Pro wrestler Ryback returns to Las Vegas on WWE tour

By Jesse Granger

Thursday, June 18, 2015 | 2 a.m.

It’s the dead of night and Ryan Reeves is drenched in sweat, wielding a 25-pound steel mace in his backyard. As he pounds a 600-pound monster truck tire with the weapon, the sound echoes through his quiet Las Vegas neighborhood.

Reeves, better known by his professional wrestling stage name Ryback, has to get creative with his workouts to maintain his muscular physique. The World Wrestling Entertainment star is on the road four nights a week all year, so time at home is a rarity.

The 33-year-old Las Vegas native will be back to perform this Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center for the SummerSlam Heatwave Tour. The building is expected to be packed with thousands of fans, including more than 20 of Reeves’ closest family and friends.

After visiting four cities in four days, Reeves finally returned home to Southern Nevada. Still, there was no break in training.

“It’s all work, even when I’m here,” Reeves said. “The schedule never stops.”

The 6-foot-2, 290-pound Reeves’ home-gym is complete with weight machines, dumbbells ranging up to 150 pounds and a pool. His workouts begin with 30-40 minutes of stretching before he ever touches a weight. He’ll lift for one to two hours, and finishes the workout with what he feels is most important – conditioning.

“I discovered early on that conditioning was key,” he said. “Throughout wrestling history, there have been very few guys at my size with great conditioning.”

Reeves’ cardio workout used to be hopping on an elliptical or treadmill for a few minutes to end his workout. Now he jumps rope, does burpees, mountain climbers and other endurance-based exercises daily.

“The more muscle you have the more oxygen it consumes,” he said. “At this size I have to be in better shape than the 210-220 pound guys because I’m so much bigger.”

And oxygen isn’t the only thing consumed by Reeves, whose catchphrase is simply, “Feed me more.” He eats six to eight oversized meals every day.

When he’s home he can prepare his own meals, consisting mostly of protein-rich foods like oatmeal, steak, chicken, and brown rice. When he’s on the road, he has to get creative.

“I’ve discovered you can eat healthy pretty much anywhere now,” Reeves said. “I have learned to get the grilled chicken salad with two chicken breasts on the side, or a protein burger wrapped in lettuce with no bun.”

Reeves can recall many late nights scraping the breading off of a McDonald’s fish fillet sandwich to avoid the carbs.

“Every meal must benefit me,” he said. “I think about that before everything I eat.”

Reeves has always been an athlete. He played varsity football and baseball at Western and Palo Verde highs, and walked on as a first baseman at College of Southern Nevada before an ankle injury ended his baseball career.

“Growing up, baseball was the first skill I ever learned. To this day I still have it,” Reeves said. “But I always loved wrestling, I just never really knew how to get into it. It was more of a dream.”

At the age of 13 Reeves sat ringside, and rang the opening bell, at a wrestling event after he won a contest by writing a letter describing why he deserved the honor.

“They told me that my letter blew all the other ones away, and they could really feel my passion for wrestling,” he said.

Reeves also won more than 20 other tickets to that event by calling every radio station in town and answering the trivia questions.

“I brought the whole neighborhood to the fight, and cycled my friends in the front row with me after every fight,” he said. “Going in there and feeling it, and being a part of the whole atmosphere, I just fell in love with wrestling.”

It wasn’t the last time his passion for wrestling won him a contest.

Reeves realized his dream of being a professional wrestler when he was accepted as a contestant on the WWE reality show, “Tough Enough.”

He earned his spot on the show after submitting a one-minute video of himself to the WWE, and won them over with his excitement.

Since then, he has gone through the ups and downs of professional wrestling. He has performed in the Ohio Valley Wrestling promotion as well as the WWE under the names Skip Sheffield and Ryback.

Now his popularity is at an all-time high and he will be defending his Intercontinental Championship belt at the Thomas & Mack Center this Saturday.

Reeves’ mother, who he hasn’t seen in quite some time, will be flying in from the East Coast to watch. He won’t change his approach.

“I go all out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a live event or WrestleMania,” Reeves said. “A lot of families save up money for an entire year to go to a show, so they deserve nothing but the best, no matter what event it is.”

Before he walks down the ramp, through a tunnel of fireworks, he takes a step back and pours two ice-cold bottles of water over his head.

“Even if I’m a little out of it, it wakes me up and gets the blood flowing,” he said. “Then I get to go out in front of the WWE universe and be a big kid out there. I’m living the dream.”