In June 2020, tensions were at a high in America as riots and protests began after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died shortly after Derek Chauvin, a white officer in Minneapolis, arrested him and pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes was caught on camera and posted online.
President Donald Trump addressed the nation following the protests, stating he was ready to deploy the military to enforce order inside the United States.
Following Trump's speech, former WWE superstar Jaxson Ryker tweeted his support for Trump, saying, "Thankful for the @POTUS we have! God bless America. Built of freedom. Forgotten No More."
He was promptly called out by the likes of Kevin Owens, Mustafa Ali, Batista, and more. Ryker and The Forgotten Sons (Steve Maclin & Westin Blake) were removed from television following the tweet.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip, Ryker addressed the tweet and the backlash.
"No, there was never anything that came from Vince," he said. "The funny thing is, I tweeted that and two weeks later, Linda McMahon basically tweets the same exact thing. I always laugh about that. I went back, I tweeted it in June 2020, and six or seven months before, I tweeted something about Donald Trump and got no backlash. I don't know why, at the time, that happened when it happened. What really caught fire is when the employees of the company kind of latched on to this. I don't know why, I never really spoken to any of those guys or had any issues. Just come to me and talk if you have a problem. Don't tweet it out just so your followers can go, 'Oh man, that's so cool, we love you.' That's basically what it came down to. It was nuts. In a matter of four or five hours, my address (was online), death threats to my family. I could understand if I got on there and tweeted something racial or derogatory, it was supporting a guy I thought was doing a good job. I served four years in the Marine Corp, so like anybody else, if you have an opinion, it's your opinion. We can talk about it. We might disagree, but at least it will build to, 'you go your way, I'll go my way.' Once my family got attacked, it was like, 'this has got to be kiboshed.'"
He continued by saying, "The only thing I got from the office was 'lay low.' They took us off TV, don't understand why, but they did. There was never a moment where the company said, 'we need you to issue an apology' because, respectfully, I would have said 'no,' I don't feel like I needed to. I learned, at that time, just not even going to comment on it. Just not say anything because that's what they want you to do. It just got blown out of the water. That's my views. Once again, if I would have said something derogatory, racial, whatever, I can completely understand. It just put a kibosh on everything, we were off TV from June until December. It was wild. It basically ended the Forgotten Sons."
Ryker said that while some called him out publicly, one person did address it behind the scenes.
"Nobody had to comment, they could have pulled me aside in the locker room and said, 'I don't really agree with what you said' and I would have said, 'why do you not agree?' and we would have had a conversation. I won't name a name, but there was one gentleman, good buddies in the locker room that worked for WWE at the time, he texted me and said, 'I don't agree with your tweet,' and we had a conversation. At the end, we agreed to disagree and left it at that. He didn't attack me online, he didn't tweet me. It got blown way out of proportion. I'm not into politics by any means, it's not my cup of tea. There are other wrestlers on the roster that voice their opinion on certain topics they agree with, we could name a slew of them, I never attacked them over those beliefs or rights, that's their right as an American citizen to voice their opinion on what they accept or not accept. It just happened to be my time to get attacked, I guess," he said.
Still discussing the tweet, Ryker said he is happy that he didn't apologize for it.
"I'm very happy to say that I did not apologize and I haven't, I don't feel like I need an apology. It's a very sensitive time in our nation. There are people battling over politics and it just sucks. I was in Marine Corp for four years with different colored people and different ethnic backgrounds. We were brothers. We might not have agreed on 'you vote for this guy, I vote for this guy, we hardly ever talked about voting. All I know is that we were a brotherhood, no matter skin color, and that's what it was about, being humans and talking things out, sometimes behind closed doors, and throwing fists. That's what we did and at the end, shake hands, 'I got your back, no matter what.' That's not the way the world is now," he said.
At the time of the tweet, The Forgotten Sons were feuding with New Day on television. The group was disbanded off-screen.
"I think why it ended Forgotten Sons is, we were doing fun pre-tapes, the character stuff was really edgy in a way for something WWE doesn't really do. That's why they were like, 'we don't want to ruffle any feathers anymore, just disband them,' and they did. We never had heat with each other. I'm sure they were a little disgruntled that everyone got taken off TV because we were getting a pretty good push against the New Day, we were going into a storyline with them and I always told the guys, 'I'm sorry this is happening.' We still keep in touch and chat here and there," he said.
Ryker would return to television in December, joining Elias on-screen.
Asked if he spoke to Vince McMahon about the tweet, he said, "I wish I would have, when I had a meeting and he brought the conversation up, Vince, I don't even know if he knows it happened. I think it's one of those things that just was with that little group of whoever. Vince probably would have went, 'what are you talking about?' That's the only reason I never brought it up."
Ryker re-iterated that he was told to "lay low" following the tweet.
Maclin was released by WWE in February 2021 while Blake was released by the company in April 2021. Ryker was eventually released in November 2021.
Ryker is currently a free agent following his 90-day non-compete clause expiring.
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