Michael Cole has shockingly named the blacklisted former WWE Superstar on SmackDown

Michael Cole has dropped the name of someone who many believe will never be mentioned on WWE television again. He was a former superstar who was blacklisted from WWE and had been for years.

This week on SmackDown, the New Year’s Edition was headlined by an ambulance match between Damian Priest and Aleister Black. This was the first ever ambulance match in SmackDown history, a surprising statistic in itself. There haven’t been many ambulance matches throughout WWE history, as it dates back to the 21st century. However, one of those ambulance matches took place as a condition for the Three Stages of Hell match. It happened over a decade ago between John Cena and Ryback.

Ryback, as many of you know, is a star who was actually blacklisted from WWE due to all the comments he made about the company once his time there ended. He lost a lot of support, but this was the first time in years that WWE mentioned him, which is why it was surprising to see Michael Cole mention his name.

In the end, it was just the mention of a name, and meant little beyond that. Michael Cole described a large part of Ryback’s career. As for the Ambulance Match on SmackDown, Damian Priest and Aleister Black would end up at war, and in the end, Priest stood tall thanks to some help from Rhea Ripley.

However, Ripley only provided a crucial assist to neutralize Zelina Vega. The rest was all up to Damien Priest, and he had to make sure he took steps he wouldn’t normally take to ensure victory. The nature of the ambulance match is such that it is not as easy as one might think, even though there are no fouls or submissions. SmackDown is off to an amazing start in 2026.