel like a lot of people abuse it. He's a busy man, he has a million things to think about, so I only look for him when I really feel like I need to talk to him about something.
"I remember that one time I said something like 'your company' during the conversation, and in the end he told me, 'You'll be ready when you realize it's OUR company.' I repeated 'our company' and got out of there. I was like 'damn! How long will I have to wait before I talk to him again and somehow bring up our company in the conversation?' But I got lucky, because everything started rolling, and it seems like I debuted a week or two after that."
When he told McMahon that he could be the successor to John Cena:
"I told Vince that. I'm here for the long haul, and I want to absolutely do the best I can, and the best I can is being damn good at the end of this. But the key is staying healthy and having longevity. There are people who leave, people who get injured, and opportunities open up. And I told him from day one, I told Vince straight up: 'I'm the guy who can replace John Cena', and I'm not John Cena, I'm Ryback, but I'm the guy who can do that and can sell tickets, but for that I need to be healthy and I need to be relevant every day for it to happen.
"I can be number one. I can sell tickets. I have a presence, I know what I'm doing. I can make people believe in me, and that's why sometimes it bothers me when we go in another direction. I don't like it because I know what I'm capable of."