Ryback: When Should the WWE Star Get Real Opponents?

Ryback is undefeated in the WWE, but it’s not like the New England Patriots going 16-0 during the regular season. 

It’s more like a 13-year-old winning every 100-meter race he participates in, but the only reason that he did so is because he was running against a bunch of three-year-olds. 

Yeah, Ryback hasn’t lost a match since returning to the WWE in April, but he hasn’t exactly beaten future Hall of Famers in the process. 

While you may have recognized some of the jobbers he’s beaten from the independent scene, their names alone make them seem like worthless competition. 

There was Aaron Relic, Bobby Stevens, Criss Lyons, Stan Stanksy, Arthur Rosenberg and a number of other wrestlers from around the country who were brought in to make Ryback look good. 

To an extent, that’s exactly what Ryback has done. He’s looked powerful, athletic and explosive. 

That being said, there comes a point when we have to sit back and look at the competition Ryback is facing. 

The guys he’s beaten in 2-on-1 handicap matches with just a handful of power moves are obviously trained wrestlers—ones who are skilled enough to get on WWE TV. 

But Ryback beating Arthur Rosenberg is no longer impressing anybody. 

The man formerly known as Skip Sheffield needs to start facing actual WWE superstars, and he needs to start doing it ASAP. 

As WWE fans, you and I both know that the average wrestling fan has an incredibly short attention span and is extremely impatient. If a wrestler does something that isn’t exactly riveting or continues to do the same thing over and over again, we are going to get bored rather quickly. 

That’s what’s happening with Ryback. 

There’s no denying the fact that the dude is a beast, that he’s as strong as any WWE star in recent memory or that he has a very marketable look. 

However, until Ryback does something different, he’s not going to be known as Ryback, the WWE main eventer and future world champion. 

He’s going to be known as Ryback, the guy who does nothing but have squash matches and appears to be the WWE’s version of Goldberg. 

This is obviously through no fault of his own, either. 

The creative team is booking Ryback to defeat these local jobbers every week, and having a debuting/returning star defeat a jobber—whether a WWE-contracted one or not—is something that the WWE has made a bad habit out of. 

When creative can’t create a decent storyline for a returning star, they just say, “Hey, let’s have him beat some lower card workers for a while until we can come up with something for him.” 

It’s hurting Ryback, and it’s hurting other new stars like Antonio Cesaro and Damien Sandow as well. 

I get that a big part of Ryback’s appeal is that he can destroy two opponents in a matter of mere minutes or even seconds, but that would mean a lot more if we actually knew who his opponents were. 

Yet, the typical wrestling fan isn’t going to be familiar with Stan Stansky. They will, however, be familiar with someone like JTG. 

Why not have Ryback start taking gradual steps up the WWE ladder by taking on contracted WWE wrestlers ASAP? 

He’s beaten indy jobbers, the next step is WWE jobbers, the step after that is WWE mid-carders and the final step is the main event. 

Before Ryback gets to that final step, he has to take the first one. He has to beat WWE stars who actually have some name value, no matter how small that value may be. 

And he shouldn’t start this next week, next month or next year. He should start right now.