Ryback vs The Ultimate Warrior was planned for Wrestlemania 30

Ryback revealed on the latest episode of his Conversations with the Big Guy podcast that he was originally scheduled to face the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 30.

Ryback stated:

“Mark Carrano actually had showed me the WrestleMania card early. They kind of have an idea of what they want to do, obviously, ahead of time, and they had on it Ryback versus Ultimate Warrior. And I just said, ‘cool.’ But, in my head, at the time, it was during my heel deal, that first one, where it probably wasn’t gonna be a favorable position for me as far as all that. But I was excited, because I figured it was his one last moment in WWE. So, I thought it would be really cool. I didn’t think I would necessarily be the right guy for that, because I didn’t know anything about him. I didn’t know what kind of shape he was in, if he could wrestle or not, but I 100 percent would have done it, because I did everything that they asked me there.”

Credit to Wrestlezone for the transcription

Ryback later noted that he loved the Ultimate Warrior growing up but that he had major reservations with the match, mainly that it would be “1 or 2 minute deal” and that it would be of no benefit to his character.