Ricochet wanted to leave WWE in 2022.
Ricochet’s time in WWE was an inconsistent journey full of highs and lows. He won the WWE United States Championship early on, but his main roster run hit a lull. He bounced back in 2022, as he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Ricochet ultimately left WWE in July 2024 and signed with AEW. He made his AEW debut at AEW All In.
On the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, Ricochet reflected on his time in WWE. In one highlight, he told then-WWE executive John Laurinaitis that he “kind of” wanted to quit in 2022, and he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship. (H/t Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling for the transcription.)
“Who really knows what they were thinking at the time? Maybe they thought that I was gonna just stay and maybe they did think that. I don’t know,” Ricochet said. “But, it was funny because I forgot what year it was. I forgot what year I won the Intercontinental Championship. But that year, I had actually went to (John) Laurinaitis and was like, ‘Hey guys, I kind of wanna quit.’ I said, ‘I would go back to the indies and make, you know, a quarter of the money I’m making now, than to come back in here next week. It sucks.’
“I was like, ‘But everybody kind of feels that way.’ I was like, ‘If you just ask the guys, none of them like it right now.’ This was obviously, like, years ago, and we were just talking and I was just venting my frustrations about everything and it was funny, he had asked me, he was like, ‘Well we’ve been thinking about doing some things. We’re thinking about putting you in an Intercontinental Championship match.’”
Ricochet On Winning WWE IC Title
Ricochet noted that he was asked whether he wanted Laurinaitis to let the higher-ups know that he wanted to go, and he did, but he found out on-air that he was getting a title shot.
“He’s like, ‘How do you feel about that?’ He’s like, ‘Is that something you’re interested in?’ He goes, ‘Or do you still just want me to let them know you wanna go?’ I was like, ‘You could still just let them know I wanna go.’ I said, ‘Thank you though, but you could still just let ‘em know,'” he said. “But then later that night, literally, I’m watching, there’s like, ‘Next week, Intercontinental Championship match.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, well they got me.’
“It was funny because they’re like, ‘Intercontinental Championship match’ and then, like next week, I did win, thanks to Johnny Knoxville. Thank you Johnny Knoxville for helping me, and I did win. I just said, from here, I’m just gonna do everything they ask of me. Whatever they need me to do, I’m just gonna do it. Fight my little battles, voice my opinion but, for the most part, I’m just gonna do everything they ask of me so when contract season comes around, if I just don’t feel valued or feel how I wanna feel, then I know it’s okay to just walk and that’s kind of basically — again, that was two years ago, two and a half years ago. From that point, I had made a decision, when the contract comes back around, if I don’t feel good, then I’m just gonna leave, and again, that’s not to the highest bidder. It’s who makes me feel the best.”
Ricochet is set to challenge Will Ospreay for the AEW International Championship on the October 2 episode of AEW Dynamite.
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