Former WWE star Ryback claims the "excitement period" has passed for new promotion All Elite Wrestling.
The company kicked things off this year with several successful PPVs and, having taken their act to television with new show AEW: Dynamite, they're pretty settled in.
Dynamite reigned as the winner of Wednesday Night Wars for its first few weeks but has since been usurped twice by NXT, which is also now on TV after being on the WWE Network for years.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Conversation with the Big Guy podcast, Ryback declared asserted the excitement has left but admitted that it was unavoidable. He does expect things to pick back up whenever top wrestlers become free agents and show up on AEW programming.
“The excitement period is over for the new company, essentially. That was going to happen and there was nothing they can do,” he said. “I think though, as time goes on, and I think as more names become freed up in pro wrestling and other opportunities arise; say, Rusev’s contract is up and the following week he shows up on AEW or whenever he can, that would be a big deal and that would spark some interest because Rusev has a fanbase.
"That would kick them up a little notch and you would have more angles that you can do with Rusev, or whoever it is, a Luke Harper shows up. That’s another guy now where you just start slowly building that roster up who has name value.”
Of course, that is a huge possibility given the frequency at which current WWE performers express dissatisfaction with the company and request releases. Ryback reckons WWE has gone about its business smartly, locking down talent and forcing Tony Khan and Co. to wait until situations change.
We're Just Gonna Have To Wait For That One
The waiting game will not always work for AEW, though. They did play it with CM Punk this year and, while the circumstances were different as he'd already left WWE several years ago, he ended up working on a WWE-affiliated show.
Ryback's correct in claiming that the excitement has been snuffed out and that would have always been the case. The challenge for AEW now will be keeping the fans they've already won over.
Source: Sescoops.com (transcription)