Ryback spoke to the College Times this week to hype Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

How much input he’s had in the evolution of his character:

“I was very vocal in that, actually. A lot of people don’t know that I was Ryback before I was Skip Sheffield down in the developmental territories. It was a name I came up with and created, as far as when I was away from the WWE. ‘Skip Sheffield’ was presented to me by Dusty Rhodes. It was something I don’t regret ever having happened because it did happen [and] that’s what got me to the WWE initially. I cannot tell you enough how glad I am to not be doing that right now. What you see now is me. I’m a very intense individual in real life in everything I do. I set goals and I attack them with the intensity you see on TV.”

Which title belt is he hungry for?

Right now, the WWE Championship and the Heavyweight Championship. I made my 2013 vision board, my goal board, and I have 13 goals for 2013 that are going to be accomplished. That is one of my main goals—becoming the WWE and World Heavyweight Champion. They’re both of equal importance to me.

Who his closest friends are in WWE:

“I get along with everyone to some degree. I travel alone, though, and Stone Cold Steve Austin always said, ‘Don’t trust anybody.’ He didn’t just say that to say that. I always say, there are sharks swimming with dolphins. There are a lot of sharks in the WWE. You gotta be wary of everybody. Wade Barrett, though, still to this day is one of my friends that I keep in contact with and talk to a lot up there, and Daniel Bryan, believe it or not, I tend to get along pretty well with. I’m not there to make friends. Razor Ramon/Scott Hall used to always say, ‘You can make money or you can make friends.’ I’m here to make as much money as possible and put out a great product for WWE and that’s my goal.”

You may also be interested in...