Ryback Told Vince McMahon ‘I Am The Guy That Can Replace John Cena’

John Cena turned 38-years-old this year and WWE is currently working on finding a new star to replace him at the top of the promotion. It certainly appears as though Roman Reigns is “the chosen one,” at least in their eyes, but Ryback, as he told Steve Austin on his podcast this week that he told Vince McMahon to his face that he can replace Cena.

I told Vince this. I am here for the long haul. Like, I want to be my absolute best and my best is going to end up pretty damn good, at the end of this, but the key to that is staying healthy and longevity here. People are going to take themselves out, people get injured, and opportunities open up. And I’ve said from day one, I’ve told Vince this to his face, I am the guy that can replace John Cena, and I’m not John Cena, I’m Ryback. But I’m the guy that can do that and I can sell [tickets], but I need to be healthy and I need to be here everyday for that to happen.

There was a time a couple years ago when Ryback was a legitimate drawing card after the creative team spent a great deal of time building him up simply by having him destroy everyone he faced. When he was given a shot at the WWE Championship against CM Punk at Hell in a Cell in 2012, a match made because Cena was injured, it actually drew relatively well on pay-per-view. Because they had no plans of taking the title off Cena and didn’t want to end Ryback’s streak clean, Brad Maddox, the referee for the match, screwed him over.

Though Ryback’s still among WWE’s top stars, many fans feel that time was the peak of his popularity and standing in the company. So relative to his goal, he has yet to recover from the match.