Analyzing Biggest Booking Mistakes Made with Ryback and His WWE Future

Ryback's toughest opponent has been the WWE booking team.

A powerhouse bulging with potential, Ryback could be a major asset for the company right now, even with his flaws and limitations. Instead, his WWE journey has been so riddled with stumbling blocks, meandering paths and bad choices that it's hard to not call him a bust.   

When Ryback was soaring upward in 2012, earning increasingly loud "Feed me more!" chants, it would have been hard to imagine him a year later, struggling to defeat The Great Khali on Raw.

Ryback is the driver who keeps getting junkers and lemons to drive with folks wondering why he hasn't won any races. Is Ryback the next Batista or is he the next Mike Knox? It's hard to tell when WWE has swung and missed more often than not with him.

Too Many Rungs Too Fast

To make Ryback look like an unstoppable force, WWE brought back the tradition of a Superstar dominating unknown jobbers. He easily tore through local wrestlers, sometimes two at a time. That was the correct move.

This kind of squash match had been phased out, but its temporary rebirth was both novel and purposeful.

Ryback racked up victories without damaging other Superstars' auras. He went on a Goldberg-like undefeated streak which quickly upped the value of someone possibly beating him. Ryback then began to climb up the WWE hierarchy, moving from faceless bottom feeders to the company's also-rans like Jinder Mahal.

The issue with this narrative is that WWE sped through it.

On Sept. 24, 2012, Ryback faced one of his first true tests in the ring when he battled The Miz, who then held the Intercontinental Championship.

It was among the first times fans saw Ryback not go through his match virtually untouched. At one point, he was on his knees while Miz kicked him in the mouth. 

The natural progression would be for Ryback to then be pitted against tougher foes and have to fight harder and harder to get the victory. Instead, Ryback suffered his first loss just over a month after that match with The Miz. 

John Cena's injury forced him out of action, leaving WWE in need of a replacement challenger for CM Punk's WWE Championship.

That move put WWE in an awkward booking spot. Ryback wasn't established enough to be win the WWE title, and it was too early to have his undefeated streak end. The company's solution was referee Brad Maddox cheating Ryback out of the win with a low blow and a fast count.

Ryback never got a chance to climb the WWE ladder at an ideal pace.

He should have been knocking off increasingly prominent stars en route to the main event, not leapfrogging a critical stage, tossed into a top spot before fans were fully invested in him.

The narrative arc of his undefeated streak was cut short. Ryback's first defeat should have had the same emotional impact as the New York Giants upending the 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII; not be the ho-hum moment that it was.

Cowardly Monster

Imagine the Japanese Air Force circling their jets around Godzilla and firing at his massive, scaly body only to have the monster wave them off, surrender and go limping back into the ocean.

That's what it felt like when Ryback refused to finish his match against The Miz on July 1.

The cowardly heel tradition has seen men like Ric Flair worm his way out of losing a championship by getting himself intentionally disqualified, but having Ryback evoke memories of Roberto Duran against "Sugar" Ray Leonard was one of the most harmful moments of Ryback's career.

Before that bout against The Miz, Daniel Bryan and Justin Gabriel had exposed Ryback's thighs as his weakness.

Giving him a chink in the armor was the wise part of the decision. Having it lead to him crying outside the ring and refusing to finish a fight made him look weak. It's hard to imagine pro wrestling's past beasts and brutes going this route.

Vader powerbombed Cactus Jack on concrete, Brock Lesnar threw Zach Gowen down a flight of stairs and Mark Henry broke Great Khali's ankle. Meanwhile, Ryback was asked to whimper like a child and surrender mid-match.

How can that have helped his reputation? How can that have added to his momentum?

Ryback's badass aura was shredded when WWE should have been constructing it with memorable moments of him devastating his foes. Rather than working to put Ryback in the pantheon of wrestling's great monster heels, the company turned him into a punchline.

Stop-And-Start Booking

Ryback's WWE story has been told with stutters and subject changes aplenty.

His undefeated streak angle was stopped prematurely to send him into battle with CM Punk at Hell in a Cell 2012. He then found himself getting some impressive positive reactions from the crowd, growing into a potential top babyface before WWE abruptly turned him heel.

He thrived at times in that new role, but it was odd timing.

The wheels of his face momentum were just beginning to roll when WWE changed direction with him. He never did get any significant measure of revenge against The Shield, who prevented him from winning the WWE title on several occasions. His feud with Henry was short-lived, and Ryback didn't get a single victory over him.

Those arcs were cut short as he then went after Cena.

Ryback grew as a performer during this rivalry, especially on the microphone. He seemed to grow increasingly comfortable on stage and with his developing character. Not long after Ryback stood atop an ambulance dismissing the audience as weak and out of shape, WWE altered his persona again.

His next move was to bully WWE employees backstage.

Again, he grew into the role and became compellingly wicked as he tossed a man's bags aside or slapped food into a man's face. The story didn't have a conclusion, though.

No one stepped up to stop his bullying. Instead, Ryback joined Paul Heyman's crew and spent a few weeks fattening up the loss section of his win-loss record.

This was a feud that did nothing for Ryback. The surprise of him attacking Punk at Night of Champions was the highlight followed by Punk easily dispatching of "The Big Guy" several times over.

With that feud over, WWE had Ryback go back to his bullying antics, smashing a cupcake into Hornswoggle's face. 

Whether it's a lack of patience or uncertainty of how best to utilize Ryback, WWE has continually had him abandon one story for another, stopping and starting his narrative, which, not surprisingly, has done the same for his momentum.

Whether the company thinks Ryback is a future Hall of Famer or not, pulling him in different directions, making him a bulky weakling or mistiming his pushes is wasting his talent. WWE has bungled Ryback's career so far, preventing fans from seeing what he's capable of.

If Ryback can shed the reported backstage reputation that's he's a "danger in the ring for his opponents," per WrestleZone.com, and get a sustained run with an angle, his intensity, power and improving mic skills will make him a legitimate contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Booked as a dangerous threat, Ryback has the potential to mirror the careers of men like Sid Vicious, a monster who opposed wrestling's heroes.

Should WWE continue to mishandle him, his legacy will instead be one of being the victim of booking misfires.