Projecting the Direction of Ryback's Character After Attacking the Authority

Ryback is no lackey for The Authority and no squeaky-clean babyface.

WWE is teasing a tweener run for The Big Guy. Melding elements from his runs as a fan favorite and heel, expect the powerhouse to be a lone wolf with no allegiances, a character who straddles the boundaries between the standard good guy/bad guy roles.

Monday's Raw centered on the continued construction of Team Cena and Team Authority. Ryback was central to that story, the coveted, unaffiliated star both squads wanted.

He began his night standing between Triple H and John Cena, both men courting him. He said that he wasn't afraid of The Authority but that Cena doesn't sign his checks. A spinebuster to his old rival served as the exclamation point to that statement.

"Wait, he's heel again already?" went through many a mind in that instant.

WWE doesn't want to limit his character to that distinction, though, it seems. The Big Guy bucked against both Kane and Seth Rollins as they tried to issue orders to him. He said he didn't need their help to win.

Cracks formed in an alliance that had only just begun.

That's because Ryback is going to be his own man. It took just a few hours for him to show that off.

As Raw closed, a brawl erupted. It was here that Ryback previewed his character's direction for us. The heels attacked the babyfaces, the line clearly divided.

Ryback went after the men who thought he was set to team with them. He drove Rollins to the mat, clotheslined Mark Henry and gave Kane a Shell Shocked before storming out.

Fans were left to think, "So he's a face again?"

Sort of. He'll reside somewhere between white knight and one-man wrecking crew.

Think Sting in the late '90s when he stared out from the rafters or came stomping toward the ring with a baseball bat in hand.

At the time, the nWo tyrannized WCW. They were the invading army you either joined or retreated from. Sting did neither. He defied the nWo, often on his own.

He's not going to go shopping for a trench coat any time soon, but we can expect some parallels between the two men. Sting referred to himself as a free agent during this period. That's essentially what Ryback is right now.

He made it clear that he's not going to be The Authority's goon, but babyfaces don't lay out a guy like Cena. 

Even if he joins Team Cena for Survivor Series, he'll be looked at as a volatile ally. That spinebuster will still be fresh in Cena's mind.

In a similar role to the "Crow" Sting or Randy Orton during his last babyface run, Ryback will be an edgier version of who he was during his initial rise.

His promos can borrow from his heel days. His personality began to emerge when he was trash-talking Cena during their feud. Look for some of the grit and aggressiveness to be back.

Don't expect him to call people out for being fat, as he did back then, but there is a compelling smugness that WWE should tap into again. His comic timing blossomed as a heel, as we saw with his groggy speech from his hospital bed.

That attitude is hard to pull off as a traditional face. 

It's too early to make Ryback a full-on heel, though. The reactions for him since his return have been loud and passionate. WWE has to roll with that.

He can still make use of his crowd support by being a savior, an anti-authority figure and a badass in general.

Ryback can then move forward as a more complex character than the man who leads "Feed me more!" chants. He can appeal to an older crowd, offering a cooler alternative to the straight-laced Cena. If Cena is Superman, Ryback is The Punisher.

The Big Guy charges ahead, nestled between outlaw and the law.