**MERGED** All Ryback Discussion (Keep all of it in here!!)

[silrock316]

I want to know what other everyone else thinks about Ryback.


I understand the Goldberg similarities...But I think this guy is awesome. Obviously he isn't a technical god. But it's nice to see a fresh face for one. I don't know about anyone else...but I've missed a straight up ass kicking squash. Power moves, excellent music, awesome sayings...I don't know...I record Smackdown every week, mostly to see this guy.

why does every built bald wrestler have to be the next goldberg?. they are not alike from ring gear to muscle build..ryback is decent. just forget comparsions and enjoy how far skip has come

 

[Principino]

I liked him the first moment I saw him, I liked him as Skip Sheffield as part of the Nexus and I like him as Ryback. If he's booked correctly (that's a big ask of WWE creative), he can go on to big things. He already gets a reaction from the crowd and he's only been here for a month or so, take it slow with him, don't need to push him into the spotlight straight away. Honestly can't wait to see what they do with him.

 

[DanzoJP]

i like him,
lets not put him vs mason ryan as a comp.....ryan can barely walk!!!
goldberg......isnt he just some guy who triple h hit in the face with a hammer? < joke
i dont see why too over this this.
he is good too watch, its fun too see some 100 pound guy get hit by a closeline.....makes me giggle?

ryback at extreme rules was funny, i dont get this whole 5star match things, i much prefer the stone cold and triple h style of just beat the crap outa each other for 15 mins, much better tv then brock lesner coming out and being an "ass" kisser too cena..sorry...kicker...

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Besides Daniel Bryan, Ryback is one of the main reasons why I enjoy Smackdown. Ryback has a great look, he's loaded with intensity, and he can destroy anything in his path. Ryback is an impressive wrecking machine, and WWE has done a nice job of building momentum for his character so far. And the name change was a nice touch, because Ryback does sound more intimidating. Of course, he will move pass the squashing jobbers phase at some point. Ryback will face a real challenge soon enough, and then we'll be able to see what he's really made of.

But yeah, I go nuts for this guy, when he pops up on my TV screen, and I can't get enough of Ryback.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

Not sure why you guys are so hung up on watching his matches. They're nothing to get excited about nor nothing much to watch. So he destroys guys that are 150 pounds. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Sure, he's relatively exciting, but he won't truly get exciting until they give him something to do, but who knows how long that'll be. He has potential and a good look, but he'll never be Goldberg obviously. He's becoming a little overrated around here on WZ. A lot of people are prematurely drooling over him before he's done anything more than squash non-roster guys. Let's just see what he does when he finally gets involved with name-values guys and real storylines.

I want to like him, he has potential, but there's not enough there yet.

Pretty sure he was over as Skip Sheffield from most WZ readers. Hey I could be wrong, but pretty sure the Goldberg gimmick worked pretty damn well 15 years ago, no reason to not give it a shot, if anyone can pull it off its Ryback

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I'm not sold on Ryback yet. Granted, I've only seen his match at Extreme Rules and his match on Smackdown last night but I'm pretty indifferent to him at the current time.

When he talks during his matches he sounds like he's ready to take a shit. He dresses like Rob Van Dam and acts like Goldberg. I love that sit down jawbreaker move he does, that's pretty awesome and using that muscle buster like finisher works for him. He definitely has potential but right now when I look at him, all I see is a poor man's Goldberg and currently I haven't been able to get past that as of yet.

I think he needs to move away from being Goldberg and just be Ryback, if he keeps being Goldberg then it puts him in Goldbergs shadow and he will forever be known as a Goldberg wannabe. Goldberg was similar to Warrior but when you saw Goldberg you didn't think of Warrior at all, when I see Ryback it just makes me wish I was watching an old Goldberg squash from Nitro.

Frankly I thought he showed more potential and was higher on Ryback back during the Million Dollar Tough Enough as The Silverback Ryan Reeves, just my opinion.

 

[Mike D]

Wasn't Goldberg's first match against a 330 Bill DeMott ? Goldberg was a beast... 290 or so, truely athletic, which Ryback is not, and as much as IWC wants to bash goldberg the guy could wrestle. What he did looked very devastating . I like this skip, ryback guy but Goldberg was in a completely separate league to me. For his sake I hope the chants stop because the comparison only makes him look bad.

 

[thatotherguy]

Well, I'd like to see more of him in a longer match, but I think having him keep on squashing people is good for now. And the guy understands intensity. To those saying he won't make it to the level of Goldberg &#8211; wait and see. He probably won't, but it's entirely possible.

Really, I don't get the Goldberg comparisons. The only similarities I see are that he's big, he squashes people, he's undefeated so far (only as Ryback. He's lost matches as Skip Sheffield), and he's bald. Beyond that he's actually very different.

After every match he starts screaming "GIVE...ME...MORE!!!" whereas Goldberg's whole gimmick for his first few months was that he barely spoke at all. Goldberg faced a variety of levels of competition in his early days, whereas Ryback has more or less gone through the typical building up of monsters: start with a jobber, then another, then another, maybe throw in a 2 on one match in there for good measure, then start working through the lower card (ie Derrick Bateman) and eventually start beating up upper mid carders and eventually make it (if you're lucky) to the main event.

On a final note, I laughed out loud last night when Derrick Bateman started asking for a match (when Sandow turned him down) and then Ryback's music started playing.

 

[SacredMesa]

I hate him. Not the person but the character and how he is being built. He is being pushed pretty much like Goldberg 2.0 and as long as he is being pushed like that he will go absolutely no where.

If you want to get over be original, and bring something new, ala CM Punk/Daniel Bryan have been doing. Trying to be the next anybody is pointless as fans will always call you out on it and flush it down the drain.

 

[Benson]

Trying to be the next anybody is pointless as fans will always call you out on it and flush it down the drain.

Yet, you see Dolph Ziggler as the new Mr. Perfect, Alberto Del Rio playing the new JBL, Brodus Clay being the new Rikishi, The Miz WAS Chris Jericho for a while....and none of them really ever got called out for it in the way Ryback is getting called out for Goldberg. For the record, people were comparing Brock Lesnar to Goldberg during his entire first run, despite them not being similar at all except through their booking.

 

[lfrancis24]

is they want to bring back gimmicks, like brodus clay, so they are gonna make it seem like ryback is a machine, like zeus from no holds barred.. thats my belief

 

[starkmoto]

he's cool but that one move he did at the ppv was terrible, it was like a pelvic floor slam or something and it's a candidate for "worst move ever"

 

[SacredMesa]

Yet, you see Dolph Ziggler as the new Mr. Perfect, Alberto Del Rio playing the new JBL, Brodus Clay being the new Rikishi, The Miz WAS Chris Jericho for a while....and none of them really ever got called out for it in the way Ryback is getting called out for Goldberg. For the record, people were comparing Brock Lesnar to Goldberg during his entire first run, despite them not being similar at all except through their booking.

Um aside from body build I really don't see much of a comparison between Dolph as a show off and Mr. Perfect being....well perfect. This comparison seems rather bunk to me.

Del Rio is playing a Mexian Aristocrat when JBL was a bouncer who hit it big in the stock market and pretty much became the 1% before it was the 1%. He was the basic middle class gone bad when he hit it big, where as Del Rio was supposedly born into wealth and flaunted it since. Aside from the fact they both play wealth characters there really isn't much of a comparison.

Brodus Clay, aside for a short stint as a rookie with Del Rio, has pretty much been this silly dance guy. Rikishi wasn't originally a dancing character, it wasn't until he teamed up with 2 cool and then once he broke away from them his whole dancing thing stopped. Brodus isn't picking up a dancing gimik because he joined a tag team he's doing it because that's who his character is. Again yes they both dance but there isn't much else to say about them for similiarities.

The Miz wasn't Chris Jericho ffs. For starters Jericho was actually good at playing his character. The Miz character has pretty much always been about him being "Awesome" even if his speech slowed down and he wore a suit that didn't make him Jericho. Jericho made that transformation when HBK forced Flair to retire and said he was "growing up" from his days as the "party guy." They both spoke slow and wore suits beyond that again there is really no comparison.


All the comparisons you are doing with them have been increadibly superficial. If you go with your logic than Vader and Mankind are the same because they wore similiar style masks, Shawn Michaels, and Ziggler are the same because they are both "pretty boys" and Taker and Sting are the same because they are both dark heros. Naturally this isn't true.

Ryback on the other hand is coming out as a "rookie" like Goldberg started. We hear some jobber make some kind of irrelevent promo and then hear his music, he comes out squashes them and we get pretty much nothing. This is very similiar to how Goldberg made his start after his initial opening match. He's being built as the unstoppable power house from out of no where, exactly like Goldberg. Can it go other ways? Yeah it can but as it stands now this isn't the case.

It was like Mason Ryan who fans kept catching Batista at. Batista got his start in Evolution as HHH body guard. He was muscle for higher buy a smaller guy who was smarter than him and had more experience and was supposedly teaching him. Mason Ryan started out under CM Punk in the New Nexus as the muscle for higher for a smarter guy who has more experience. Exactly the same as Batista. People called him out on this just like they are calling out Ryback for his currently week in and week out Goldberg impersonation.

I think they still have time to get Ryback away from this but they are going to have to act fast to save the character or it's going to go no where as fans keep buring him in Goldberg chants.

 

[Benson]

But your comparison is JUST as superficial. Ryback speaks. Goldberg never did. Ryback has this wierd thing going where people laugh at him backstage, until he destroys somebody. Goldberg always had "The Streak". They've really made no mention of how many wins Ryback has.

I mean, seriously, they "have to save him fast'? Really? Because Brock Lesnar got buried in the Goldberg chants all the while up to his first title win. He'll be fine. And for the record, is this going to happen any time any bald guy ever goes outs and gets the rookie "monster" push?

 

[SacredMesa]

But your comparison is JUST as superficial. Ryback speaks. Goldberg never did. Ryback has this wierd thing going where people laugh at him backstage, until he destroys somebody. Goldberg always had "The Streak". They've really made no mention of how many wins Ryback has.

I mean, seriously, they "have to save him fast'? Really? Because Brock Lesnar got buried in the Goldberg chants all the while up to his first title win. He'll be fine. And for the record, is this going to happen any time any bald guy ever goes outs and gets the rookie "monster" push?

Except it isn't superficial. Goldberg didn't always have "The Streak" until he actually started really racking up win and they could call it that. They could say "he's undefeated" but it wasn't a streak until later. Saying "give me more" isn't much different than Goldberg's finish at the end of his matches, and his build up so far is pretty much the same. It's the same squash jobbers as an unstoppable genetic freak of nature from no where just like Goldberg was. It's at this point they have to save it, if they continue with the same Goldberg build he will get buried by those chants and it will hurt his character, just like the Batista chants screwed Mason Ryan.

BTW Lesner wasn't even close to a Goldberg build up, it really makes no sense where you are getting this from. Brock was a "free agent" who "signed" with Paul Heyman. He became Heymans attack dog that Heyman would use to dominate his way back to the top. He started off attacking people like the Hardy's and Dudleys, people with some form of establishment to their name. He wasn't "music hit dominate guy comes out and squash people" he actually started jumping those people from behind before he even had a match to begin with. Goldberg vs lesnar comparisons are only superficial and have nothing to do with character or build up. Ryback on the other hand has been a completely different story up to this point. I'm hoping they fix it before the guy is stuck with this tag following him.

 

[trashboy]

I think Ryback is boring. I liked him better as Skip Sheffield. He looks ******ed moving his arms up and down in a stiff like manner. He looks like a giant baby throwing a temper tantrum. I hate his finishing move. Everyone gives Cena a hard time for his fireman's carry type move, well Ryback's is just a Samoan Drop. I'd prefer it if he used that backpack stunner move as a finisher. Or better yet, just give him the Jackhammer already.

 

[CraigThe13th]

A few things inspired me to write this post. Firstly watching Ryback get Goldberg chants his last few matches. Then watching Mason Ryan on superstars lose to Ziggler followed by reading a few comments on a few websites including this one.

Firstly Ryback, this guy got a fair bit of acclaim from the internet as a member of Nexus, when he was starting to look like the breakout star. Clotheslining the crap out of everybody until he went down with an injury. He comes back (as a face,which might have something to do with it) clubs a few jobbers then all of a sudden he is rubbish and a Goldberg clone.

How is this? Has he messed up in the ring? Has he shown a lack of charisma or in ring skills in his 10 minutes of match time he has had so far? Or is it just young know it all internet wrestling fans who have it in for anyone over who is a 300lb monster not called Brock Lesnar?

Who funnily enough and with even less reason to also got called a Goldberg clone and a crap wrestler around 10 years ago when he arrived. Near everyone bought into Brock. But that was 10 years ago. Nowadays every big wrestler gets shat on by todays internet wrestling geniuses. How come nobody chants Mr Perfect or Billy Gunn at Dolph Ziggler? or Kurt Angle at Jack Swagger? I'll give you a few more -

Kofi - uses some of Rick Steamboats offense
Del Rio - Latin Million $ Man
HHH - tons of Harley Race in his style

Thank god there was no internet about before the late 90's Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan would never have reached the heights with teenage smarks comparing them to Buddy Rogers and Superstar Billy Graham. I would safely bet if there were assholes about then chanting such things wrestling over recent years would have never gotten as big as it has been over the last 30 years.

I love smaller wrestlers like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Dean Ambrose and Sin Cara but I also love big steroid monsters capable of feats of brutality and power like Mason Ryan and Ryback. But I'll probs get a ton of shit for liking the latter two as they are 'dull' and 'goldberg/batista clones' Seems big wrestlers just are not 'cool' anymore.

I feel wrestling needs wrestlers of all sizes and that some of today's fans in WWE are hindering big guys getting over by being overly critical and too quick to compare them to previous monsters.

Does anyone agree with me here? and anyone who doesn't please feel free to state why you don't like bigger wrestlers or what you feel the reason why today's big men can't get over.

 

[dakikko049]

I honestly haven't seen very much hate on Ryback at all as of yet. I think the Goldberg chants were there because he kind of looks like Goldberg and remnds people of Goldberg and not because he's a "cheap Goldberg clone." Although in saying that I think if he continues to squash people in less than a minute I think the fans might have a problem.

I think when you talk about big guys being hated I think its because we haven't seen many good big guys lately. Ryback looks pretty interesting to me which is more than I can say for most other big guys we've seen in recent years eg. Mason Ryan, who was boring as shit. Guys like Brock and Goldberg were a hell of a lot more intersting than them.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

To a large degree, fans have changed and wrestling has changed as well. When you look at the vast majority of the best talent that's coming up through wrestling, today especially, they tend to be mostly "smaller" guys. You know, guys who are more regular sized but guys who also have a great deal of talent in the ring, on the mic or both.

The days of the slow, lumbering powerhouse are pretty much over as people are simply no longer impressed by it. If this was 1985, guys like Ezekiel Jackson, Mason Ryan & Rob Terry might well be main eventers because, especially then, it was very rare to see men built like them in pro wrestling. Their look and strength was enough to make up for whatever they lacked in in-ring or promo ability. However, having a great look and comic book like physique isn't enough to get someone over anymore. There actually has to be more to the package aside from what it's wrapped in.

Sheamus is a big guy and has gotten over because, quite frankly, the guy's good. He has a lot of talent and he's consistently shown that. Ryback seems to be getting a lack of hate because he shows great intensity and he's not a slow, clumsy, lumbering mass of muscle. The days of just getting by on a freakish physique are pretty much done and, in my view, there's not a thing wrong with that.

 

[akathelaw]

it is east to get over if in your first 2 years they give you :

wwe championship
king of the ring
royal rumble
winning a wm world heavyweight match in 18 seconds
stealing a more popular superstars catch phase as your only promo work since winning above strap...

Sheamus debuted on WWECW and did an impressive mini-feud with Goldust before he won the WWE Title. Title wins don't really get people over, Miz retained the WWE Title at 'Mania against Cena yet he's still a midcarder. Sheamus is over because he's good. He's got intensity, powerful offense, he sells well and has a unique look. I will agree that he needs some promo work though. His promos are pretty bland.

There's a renewed interest in big men right now, it just has to be the right ones. I don't think Mason Ryan worked out, I really don't care to see him attempt wrestling poorly. I think Tensai will catch on, he's pretty talented and his gimmick is fresh and interesting. Ryback is progressing well and I enjoy his wrestling style.

 

[Saeros]

Firstly Ryback, this guy got a fair bit of acclaim from the internet as a member of Nexus, when he was starting to look like the breakout star. Clotheslining the crap out of everybody until he went down with an injury. He comes back (as a face,which might have something to do with it) clubs a few jobbers then all of a sudden he is rubbish and a Goldberg clone.

How is this? Has he messed up in the ring? Has he shown a lack of charisma or in ring skills in his 10 minutes of match time he has had so far? Or is it just young know it all internet wrestling fans who have it in for anyone over who is a 300lb monster not called Brock Lesnar?

I don't remember many people calling/thinking him to be the breakout star of the Nexus. Everyone was saying Barrett would be the breakout star. And if people were jumping about saying he's awesome in 2010 then they are total hypocrites. From what i remember of Skip Sheffield, he didnt do too much. Clothesline here and there and a few moves. He seemed very green to me. So if anyone was saying he was awesome back then, they need to think twice before they next comment on the wrestling skills of John Cena, Khali, Big Show etc etc etc.

Who funnily enough and with even less reason to also got called a Goldberg clone and a crap wrestler around 10 years ago when he arrived. Near everyone bought into Brock. But that was 10 years ago. Nowadays every big wrestler gets shat on by todays internet wrestling geniuses. How come nobody chants Mr Perfect or Billy Gunn at Dolph Ziggler? or Kurt Angle at Jack Swagger? I'll give you a few more -

Kofi - uses some of Rick Steamboats offense
Del Rio - Latin Million $ Man
HHH - tons of Harley Race in his style

I was on quite a few different wrestling discussion boards back then with a decent sized community. And not once did i ever see Lesner labelled a crap wrestler. They made a few comparisons to Goldberg saying he should be the next Goldberg with a long undefeated streak. But i didnt see anyone say he was crap.

And the reason is that while Ziggler may look like Mr Perfect, theres still not enough there to make a solid comparison. Other than bleach blonde hair. But if you're going down the road of HHH and Kofi using peoples offense then we can list 3/4 of the WWE. All wrestlers share some move set with the people that trained them or that influenced them when they were younger and/or training. As for the del rio comparison. Theres nothing to suggest hes anything like Dibiase. MDM was a rich guy who bought people around him and made them his lackies or bought them off so he could win matches. ADR is a rich guy....thats all. Nothing ADR does reminds me of Dibiase.

Ryback looks like Goldberg, and hes a guy whos doing exactly the same thing that Goldberg done. Had very quick squash matches with lower card/unknown talent. Goldberg literally came to the ring, hit 4 or 5 power moves and bam. End of match. Rybacks doing EXACTLY the same thing.

Thank god there was no internet about before the late 90's Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan would never have reached the heights with teenage smarks comparing them to Buddy Rogers and Superstar Billy Graham. I would safely bet if there were assholes about then chanting such things wrestling over recent years would have never gotten as big as it has been over the last 30 years.

As others stated. Wrestlings changed. Its evolved and the fans with it. Back then there were still comparisons believe me. Just not on a worldwide scale. And fans are "smarter" nowadays. Its a possibility that these days Flair may not of even gotten as over as he did back in the 80's. And if he did, he'd be totally different. He wouldn't be able to flop around the ring and oversell thats for sure. Back then it was more about putting on a complete show for the fans. Nowdays more fans like the show aspects, but they need to see decent wrestling aswell.

I love smaller wrestlers like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Dean Ambrose and Sin Cara but I also love big steroid monsters capable of feats of brutality and power like Mason Ryan and Ryback. But I'll probs get a ton of shit for liking the latter two as they are 'dull' and 'goldberg/batista clones' Seems big wrestlers just are not 'cool' anymore.

Well thats just it. With the fans evolving, it has allowed them to appriciate actual wrestling rather than just brawls. If people just wanted brawls they could turn on UFC or Boxing. When you look at the big wrestlers of the past 20-30 years. I can only think of 4 that are worthy of remembrance. Undertaker, Kane, Big Show and Andre. Most others have been very very poor in the ring with the exception of a few like A-Train, Test etc etc. Im talking about guys 6'6 and above aswell. Not the likes of Cena or Lesner. And if people are going to dispute Show and Andre being in my 4 "good" big man wrestlers. They are very good for their size. Unlike others around their height.

I feel wrestling needs wrestlers of all sizes and that some of today's fans in WWE are hindering big guys getting over by being overly critical and too quick to compare them to previous monsters.

It does, i agree, and people make comparisons too quickly. Not just with big men. With everything. After this weeks Raw, Cena vs Laryngitis is now being compared to Vince vs Austin....why i dont know

Punks the new Stone Cold apparently. Deam Ambrose can be the new Y2J. Ziggler the new Hennig. It goes on and on and on and on. People need to wait and let them forge their own legacy. 20 years time from now there will be comparisons made on those guys too.


As for my view, i like bigger wrestlers. But only those that interest me. That can work in the ring. Decent on the mic, that look menacing.

Sadly Ryback doesnt fill that criteria for me. He may be ok on the mic but his ring work is poor. No im not just judgeing that on since hes been back. I've watched him in OVW, As Skip Sheffield and now as Ryback. Hes nothing special to me. There is nothing in his arsenal that another man of similar size with better ability could pull off. Theres nothing that makes him "special"
His look is also a worry for me. Yes his physique is immense. But the guy has a face that you expect to hit on a wack-a-mole game. His looks so intimidating but then i look at his head and it seems totally disproportionate to the rest of his body. Added his sticky out ears. He just seems a bit comical to me =\ which is a shame because i actually do want to get behind him.

Aside from his look, his shouting after the match is annoying. He should stay silent. As Goldberg did...sadly. He just needs to be emotionless.

His ring work is boring to me. As i said im not judging him on his WWE work. Thats actually pretty good. But thats only in squash matches. Whats going to happen when he needs to step up and go against some upper carders. Ryback seems to have very little stamina from what ive seen. I cant see him putting on 10+ minute matches. And that would be fine if there wasnt already Show, Khali, Brodus Clay, Otunga, Ryan, Ezekiel Jackson, and Mark Henry. All of whom have the pace of a slug.

Wrestling fans like to see a big guy every now and then. But They apparently turned down the idea of Brodus Clay being a unstoppable big man, then go and bring in Ryback. WWE is packed full of big men like those listed above with very little actual wrestling talent. (Aside from Otunga, he isnt a big man, he just has very little in ring talent) Fans value character first and foremost it seems. At least casual fans. But even then. they value the ability for some wrestling ability. Which i believe is what Ryback lacks.

 

[whoopin' ass]

i don't think it is the fans as much as it is the wrestlers. Vince has always liked the big guys - that is a fact - but when you have a crop of guys like they do now, who are smaller, you have to push them. what's going to make you better moneyunk vs Bryan or Mark Henry vs Big Show? fans only play a small part in that. no disrespect to anyone, but look at the crowd at a Raw or Smackdown. they are very programmed to react the way Vince wants them that they will follow whoever he says they should. why would any kid in the audience get excited when Jerry Lawler gets into the ring to wrestle? do they know his history? to them, he is a 60 year old announcer but because the wwe says they should cheer for him, they cheer for him. Look at Albert's new gimmick. sure, they acknowledge he was there before but do they actually show any of his old A-Train footage? nope and because none of the kids there are old enough to remember it, he gets pushed as a monster heel. the point is that the wwe universe follows what Vince says and wwe ignores the internet fans so i don't think the fans are really killing off big wrestlers. I think you just have too many good smaller guys and the big guys they have are just not as good as the smaller guys right now.

 

[gdkeen]

Ryback is a horrible gimmick thus far, and the WWE has mismanaged it with those inexlicable backstage segments where the other wrestlers laugh AT Ryback's matches.

Also, smarky iwc fans liked SKIP SHEFFIELD. Not Ryback. There are several significant differences.

 

[DirtyD79]

As for Ryback and Lord Tensai it's mostly smarks who wanna say "Hur Hur look at me I'm so smart, I remember shit from 10 years ago. I'm so cool". I have no problem with bigger wrestlers as a whole. But I expect them to actually wrestle, not just throw sloppy punches and waddle around the ring gassed for most of the match.

 

[Natural Selection]

Personally I'm enjoying Ryback. I think they should literally have him beat anyone who isn't anyone before he faces anyone that is over. Just keep having him squash until you have a story for him and then run with it.