He was one of the best workers on the planet bar none
But thanks to yes! He became the star. Also with wwe getting behind him. Beyond the us title run, mitb, then of course the world title win. It was not until he got yes over to the degree it was. Not to mention his run with hell no, feud with shield, and the run against the authority.
If wwe gave ryback even a transitional run. Punk should have lost the title to him instead of the Rock.
WWE ran with Bryan. WWE never ran with Ryback beyond that hiac which got a higher buyrate than punk/rock.
But wwe squandered it. He got over as a bully. He got over in rybaxel. He got over in his face turn. He was over again as a heel against kalisto.
Ryback was over.
It is the same thing with sandow
It pisses me off that swagger never won the title from rusev. That program and we the people got him over. But he barely gets on smackdown at this point.
Ryback was not over.
He came out to crickets, and he left to crickets.
‘Feed Me More’ was over like a tag partner clapping to wake up the crowd.
During his initial feud with Punk no one wanted him to win. Especially after he exposed himself as a crappy worker in their first match.
He got some cheers against Cena because people didn’t like Cena and loved anyone who was facing him no matter who it was.
Swagger screwed himself over by getting caught smoking weed just before Mania after all that press his feud with Del Rio was getting. Not to mention the injuries he’s caused (Ziggler). He has no one to blame but himself for his situation.
I remember just the opposite.
There was a huge amount of people going “who the hell is this guy, he’s just Goldberg 2.0. He’s too green. Why him? Why not___?” (Getting endorsed by Cena didn’t help him at the time either.)
To the point where Punk was even defending the decision at comic cons on panels. “Why not, Ryback? You guys said you wanted someone new and different…”
Rybacks overness has fluctuated over time, there were points where the guy was legitimately very over and there were points where he got no reaction.
The chant has maintained consistently over though, because it’s simple and fun to chant.
Ryback was definitely over at the height of his initial run.
Look at the reaction he got vs the Shield in the 3vs3, dude came off like a killer. WWE could have slowed it down and made him a star, but he got his legs cut out from him.
Ryback has been in the WWE system for 12+ years. What you see is what you’re going to get with him, and I think WWE would rather invest that money into guys with more potential (talent and ROI wise)
