I doubt it, they rehired him a few years back and he lasted about five or sixth months before he got release again. The guy always thought he was better then he actually was, the only difference is back then, you didn’T have a lot of guys in the mid card that could put on a great match and be a great character so it was easier for him to get by with the limited presence he had. When he did his second run in NXT a few years back, you could just see that he really never had it and the last thing Vince wants, is waste time on somebody that as a big ego and won’t bring anything to the table in exchange.
Dude had a great size, was good looking, had mic skills, charisma and was good enough in the ring. That’s all you need. I just think he already had the stench of failure purely due to horrible booking and him turning on Miz and becoming a generic babyface way too early. A guy like him needed years of being a heel. They turned him babyface within a few months of his debut. No one was wanting him as a babyface.
Riley had mic skills? Anyone who watched him doing NXT commentary would say otherwise.
Kassius Ohno should be near the top of the card!
When they brought him back a few years ago, they tried him as a color commentator on NXT and he tanked then they used him as a wrestlers and he was even worst both on the Mic and in the ring. He was so awful that they release him three or four month after they brought him back.
Oh please they already had it in for the guy and there was nothing he could do. From what I hear Cena completely sabotaged the guy. Ryback and lots of other wrestlers have all said he was money and the company got petty and screwed him over.
The guy could of easily been a future star for them if they handeled him right. The guy had “it”. I know hardcore fans don’t get him but he was tailor made for WWE and what they do.
We using Ryback as a judge of talent?
1 Like
EC3 is Alex Riley 2.0
Really that not what i’ve heard. The story from disgruntled former employees that needed somebody to blame for their short coming. If he had it like you say, he would have made it no matter what the political environment was because if somebody can make money for Vince, he will push the guy to the moon, the fact is, he had a huge ego and disrespected the wrong guys who had worked hard to get where they were in the company and they won’t tolerate that type of behavior in WWE. He was the enzo of his era and it cost him his job the first time. The second time when he came back, his attitude hadn’t change and he sucked in the ring and on the mic so they didn’T even wasted time with him.
If you come in WWE with a Ego problem, you won’t get far in the company. The reason guys like Riley, Ryback, Aries, Kennedy and Enzo just to name those didn’t lost their push is solely because of their bad attitude and their huge ego. It’s on them if they didn’t get the push they deserve in my opinion.
The perfect example of somebody who understood that is the Miz. Here’s a guy that came in with a huge chip on his shoulders, thought he was better then anybody else because he came from the reality show world. They put him in his place very quickly and instead of continuing with his ego trip, he drop the ego and decided to prove to everybody that he deserve to be in WWE, Now he’s one of the biggest star in WWE. Riley could have been that if he just would have drop the ego trip after being put in his place by the veteran but no, he decided to blame Cena for his downfall when in reality it was all his fault if he didn’t live up to his potential.
Aries, Kennedy and Enzo (well possibly Kennedy) were never going to be Vince’s favorites and all were expendable to him. Hall, Nash, HBK and Orton were all total dicks with huge egos but Vince put up with them because they were all his chosen ones.
I have no clue what really happened behind the scenes and really how WWE politics work. I just know if he came along today he would be given every shot now that good looking 6’3 guys with good bodies, mic skills and charisma (guy was good enough in the ring) aren’t as plentiful today.
I wouldn’t compare the Kliq guys to Enzo, Kennedy and definitely not Aries.
First off, neither of those guys would ever draw anything close to one of those guys drew.
1 Like
Go back on the wwe network and watch is second run in NXT from 2015 to 2016 and then come and tell me that he would be given every shot in the world. The guy was and always will be a generic cookie cutter 6 foot 3 wrestler. He sucked then and he sucked when he came back. He always blame everybody for his shortcoming.
But that’s just my opinion.
Comparing him to Hall, Nash HBK and to a extend Orton is like comparing apples to oranges. Hall, Nash an hbk we’re total dicks after they became main event talents and they had all the right in the world to have thoses ego because they we’re stars. Orton was reprimanded many time for his mistakes and learned from his mistake and today he’s a better person because of it. Riley never learn from his mistake. I would compare him to somebody like Buff Barnwell, somebody that got a good body is decent in the ring but never wanted to leave his ego at the door and change his attitude. Instead he choose to blame everybody for his shortcoming and that won’t change even if he would come back in 2018. I feel like he would be look at as just another Zack Ryder and will be in the same boat as Hawkins, kanellis and Ryder as somebody who is there to job to everybody else on the roster. But again, that’s just my opinion
I agree 10-15 years ago good looking 6’3 guys with good bodies were a dime a dozen in wrestling now they are almost extinct. Have you seen wrestling outside of WWE? you are lucky to find in wrestlers over 6 feet most of the time or who even have as much muscle mass as him. On the All In show the only guy on the show that would get a look 10-15 years go by WWE is Aldis. Did you ever see Drew Galloway wrestle on the Indies? It looked absurd and guys like him and Riley are anything but cookie cutter anymore.
But in wwe they still are because they’re still more big guys then small Indy guys. You look at some of the guys that are on wwe main event on a regular basis. Zack Ryder, curt Hawkins, no way Jose, Mike kanellis, the ascension just to name those guy are all 6’3 and over and for most of them have a pretty good physique and yet they are stuck in the jobber role and I feel with Riley, he would end up with that group in no time.
Plus I’ve you see recent pictures of Riley, he look more and more like a Zack Ryder knock off then what he was looking back then.
Riley is way better looking and has better body then all of them also. Ryder only recently got that body long after they decided they would permanently employ him just to fuck with him. Ship sailed long ago for that guy and no amount HGH is going to change that.
Hawkins is like 5’11 and has a shit body. Both Ascension members look like shit. Kanellis is like 5"10.
Dude was perfect for what Vince likes as his leading man. He likes lead guys to be in that 6’1 to 6’4 range that are good looking with nice bodies. (Austin, Rock, Triple H, Roman, Cena)
So if that was the case, why is he not with the company right now? Also why was he release 2 years ago? If Vince had the fate in him like you say he would have, they never would have release him in 2016.
I admittedly know nothing that happens backstage because I’m not there, so I can only judge him from what I saw on screen. Alex Riley was very “meh”. When I saw him on TV I felt nothing. Maybe that’s him, maybe that was his booking, maybe they wanted him to play a character that was not true to him so he was unable to, I don’t know. For me though, I got little to no enjoyment watching him on my TV.
I really have no clue other than he pissed Cena off and got buried by him. Then had this permanent stain on him shortly after that. You know how petty and weird the WWE can be at times. Why do they not give Rusev a big babyface push when he is super over and the fans chant his name? Vince had big plans for him at one time and then tried to bury his momentum with horrible booking. Why do they make Bobby Lashley go out and sing rockin robin? Why would they completely ruin Ken Doane on purpose and sabotage his career? Why did they shit can Damien Sandow shortly after he got super over and was one of the best performers on the roster?
WWE is really weird and petty at times that’s why. Do you get it yet?
I truly urge you to go see his 2015-2016 run in NXT where he was doing his rage against the machine gimmick, a gimmick he came up with by the way, and tell me that he would have been a superstar on the roster.
The whole cena held him down excuse that’s been going around for years now I don’t buy it. Not one wrestler as the power to determine the lack of push of somebody else not even the undertaker and he has the most stroke in the company. I’m firm believer that the reason his push stop was because of his attitude backstage as It’s been reported a number of time that you can’t go out and lack respect to the locker room veterans because that’s the one thing Vince won’t stand for and he had that kind of heat backstage from what I’ve heard.
This whole cena cost me my push is just an excuse that Riley and other disgruntled former wwe guys told Meltzer and the rest of the dirt sheet writers to make themselves look like the victim.
Again, just go watch his NXT run from 2015-2016 and you will get why I don’t see him the same way you do
Just a quick fact check: Riley was never let go then brought back for his NXT run, he was employed with wwe through the entire time but rarely used.