The Hydden View: Ryback Cannot stay in the Middle.

Most wrestling fans can remember back to the late 1990”s, and for those that could not they are now reliving it with the WWE network. Wrestling companies today repeat many of the storylines and acts from that time period. Even WWE has been known to bring some stuff back and recycle it. One of the biggest stars of this time period was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin marched to his own drum; he acted like a villain, but got cheered like a hero. This formula would not work with just any wrestler. Austin was the right personality for the role. It has been played out a few other times, CM Punk comes to mind, and Dean Ambrose is most certainly becoming the cheered villain himself. But, one thing most of these have in common is one had taken place without the other. Austin had long left the WWE before Punk’s run, and Punk left before Ambrose started his current character. This leads us to what I think could be a major mistake.

If you watched Raw last night you saw Ryback turn against Cena, only to then turn against the Authority at the end. I think the storyline was very rushed, but for the most part I feel it was a mistake. When Ryback left due to an injury his character has grown stale, even though he was getting a semi good push as a tag team with Curtis Axel. When he came back the crowd was hot for him. The “feed me more” chants were louder than ever, and his matches seemed to be getting over with fans. Last night when he came out he was getting a great reaction from the crowd, one of the best of the night actually, second to maybe only Ziggler. During his in ring promo with Cena he was put over by the biggest name in the company himself, John Cena. John said to Ryback what makes someone in the company is the fans, at that moment the fans erupted for Ryback. That’s where it needed to end, Ryback should have shaken Cena’s hand and we could head off to Survivor Series. But, that’s not what happen; instead we were lead to believe Ryback joined team authority and once again became the heel he was before. As the show went on this was confirmed, right until the end when he turned on the Authority. At the end the cheers for Ryback were not as loud as before, and we had Ryback in the middle, as the rule breaker who was being cheered. My concern was the cheers were not as loud. And is Ryback the guy that can pull that off? I think the short answer is no, here is why.

Ryback is not Austin, he is not as believable or the same skills on the microphone. Ryback does not have the verbal skills of CM Punk either, nor the charisma. And Dean Ambrose has a character different from Punk and Austin, a character Ryback could not portray with acting classes. Set aside the fact he may not have the ability to pull it off, the timing is off as well. Dean Ambrose is already filling this role for WWE; Ryback would make one too many.

I honestly do not know how this plays out; I hope for the sake of Ryback he becomes a huge star. I strongly feel they need to turn him a fan favorite and put the full force of Cena and Ziggler’s popularity behind him. Ryback can be a star the question is does WWE know how to make him one?