Rusev and Ryback have done battle in the ring, and many think they did on social media as well.
The two were seen on an Instagram Live post going back and forth. In a recent interview with The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling Podcast, Ryback decided to clear the air on the situation.
"I guess there are a lot of people out there that are so smart and they know everything about wrestling and I can't tell you how many times I talk about Rusev as one of my favorite all time opponents and one of my favorite people. What friends do is they go online sometimes and they bust each other's balls. He's done it to me and I've done it to him and it is unfortunate that we live in a day and age where people can just cherry-pick something."
"I see he is doing an Instagram live and I click on it. He sees me, cracks a smile and says "big guy". I leave a comment and he makes a comment about me which we talk about through text. He made a comment about me not being natural and I made a comment back to him that he could lose more weight and I got pegged the bad guy in that one because two friends were having fun and it was one of those things where he says me and Ryback have no beef, well nobody takes that part. Everybody just thinks that Ryback was blocked from Rusev's Instagram and I can assure that I am not blocked and we were just talking earlier today. People have to understand that guys laugh at this sh*t. If I had a beef with someone the last thing I would do is go on an Instagram live and hash it out on that."
Ryback and Rusev wrestled dozens of times between 2015 and 2016 until Ryback decided to leave the company. For the most part, Ryback left victorious during those matches, many of which took place on untelevised live events.
You can see the full podcast at this link. Thanks to Chad and John for the transcript.