Ricochet on Blaming Himself for How His Last Few Years in WWE Ended & Decision to Leave WWE and Join AEW

As noted before, former WWE talent Ricochet made his official debut for AEW at this past August’s All In 2024 event at Wembley Stadium in London, England and had signed an official contract with the company.

A recent episode of Ringer’s The Masked Man Show podcast, Ricochet gave his thoughts about feeling frustrated during his final few years in WWE and blaming himself for how his career in the company had ended.

“Honestly, you can place blame anywhere, but I just blame myself. Everyone can blame who they want to blame, everybody can blame anybody, but I just blame myself because that’s the only person that I can blame because that’s all you can do. Obviously I didn’t do something. I don’t know what it was. For me, frustrating is maybe not the word because my last couple years, I met my future wife there, I made mad connections. The locker room was always awesome. As far as creatively, I mean yeah, there would have been more I would have liked to do just again, mostly for the fans that want to see me do stuff, not even for me, but it’s more frustrating for the fans who want to see me go out there and actually do something of some substance. I was out there a lot. I was on television a lot, I was actually used a lot, but the quality of what I was doing specifically wasn’t there. It was a lot of quantity of Ricochet, but the quality of what he was getting just wasn’t what I wanted, and that’s okay. That’s just how it falls. I can only blame myself. I can’t blame anybody else. I just can’t. But it wasn’t really frustrating because I had a lot of good times there still. But was there more I wanted to do? Absolutely. But man, I can’t say it was frustrating because I still had a good time.”

Ricochet also gave his thoughts about if he knew that his appearance on the June 10th WWE RAW show would be his last for his time in the company.

“Yeah, I think I went into it, and I think, even later, me and Triple H had a little talk, and he was like, ‘Any time, whatever,’ because I just hadn’t re-signed, and it was kind of my last time there before the time ran up. I think they knew I just wasn’t gonna do it. So I think they were just trying to give me a good out that made me…something that is open-ended. I think they wanted to leave it that way, but I think they knew it wasn’t going to happen.”

In a separate interview with CBS Sports, Ricochet expanded on his recent comments about his decision to leave WWE and join AEW.

“When [AEW wrestlers] get an opportunity to portray something to their specific fans, they get to do it the way they think would be best. In WWE, they have a plan. They stick to the plan and get to that plan… good, bad or ugly. I want to have that freedom for Ricochet to really soar like I know he can. That fire was kindling. It’s always been there, that love for professional wrestling. That love for the sport. My gas can was empty. The fire was there but there needed to be some gas thrown on it to ignite it again and really get it started. That’s what I wanted. Where would make me feel that most? I know AEW is going to light that fire under me.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2