In 2014, The Ultimate Warrior was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame following years of having an acrimonious relationship with the company. Being featured on the 2K14 game, Warrior was able to make up for lost time and patch up his torn issues with the company. Sadly, he passed away three days after the Hall of Fame at the age of 54.
Although it was a number of years that Warrior competed in the WWE, or any other promotion, apparently the company had plans for him to return to the ring.
According to Ryback, during his Conversations with the Big Guy podcast, he was once scheduled to face Warrior at WrestleMania 30.
“Mark Carrano actually had showed me the WrestleMania card early. They kind of have an idea of what they want to do, obviously, ahead of time, and they had on it Ryback versus Ultimate Warrior. And I just said, ‘cool.’ But, in my head, at the time, it was during my heel deal, that first one, where it probably wasn’t gonna be a favorable position for me as far as all that. But I was excited, because I figured it was his one last moment in WWE. So, I thought it would be really cool. I didn’t think I would necessarily be the right guy for that, because I didn’t know anything about him. I didn’t know what kind of shape he was in, if he could wrestle or not, but I 100 percent would have done it, because I did everything that they asked me there.”
Ryback went on to say that although he loved the Ultimate Warrior growing up, he was critical of potentially putting him over because you can’t “be a mark” in the pro wrestling business. He also believed that he would not have gotten anything out of it, and it would have been difficult for him to recover from it, since it would have most likely been a “1 or 2 minute deal.”
He would end up being a part of a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. This occurred on the pre-show, and Ryback ended up taking the fall for his team after being pinned by Cesaro.
If any portion of this transcription is used, please H/T WrestleZone via Conversations with the Big Guy.
