Ricky Saints Recalls Being Slapped With Tuna By Ryback In WWE, Talks Friendship With Cody Rhodes

Ricky Saints was punked out by Ryback as an extra in WWE back in 2013, and he recalls it as a motivating factor to become a star in WWE. Saints worked as an extra several times, most memorably for fans now in on the July 29th, 2013 episode of Raw. He drew the ire of Ryback in catering during the segment and got slapped several times, once with tuna fish, before being put through a table. Saints previously noted that he didn’t know the slaps were coming.

Saints recalled the moment in an interview with The Battleground Podcast as one of the moments when he decided he would be back in WWE as a star. He also recalled not being called back for a WWE tryout as another such moment and spoke about his friendship with Cody Rhodes. You can see the highlights below:

On His Relationship With Cody Rhodes:

“Well, the friendship in itself is great. Because you know, I don’t know if he sees a younger kid [of himself] in me when he was first starting out. I don’t know. I would think so, but I really don’t know. But he’s great in the fact that there are there are things that I’m figuring out on my own. And there are there are little pockets that I kind of miss, right? And he is great at identifying those pockets and giving me words of wisdom that allow me to ultimately guide myself to what it is that I should be learning or figuring out. He’s really, really good at that. He’s really good at giving you a perspective and you ultimately being like, ‘Oh, okay. I get it now.’

It’s so undervalued in that sense. Because you’re usually used to people like physically showing you this or doing that, right? And since we don’t live very close to each other, it’s hard. So when we do have these moments where we do see each other and we we talk, the conversations are in-depth. They have such a deep magnitude to them of like, life and outside of wrestling, you know what I’m saying? Like just, it covers all of it. So, he’s been very impactful in my career and in my life too, personally and professionally. So, I can’t really thank him [enough] on that.

On the Extra Moments Where He Thought He’d Be Back In a Big Way:

“Oh my gosh. I really think it was I got put through a table by Ryback. I’m telling you, I had to do that stuff three times. I think that wasn’t like the ‘for sure moment,’ because I was back there thereafter. But that was a moment where I go, ‘Wow, this will be the funniest story when I come back here and take over.’

I had another thought about that, when I didn’t get called for the tryout. And then I think when I didn’t get called for the try out, I may have had one match after that, and it was a tag match with Aaron Solo on Raw. And I do remember that being a situation where I drove home and I was like, ‘The next time I come, that’s it. The next time I come back here, I’ll be signed here.’ And that may have been the last time I ever did anything extra-wise. You know, there’s people who can look that up. But yeah, that was like the two moments. The Ryback one for sure, though when I’m getting tuna slapped in my face. I said, ‘Yeah, when I come back, it’s going to be over for y’all.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Battleground Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.