Ridge Holland on When he Knew “Writing was on the Wall” for His WWE Career, His Reputation for Not Being Able To Wrestle, His Lisfranc Injury & Potential Return Timetable, Feeling “Quite Humbling” Over Donations for His GoFundMe, If Wrestlers’ Union Will Ever Happen

TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast held a recent interview with former WWE talent Ridge Holland, real name Luke Menzies. One of the topics discussed included Holland’s thoughts about when he knew the “writing was on the wall” for the end of his career in WWE.

“I kind of knew the writing was on the wall when I got taken off TV and put on EVOLVE. I’m not silly. I can read the room. So there’s a stress that comes with that…”

Holland also gave his thoughts about the negative stigma against him in regards to people online claiming that he doesn’t know how to wrestle and his belief for the causes of this view by others.

“I got this kind of reputation of not being able to wrestle, and just because my style wasn’t — because of the Big E thing and because my style wasn’t a thousand high spots in a match… I always like to kind of, you know… just to grind on people and slow things down a little bit, and just because of that style, I think people put the Big E thing, the fact that my style was a little bit different, and a little slower, that I got the connotation that I couldn’t wrestle. So, I just think that going away for a little bit will probably do me good.”

Holland also gave his thoughts about his lisfranc injury he suffered at an Impact tapings for TNA Wrestling and potential in-ring return timetable.

“I had what’s called a Lisfranc injury. Basically, it’s like a dislocation of the midfoot. The ligament that holds the midfoot together got ruptured. So what they do, they go in and put two screws in there and bring the foot back together. And it’s tedious. It’s a tedious process because there’s not a lot of blood flow that gets to that area. It’s weight-bearing as well. It’s probably a seven-month recovery … but there can be complications. So right now I’m in a boot. I’ve just started light weight bearing, and then … I’ve been doing a bit of the [physical therapy] at the [Performance Center], but right now it’s been outsourced to somewhere close to my home, so we can start rocking and rolling.”

Holland also gave his thoughts about how his GoFundMe fundraiser was setup without his knowledge and feeling quite humbled over fellow wrestlers and the public donating to help out his and his family’s financial situation.

“So, the GoFundMe was set up without my own knowledge. It’s not something that I would have done off my own back. I’m quite a private person and I believe that any (problem of mine) makes my cross to bear. But, I never expected people to donate as they have, and I never really realized people cared that much to be honest. So, it’s quite humbling that people are willing to put their hard-earned money, and kind of help me out in that respect and help the family out in that respect because, you know, that’s the positive and then the negative side is people are saying, ‘Oh, well, you’re a WWE superstar. Financial. How you manage your money and stuff.’ I’m like, people think that just because you work for WWE, you’re a millionaire and that’s not the case. We have bills, we have other things to pay for, things happen. You have three children. You gotta pay for their births. We had twins unexpectedly. There’s medical bills that still need paying. There’s all sorts of things that people just don’t know so it’s easy for someone to say, ‘Well, you should be this.’ It’s like, yeah, if I thought that, I can say I should be worth multi-millions but unfortunately I’m not. It’s just the way it is. We’re not Hollywood movie stars. We don’t get compensated that way.”

Holland also gave his thoughts about his belief that a potential wrestlers’ union happening in wrestling being very low and how it would take a “big seismic effort” for it to ever happen.

“At the minute, it’s gonna take a big seismic effort to get that because it’s a tale as old as time, right? It needs the big hitters to come on board and unfortunately, it might take them to sacrifice something that they’re getting so I don’t think that’ll ever happen. I just don’t think it will because wrestling’s cutthroat, right? It’s kill or be killed and I just don’t think that it fits the business mold or business model from an individual standpoint, and from a business standpoint for the company so, would it be nice? Yeah. Do I think it’ll happen? Nah.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4, F4WOnline.com