The Ryback Situation: Where Does He Go From Here?

So now that Ryback has something he thinks he can really feed on, what’s next?

Absolutely nothing.

After a year without the WWE title, expect John Cena to get a lengthy title run. While Ryback  has ascended the ladder at a steady pace, he’s still yet to get “over.” A win over Mark Henry could have done wonders for him. It could have went a long way in making him the company’s monster. Instead, he’s just a no-sell machine that will have a place on the card, but will never shine.

Lets be fair here. While Ryback can entertain, what is his max potential? He’ll never have a half-hour match with The Rock at Wrestlemania and killing off mid-carders is bound to get boring. It’s doubtful any of the true megastars in the WWE, The Undertaker, CM Punk, John Cena, even Chris Jericho, will ever put him over. Hell, Mark Henry won’t. At this point, he’s just a runaway train that is running out of stops. Eventually, his game of crushing the competition will run its course, fans will get bored and he’ll do one of two things, reinvent himself or go to TNA and do the same tired shtick all over again. In a few years, you can almost bet on the latter.

Ryback may be a WWE superstar, but he’s not quite a star  yet and has a long way before he’s super at anything he does in the ring.

Fresh off that loss to Mark Henry at Wrestlemania, Ryback’s stock rose significantly after he took out John Cena on RAW this week. But with a lack of overall charisma and a finisher that is far from devastating, Ryback will soon find himself in Bryan Clark country.

Who?

Real wrestling fans remember Bryan Clark, AKA Wrath, AKA Atom Bomb as a scary big man with a great look and loads of potential. The guy was pure power. He never sold. He didn’t have to. All he did was destroy people. But in the early ‘90s, the market was saturated with muscle-bound freaks of nature and Clark, even though he held the WCW Tag Team titles with Brian Adams at one point, was never the type of performer he could have been. Aside from a power move machine, he didn’t bring much else to the table.

While Ryback often gets compared to Goldberg and he should be, Goldberg was adored by fans in WCW. He fought against the nWo and had an offense that was much more than the Spear and the Jackhammer, including kicks, submissions and a variety of suplexes. Although he doesn’t get much credit for it, Goldberg was decent on the mic as well.

Aside from “Feed me more” being similar to “Who’s Next” and the cosmetic similarities, Ryback is much more like Clark, a guy with size, strength and a great look who doesn’t have the true support of the fans.

Don’t let all his promise fool you though. Ryback is still learning on the job. This is the same guy who was on Tough Enough with The Miz. Considering that, he’s a slow learner and may not truly get to the point where he can be more than a monster. Unless he diversifies his game, it won’t last much longer.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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