Analyzing Potential Career Paths for Out-of-Favor Ryback

With an already crowded roster in the WWE, the worst thing that can happen to you as a Superstar is to become a victim of terrible booking from WWE creative.

Unfortunately, that is what seems to have happened with Ryback as of late. In fact, it seems as though it's a fate that has befallen him for at least a year now. This Monday, he hit a new low when he struggled to defeat The Great Khali in a match on Raw. No matter what you think of Ryback, he is better than that.

There are now claims that, per WrestleZone.com, Ryback has heat backstage due to his ring work regressing and him becoming a danger for other Superstars. If he can overcome that heat, though, Ryback still has the potential to be one of WWE's top guys. It wasn't too long ago that he was massively over with WWE fans—and with smart booking, he could be again.

But how should creative book him moving forward to avoid him becoming one of WWE's forgotten men?

Have Him Win on Pay-Per-View More

For a guy who was supposed to be billed as an unstoppable machine, Ryback's pay-per-view record is nothing short of terrible. In 2013 alone, he has one win from eight attempts.

It's not just the fact that Ryback was being booked to lose on pay-per-view—there is no shame in losing to the likes of John Cena or CM Punk on pay-per-view. It is the way creative went about it.

When Cena picked up an injury last year, WWE needed someone fast-tracked into the WWE Championship picture to go at it with Punk. It chose Ryback after his devastating run of squashing multiple competitors in handicap matches. At the time, Ryback was undefeated.

Creative's way to keep the strap on Punk was to let Brad Maddox screw Ryback out of the title by delivering a fast count on the monster. That completely knocked all of the momentum out of Ryback.

It almost felt like he was thrust into the main event too fast; Ryback quickly went from knocking off local wrestlers to fighting CM Punk in the main event of a pay-per-view. He wasn't ready, in all fairness. If WWE had booked him smarter, building him up slowly but surely, then Ryback wouldn't be in this mess now.

If He Has to Be a Heel, Make Him a Proper One

In truth, I thought Ryback worked pretty nicely as a babyface. WWE were building him into a menacing guy who people could relate to, and all seemed to be going well. Then, after a number of of pay-per-view losses and beatings from the likes of The Shield, the company turned him heel.

His feud with John Cena even put him into a nice light as a heel. He got over on WWE's top guy on a number of occasions, and the buildup to their "3 Stages of Hell" match at Payback was excellent. Some of the promos he was cutting on the WWE audiences in attendance suggested that not only was he a strong contender in the ring, but he was growing on the mic, too.

All of a sudden, WWE turned him into a pathetic bully. Bullying staff members and people completely unknown to us, the audience, made no sense whatsoever.

This isn't the work of a heel. It's the work of someone who is in complete limbo with the WWE. If Ryback is to recover from this horrible slump, then WWE needs to dump the bullying angle as soon as possible.

Turn him back into a menacing heel, the one who causes havoc on people who are actually respected by the WWE crowd. It would do Ryback a world of good and would get him back in the fans' favor in no time.

Turn Him into a Babyface Again

The other option for creative is to go all the way back to the start. Before Ryback was even a name, Ryan Reeves was a pretty cool babyface by the name of Skip Sheffield. Before the Nexus burst onto the scene, Sheffield, under the stewardship of the legendary William Regal, had humour, funny promos and seemed to be going places.

Of course, when Nexus arrived onto the main stage in WWE, that all changed. But even when he first reappeared as Ryback, working as a face was something that didn't seem to affect him.

The crowd was starting to buy into Ryback with his "feed me more" chants. When he was squashing local wrestlers on a weekly basis, the crowd was loving his unique strength on show. Turning him heel felt like the wrong thing to do for a guy who was supposed to be getting such a big push—as he hadn't really achieved anything at the time as a face.

So why not go back to where Ryback began and turn him into a face? Surely things can't get any worse?