Is the Ryback-Heyman alliance a good move by the WWE?
Ryback
The WWE seems to be showing no signs of not pushing Ryback. The man has been accommodated with a new gimmick of a bully and was recently escalated to the position of being a Paul Heyman Guy. Is this a good move, and wasn’t a lacklustre feud with CM Punk enough? The WWE seems to have faith in Ryback as a potential marquee guy. And Paul Heyman might just be the missing ingredient in the process of that potential.
Skip Sheffield was part of the doomed stable of Nexus. He was under the leadership of CM Punk too, for a while. An injury sidetracked him but he was still noticed by the WWE management to be capable of having an impact. He is heavily built as well, so that was an added advantage.
After several months, when he recovered from his injury, he was repackaged as Ryback and took to squahing local wrestlers who weren’t the prototype WWE kind of wrestlers. They looked like they were smaller than the ‘smaller’ wrestlers in the WWE. And he tried to get the audience in the arena to chant ‘Feed Me More’ and sing along with him when he uttered ‘Finish It’.
Soon he became his own cheerleader when he constantly began his own catchphrase/chant. That won the Slammy for best chant. Of course, the Slammys and the RAW Active Polls are rigged most of the times. How do you explain that the evergreen ‘Yes’ lost to ‘feed me more’? No new star was as heavily featured as him. Maybe the Shield, but the Shield has three new guys.
Ryback was pushed heavily even before they arrived. The gear he wore gave way to comparisons with RVD, and the most striking and notable comparison was to Goldberg for reasons not related to the gear. The biggest pop he got was when he made way to the ring in his hometown of Sin City. He received quite a few great pops when he was facing Punk, but they died out soon too.
It’s not that he does not have potential. He does, just like the rest of the locker room. But the kind of opportunities Ryback has received since last year, the argument that Cena gets ‘shoved down our throats’ does not seem to be fair.
Now the ‘Feed Me More’ has succumbed to its inevitable expiry date. His entrance theme does not feature that prominent detail. He became a heel. Got a shot at the championship. He is now a bully. And a Paul Heyman guy. Their segment this past Monday was weird but looked promising.
Ryback’s got a better presence than Curtis Axel. Atleast Ryback looks more confident and intimidating, and these positive aspects will certainly not hamper his push, but this does affect Curtis Axel. The guy has been devoid of characteristics apart from being impatient. Ryback being next to Heyman is more reminiscent of Lesnar and Heyman. Though Ryback may not be as good as Lesnar was in the early part of the 21st century, he’s improving in the ring.
This alliance is promising and so is ‘bully’ Ryback.