Ricochet says being moved to RAW did his career no favours.
On February 18, 2019, WWE surprised its fans by announcing that Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Ricochet, and Aleister Black were all set to debut on Monday Night RAW. The four men were among the standouts of the NXT brand, having been touted as possible main roster stars of the future, but their abrupt call-up seemed to throw them in the deep end without much direction. Now, Ricochet has reflected on his sudden arrival on Monday Night RAW, touching on what the move meant for his career.
Speaking on the Mark Hoke Show, Ricochet recalled his call-up to RAW, saying his time on the main roster
“There was an image that got posted. It was like me and Johnny [Gargano], and Tommaso [Ciampa], and Aleister [Black], and it’s all four of us. And it was like ‘Coming to RAW’ and it was showing the four of our photos saying that we’re coming to RAW. So especially at that time, what should have been the biggest promotion in our industry turned out, I think for specifically Ricochet’s story, that time was kind of like being… you’ve seen the Marvel movies? Thanos snaps and there was a five year blip of people that were just gone. I literally think that’s how I put Ricochet’s wrestling career. That five years that was like being blipped away into a different universe. And it just wasn’t what I was doing. It wasn’t me. Coming to AEW and finding that love, it’s like when Tony Stark finally defeated Thanos and all the people came back. And that’s kind of how I feel like Ricochet finally came back to what he was doing. And I feel like that five years was just kind of blipped away. I already know how this is going to sound, and I already know how people are going to take this, but I think that day that we got called to RAW was the worst thing that happened to Ricochet’s wrestling career. I met my wife there. I made friends. Made memories. They had a crazy platform to put me. All the positive stuff, but I think specifically for Ricochet’s wrestling career, that’s where it got blipped because what I was doing and the trajection that I was on compared to the trajection that I got for those five years, and then how it completely changed the public’s image of Ricochet and who Ricochet was, I really do think that five years was like, again, whatever you want to say for the fame and the celebrity, and all that side of it, I’m talking specifically the wrestling side of it. That five years really tarnished Ricochet’s wrestling legacy.”
-Ricochet
Ricochet won the WWE United States Championship in June of 2019, around four months after his debut. However, after his three-week reign, it’d be almost three years before he picked up his first and only Intercontinental Championship.
While Ricochet had some success on the main roster, the star never broke through to the company’s main event scene, with a notable loss to WWE Champion Brock Lesnar at Super ShowDown 2020 seeing him lose in under two minutes.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Ricochet as soon as we hear more.
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