Ryback Says TNA Made Him A Great Offer, Talks About Past Steroid Use

Former WWE Superstar Ryback recently appeared on Jim Ross’ weekly Ross Report podcast, which you can listen to over at PodcastOne.com. They touched upon a number of topics, including the possibility of working with TNA or New Japan, his history with steroids and what got him to stop using them. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

Working for TNA or New Japan:

“Obviously with TNA, or Impact Wrestling, and they made a great offer a while back, and it’s just that I have no interest in going anywhere right now with everything that I’ve got going on. New Japan, I know a few guys over there. They expressed that there was a lot of interest, but I don’t know who is in charge of making decisions. There has been zero contact in terms of a phone call, or an email, or anything of that nature outside of just me hearing, ‘They’d like to work with you.’ I would love to go over there and work Kenny Omega, go over there for two or three days at a time, here and there. I would be totally for that.”

Being introduced to steroids:

“I was a guy that never thought in a million years, Jim, that would touch steroids, or human growth hormone, or anything like that … I was 19 years old and working the front desk. I was in school full-time and I was working at the gym to have some money to support myself … And we would get some of the pro bodybuilders in there as well. They kind of started putting it in my head a little bit.

I know it was my choice and my adolescent mindset where I’m comparing myself to other people rather than being the best version of myself. It was what it was and guys were doing it and I saw the guys that I liked growing up and they’ve openly admitted that they used them in the past. And if they do it and I like these guys, maybe I need to do this in order to be noticed and I did them for a period of probably three or four years off and on.”

What got him to quit steroids:

[WWE’s Wellness Policy] forced me to stop. And because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do what I love to do. But for me, I suffered severe consequences for using them where it had shut down my natural testosterone production.”