Comparing Ryback to Goldberg: Five Reasons He's Not Getting over

It's been over four months since the Ryback character has debuted on WWE programming.

Yet almost every week we hear Goldberg chants when he wrestles, but not a single Ryback chant.

How is that possible?

Goldberg hasn't been on WWE television in over eight years. He was only with the company for less than one year.

The peak of Goldberg's popularity was 1998!

Still, wherever Ryback goes, he still gets the chants, and that's not good.

Ryback hasn't been a complete flop, as his crowd reactions are okay, but not anywhere near what other dominant wrestlers like The Ultimate Warrior and Goldberg received their first few months.

So what is it about Ryback that isn't working so far?

Surely WWE should be able to push an unstoppable monster every decade and not have it compared to the guy from the previous decade right?

In Ryback's case, that argument is wrong.

Physically, he's about the same size as Goldberg (maybe even more muscular), their wrestling abilities are roughly the same and he's even got his own catchphase "feed me more" instead of "who's next?".

Part of the problem is that there are enough Goldberg comparisons to make him seem like a knock-off.

The times are different, but WWE knowingly or unknowingly is pushing their muscular, bald no nonsense wrestler the same that WCW did. And that's just not going to work.

Here are five ways the two stars match up, with Ryback coming out on the wrong side.

The Competition

What worked 14 years ago in wrestling isn't going to work today.

The landscape of the business has changed too much.

What Goldberg had going for him, is that immediately he was beating people that the fans had seen before.

His very first match, he destroyed Hugh Morrus.

He kicked out of his finisher, did a back flip and gave him the Jackhammer.

Now, Morrus was a long way from being a main-eventer in WCW, but fans were familiar with him. They'd seen him on TV for a couple years.

Fans witnessed a new guy's first match and he was absolutely dominant.

If Goldberg could do that to a mid-carder, what could he do to the top guys?

Ryback, on the other hand, had his first matches against guys that WWE fans had never seen before and will never see again.

Instead of Ryback mowing down recognizable competition like Goldberg did, it almost seemed like Ryback was bringing in his own guys to manhandle.

It just didn't feel legitimate.

Where's Glacier and Norman Smiley when you need them?

Brodus Clay

An issue with Ryback isn't necessarily his fault as he debuted after Brodus Clay did.

Ryback debuted almost three months after Clay, but fans had just been treated to months of seeing a big man squash smaller men on TV every week.

Clay was overexposed as he was showing up on Raw and SmackDown. When his push started to slow down, they now brought in a new guy to do the exact same thing they'd just watched for months.

Worse yet, the day after WrestleMania, Lord Tensai now joined the fold and was working squash matches.

Fans watching Raw and SmackDown grew tired even faster by seeing three new big men using power moves to beat mid-card wrestlers.

During Goldberg's WCW run, he was something unique.

Yes, you'd get the occasional Lex Luger vs. Mike Enos type match, but it was mainly Goldberg week in and week out punishing jobbers.

WWE took focus away from these wrestlers by having each of them work the same type of match, and yet still expected fans to take to all of them.

Feed Me More!

Another issue, is that Ryback almost seems to be begging to be cheered.

Goldberg would say "Who's next?" and that was it.

He looked pissed off and then walked to the back with the fans going crazy. They wanted more.

For Ryback though, after his matches he'll yell "feed me more, feed me more, feed me more" over and over again.

The problem is, the crowd isn't chanting along with him. It's actually kind of embarrassing.

There's some sort of weird desperation when a jacked up indestructible wrestler is throwing his arms up and down trying to start a chant every week.

Apparently the fans have no food to give.

First Feud

An actual feud is the second gear of a wrestler's push, and Ryback is still stuck in first.

He hasn't had a real opponent yet.

Three months into Goldberg's run, he defeated Steve McMichael at Starrcade (their version of WrestleMania). Again, McMichael wasn't a main-eventer, but he had just been a member of the Four Horsemen. 

He was a big man with real life credentials and a decent push. Goldberg tore right through him in their match. The fans were impressed.

After four months, Ryback's biggest win is against Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins, which he's done twice now.

WWE just doesn't have enough jobbers to keep this interesting for long. While Goldberg had plenty of opponents to mow through on WCW's bloated roster, Ryback has already gone through his.

At this point, they're just dragging their feet on putting him in a real feud. With the company showing uncertainty on what to do with him, it seems that the fans are catching on, and losing excitement over seeing him.

It looks like he may face off with Jinder Mahal, but we've seen Mahal squashed on TV so many times, that the entire feud lacks any excitement to it.

If WWE doesn't seem overly excited about Ryback, why should the fans?

What's Up Skip?

A big part of Ryback's problem is that fans have seen him before.

He was Skip Sheffield.

Why is he now Ryback? What is a Ryback?

WWE didn't bother to answer these questions, or were just hoping that fans had forgotten all about Sheffield.

Never mind the fact that he was in the main event of SummerSlam two years ago.

The problem is, unlike Goldberg, WWE fans have already seen Skip Sheffield on the loose. There is no real "undefeated streak".

He has lost before in front of millions of people.

He didn't even win NXT, so they can't really claim he's always been some unstoppable force.

Before he was pink-eyed Ryback, he was some guy named Skip who wore a cowboy hat.

Poor Tensai, he still gets "Albert" chants in his new gimmick, but Ryback doesn't get any "Skip" chants.

Sometimes wrestling just isn't fair.