Review of WWE Network “Table For 3” With Daniel Bryan, Ryback & Dolph Ziggler

This week’s “Table for 3” show on WWE Network featured a discussion with former Intercontinental Champions Daniel Bryan, Ryback and Dolph Ziggler. It originally aired on Wednesday and is available on demand. The video runs just over 22 minutes and takes place in an empty restaurant. The episode is called “Intercontinental Champions Club” so the discussion focuses on that title.

Here’s a recap of their discussion and then I’ll add some of my thoughts at the end as well.

– They said it felt like old times for them to hang out and talk like this.

– Ryback joked that the theme is that guys that Ryback has injured. It was a joke because Bryan said he never injured him.

– Bryan noted that he defended the IC Title only once and he never actually got to take the IC Title home. He won it at WrestleMania and then said he didn’t go home after. He said he left the title at TV because he was injured in Europe during the tour and never got to bring it home.

– They talked about Elimination Chamber matches since Ryback won his IC Title in the Chamber. Ziggler said he loved EC matches. Bryan said the pods don’t shatter – they just collapse.

– Ziggler spoke about how many times he’s had discussions with people about making the IC Title matter again. He thinks with the IC Title that they are going to make it special, it doesn’t have the prestige that it had 20 years ago. He thinks the only catch is the fans don’t believe in it.

– Ziggler pointed out that John Cena has made the US Title a priority, but how hard was that? That’s months and months of the top guy in the business giving it a shot.

– Bryan said one of the things he wanted to do when he won the IC Title was not be on Raw. He said that as soon as it was on Raw with John being US Champ, it made the IC Title feel like it was in the background. He said if it was just on Smackdown then any time you saw it then you would know it’s important.

-Ryback asked if the IC Title is cursed. Bryan followed by asking if he believed in witchcraft and Ryback said no. They joked about how they had to think positively about the IC Title, which led to Bryan suggesting they hold hands. It was pretty funny. Ryback said they could make a connection without touching.

– Ryback had a thought that he wanted to take the IC Title all the way to WrestleMania. Bryan said he had a vision of that happening. Nope. Ryback lost it a few weeks ago to Kevin Owens.

– They asked Ryback to tell a story about how he was supposed to meet Razor Ramon. When Ryback was 13 years old, he won a contest and said he got to pick who he wanted to meet, so he picked Razor Ramon. He said he got to the show, but they told him Razor wasn’t there and he got to meet Henry Godwinn instead. Razor was booked for the show although he wasn’t there yet. Bryan mentioned one of the first wrestlers he ever touched as a fan at ringside was Godwinn.

– Ziggler said there was a tryout match with a guy named The Juicer and Henry Godwinn at Ohio Valley Wrestling. Bryan laughed at the name The Juicer when he heard it. They told a story about The Juicer messing up a spot with Godwinn.

– They spoke about Ryback’s “Timber Splash” where he just falls down off the second rope. Bryan said he used to do it as a comedy spot. He wondered why Ryback didn’t jump and Ryback said it might hurt a guy. Bryan made fun of it for the spot.

– Bryan told a story of them in Germany (maybe Russia) where instead of Ryback saying “feed me more” when he turned heel, Ryback said “Ryback rules” repeatedly. Bryan spoke about how Ryback and Big E kept on slamming him in that match. Ziggler was laughing hard about the “Ryback rules” and fans were still chanting “feed me more” even though Ryback was a heel.

– When Ryback said he was 6’2″ both guys laughed at him and said there’s no way that’s true. Ryback said another thing they have in common is that they are short guys. They all laughed.

– Ryback said that what they’ll get out of this is Bryan is a bully. That was just a joke. Bryan said there was a point in 2012/13 where Bryan would attack Ryback from behind by grabbing him around the hips. Ryback said Pat Patterson saw it and was freaked out by it. There’s a joke there, but let’s just move on.

– Bryan told a story about how he used to ride with Cody Rhodes and Ryback. Bryan said that when Brock Lesnar came in back in 2012, Ryback wanted to impress him. Ryback cut him off before he could say more. Bryan turned it into a joke about Cialis.

– Then they told a story about Ryback getting a black eye during a match with Camacho and Hunico, but Bryan told people that it happened when Ryback was weightlifting, which was a joke. Ryback said people believed it, so he didn’t like traveling with Bryan after that.

– Bryan told a story about how Cody, Ryback and Bryan went to Panera Bread back when Bryan was a vegan. He and Cody ordered food, but Ryback wondered what he could eat there. Bryan was telling a story about how Ryback was asking a girl that worked there about wanting chicken and asking all kinds of questions. Bryan’s impression of Ryback is pretty funny.

– Ziggler thought it was hilarious that Ryback didn’t ride with anybody because of Bryan and Cody. They went back to the Cialis story with Ryback saying he only said it as a joke while Bryan took the story and told people about it. Bryan said nobody believed it. All three guys busted out laughing.

The show ended there.

My Thoughts

– It was fun to see three friends sitting around a table and sharing stories for 20 minutes, but they didn’t talk about the Intercontinental Title that much. I thought they would talk about favorite matches with the title, maybe ideas for ways to make it seem better and go from there. Instead, most of it was just telling stories from their careers together.

– You could tell that Bryan’s close with Ryback because Bryan seems to really enjoy making fun of him or laughing at his expense while Ryback takes things a bit too seriously. The stuff about the Cialis line is something they all enjoyed although it’s one of those things that is funnier to them than it is to the viewer. One of those “had to be there” kind of things, I guess.

– If you’re looking for great insight into the careers of these three guys or serious talk about the IC Title then this isn’t for you. However, if you like hearing wrestlers telling road stories and laughing about silly things they’ve experienced then it’s a nice way to spend 20 minutes.

– The only other “Table for 3” that I watched so far was the one with The New Day and I liked that one better, but this was still fun too.

Here’s the clip of Bryan talking about his idea as Intercontinental Champion.