Ryback Cannot Be Taken Seriously as a Paul Heyman Guy

Once upon a time, there was an intimidating physical specimen known to the WWE Universe as Ryback. Nowadays, he is known as the newest Paul Heyman guy, a label that fits him about as well as those airbrushed and skintight singlets that he wears week in and week out.

There is little question that Ryback is one of the most physically imposing superstars on the WWE roster at the moment. However, physicality only goes so far, and that is why it initially seemed like a match made in heaven when he was paired with Heyman.

Heyman, the perfect mouthpiece, was a good choice to lead Ryback, whose career has stalled several times in his pursuit of a world title win. Just as it seemed that Ryback was primed for a big win in matches with high stakes, fate intervened and he always came out with the short end of the stick.

By introducing Heyman into his life, Ryback looked to have the perfect evil genius to get him to the next level.

Heyman is calculating and treacherous and will stop at nothing to ensure that his clients always come out on top. His promos are excellent and rival the best in the business. His cowardly ways when confronted physically are hysterical, and he plays the part of damsel in distress incredibly well, despite not being a female.

But the issue at hand is that despite the fact that the two seem tailor-made for each other, the duo has yet to find any real success and likely will not due to Ryback’s immense shortcomings.

For all of his physical tools, Ryback lacks nearly every other intangible that helps to comprise a top-level guy in professional wrestling.

He is incredibly sloppy and reckless in the ring. Oftentimes, it appears that he is somewhat confused as to what exactly he is doing inside the squared circle.

On top of this, he often looks exhausted in the ring when he is asked to compete for longer than a few short minutes or the time that it takes for him to complete a squash match. It is only due to the excellent ring work of CM Punk that their feud has been as successful as it has been in the ring.

In addition, his skills on the microphone are average at best, as he often recites the same exact thing that the person with whom he is arguing has just said. And to be fair, almost anyone engaging in a verbal war of words with Punk will ever be able to gain an advantage. But he seems lost a lot of the time, despite the fact that he is not usually delivering a full-blown message, but rather the icing on top of the cake that is Heyman’s promo.

The addition of Heyman into the equation should have solved that issue, as the musclebound competitor no longer would need to talk for himself. But week after week, after Heyman has delivered a scathing promo, Ryback will put in his two cents, normally something about bullying, and ruin the entire effect of the speech.

Heyman is no stranger to managing guys that have little to no clear-cut promo skills. As the mouthpiece for Brock Lesnar and Curtis Axel, he has been relied upon to deliver almost all of the words that his clients will then back up. But Lesnar and Axel do exactly that: back it up. Both are skilled in the ring—Lesnar in a brutal and completely dominating fashion, and Axel in a technical sense.

Ryback lacks the ability to hang with anyone in a technical sense, while there are certainly superstars, like Mark Henry or the Big Show, who can match his strength.

If the company intends to market Ryback as a top-level heel, it needs to inform him that less is more when it comes to him speaking. And if he improves his ring work, there is no doubt that Heyman will be able to lead him to glory.

However, should he not put in the effort, the company may have no choice but to halt yet another push for The Human Wrecking Ball.