What if "Skip Sheffield" never got injured?

[CM Steel]

Skip Sheffield was apart of the first season of NXT. He was mentored by William Regal. A big guy with alot of muscle, a spiked-leather vest, and the catchphase "yep-yep". But at the end of NXT season 1 Skip Sheffield didn't win the first season. He didn't even make it in the final three in the voting. Soon after that, the birth of the Nexus on RAW. But in a tag team match at a WWE house show teaming with David Otunga, Skip Sheffield got an ankle injury during the match. Putting him on the shelf for over a year. 2012: Enter RYBACK!

A young juggernaut who went through his opponents like a hot knife through butter! With many wrestling fans comparing Ryback to Bill GOLDBERG in his prime in WCW. But what if "Skip Sheffield" never got injured? Would there still be a Ryback today if so? It's like one of those things like in where the starting QB loses his job to the back-up guy all due to an injury (Alex Smith 49ers).

So really, what if "Skip Sheffield" never got injured?

 

[barclayteo]

I honestly don't think Ryback would be here, if Skip Sheffield never got injuried. As cool as I though skip was he would have been like most of the other Nexus members who faded out of the spotlight except for Daniel Byran, Wade Barret, and maybe David Otunga but he doesn't really count.

I think Skip would have been a lower midcarder if he stayed Skip, because the nexus members were only really big alone, and they didn't get enough background story by themselves, thats why most of them didn't go that far when they split.

I cant say how big he will be as Ryback a year from now, but I think he will be bigger as Ryback as he would have been as Skip Sheffield.

 

[asiatic7]

Good Question! We probably would have to wait a few more years before Ryback debuted. It's obvious that WWE had an interest in him otherwise he would be hanging out in FCW again. I liked the Skip character, but it would have never gotten over like Ryback. I didn't think Ryback would be over like he is now! In hindsight, I think the injury was his careers saving grace.

 

[theBec2101]

I would like him better. I just don’t believe in the Ryback hype. I think it puts to much pressure on them and we nit pic and everything plus its even worse now cause of the internet. Back when we had Goldberg and dominate people like Diesel, Kane, and Undertaker (just naming dominate big men) there was no internet and didn’t have to worry, if you botched that was it there was no way to watch it over and over and then we analyzed it. Don’t get me wrong the guy looks like a beast and he is swollen, but when he is face to face with the other guy he doesn’t measure up he like 5ft tall.
I m just saying he could be dominate but to put a streak on him and push him like that its not going to work I think. He is no Goldberg don’t get me wrong, and I am far from a Goldberg fan. But Goldberg just had the look and was in the right spot at the time. I would of rather seen him more of a Batista or Cena rout rather than Goldberg. Batista-came from a group then climbed to the top through the demise of Evolution. Cena came out with a bang and challenged Kurt but they didn’t have streaks. They lost they lost there was no worry of how to end it or how to keep it going. Plus the jobbers don’t make the guy look stronger make me want to change the channel. o yea fuck Goldberg.

 

[berlinbrawler]

With a name like Skip Sheffield it stands to reason that he would have faded into obscurity by now. Just look at Michael McGillicutty. That's where Yip Yip Skip would be.

For a while there it seemed the WWE was intentionally sabotaging new talent by giving them ridiculous names like that.

 

[Dagger Dias]

If Skip Sheffield never got injured then he would have stuck around for the rest of the Nexus storyline up until they split into two different factions. I doubt he would have joined Punk's version of the Nexus. If he had, he would have taken Mason Ryan's spot, and Skip would have been better than Mason in the enforcer role as seen by his actions in the original Nexus. However, I think he would have joined up with Barrett, Slater, and Gabriel in The Corre taking the spot that Ezekiel Jackson ended up getting in the actual storyline. Then The Corre would have been made up only former Nexus members.

Skip would have fit in fine with a push similar to the one Zeke followed during The Corre storyline and the feud with Barrett that followed. In fact, I would argue that Skip in that push would have been better than Zeke anyhow. Having both been members of the original Nexus they would have had more history than Barrett and Zeke did when they feuded which would have made the feud a bit more interesting. The Corre would still have split up, but I could see Skip getting sent back to developmental by that point and he would still come back as Ryback. So I doubt that much else would have changed if he never got injured. He'd have remained an enforcer, gotten Zeke's push during The Corre angle, and perhaps an Intercontinental Championship reign before coming back as Ryback.

 

[akathelaw]

Let me start by pointing out that the internet was, in fact, around when Bill Goldberg wrestled in WCW. Jeez...

Right before Skip Sheffield's injury, there was a shift occurring in the character as he became the musclebound enforcer for Wade Barrett's Nexus. a lot of the Ryback mannerisms started to come out, things like the snorting, intense stare, devastating power moves and freight train-like speed in the ring. I would guess that had he not sustained the injury, he would have been a big part of Nexus until it lost Barrett as a leader. Most likely you would have seen him defect to the Corre in the place of Ezekiel Jackson and probably would have become a babyface rival to Barrett on Smackdown.

The main difference between Skip and Ryback is the infusion of comedy. I could see Skip Sheffield tag teaming with Santino for half a year, doing bathroom humor in backstage segments and generally not being taken seriously. Ryback's main comparison to Goldberg comes because the gimmick feels main event ready, and he's literally just biding his time in the midcard until the right title opportunity comes up.

 

[Piss Bucket]

I would like him better. I just don’t believe in the Ryback hype. I think it puts to much pressure on them and we nit pic and everything plus its even worse now cause of the internet. Back when we had Goldberg and dominate people like Diesel, Kane, and Undertaker (just naming dominate big men) there was no internet and didn’t have to worry, if you botched that was it there was no way to watch it over and over and then we analyzed it. Don’t get me wrong the guy looks like a beast and he is swollen, but when he is face to face with the other guy he doesn’t measure up he like 5ft tall.
I m just saying he could be dominate but to put a streak on him and push him like that its not going to work I think. He is no Goldberg don’t get me wrong, and I am far from a Goldberg fan. But Goldberg just had the look and was in the right spot at the time. I would of rather seen him more of a Batista or Cena rout rather than Goldberg. Batista-came from a group then climbed to the top through the demise of Evolution. Cena came out with a bang and challenged Kurt but they didn’t have streaks. They lost they lost there was no worry of how to end it or how to keep it going. Plus the jobbers don’t make the guy look stronger make me want to change the channel. o yea fuck Goldberg.

IMO comparing Ryback to Goldberg is insulting to Goldberg himself.

Ryback has gone from being a former NXT jobber, ro a 2 bit hoss who knows 2 moves and has very poor mic skills IMO.

But of course we all know how Vince loves big men who only know 2 moves, Hulk Hogan anyone? Or Test? Or practically anyone who isn't called Mark Caloway in real life who has been pushed to the moon over the last 20 years?!

 

[DirtyD79]

In a way his injury was a blessing in disguise. I really doubt anybody would have taken him seriously as Skip Sheffield with the whole cornfed meathead routine. It just screams "comedy jobber" and there's only so long you can keep up a gimmick like that until the audience gets tired of the joke. Sure it might have gotten him over but not to the point where you could put him in feuds with the world champion.

Hell next they probably would have had him start dancing. When you're a hoss and you start dancing that usually means sooner or later you're gonna be shufflin' off to Future Endeavorsville. He would have been a marginal midcarder at best just floundering around until they finally release him.

 

[Papa Pillman]

I don't think a whole lot would have changed, once the Nexxus gimmick was starting to have run its course, he would've been sent back down for a reboot.

"Skip Sheffield" was always a doomed gimmick. "Yip, yip, yip, what it do?", was never going to get over as a catchphrase, and also it was way too close to "Woo, Woo, Woo, you know it" which Ryder was already getting to catch on via Youtube, etc.

They would have demoted him to FCW for a reboot, likely a return to the FCW Ryback character only with tweaks toward the current incarnation, and he would have dominated there while biding his time for the roster to need to add a dominatingly destructive force(much like Big E. Langston is doing currently in developmental).

This is the same thing that happened with Windham Rotunda. He saw his Husky Harris character get "punted"(pun intended) off the main roster and went back down to developmental where they developed the "Bray Wyatt" character which gives Windham an extremely bright future that he never had when he was saddled with the Husky Harris name.

I think this is more likely than the possibility that he would have gone the David Otunga route, meaning getting a character reboot without a name change or demotion.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Honestly I don't think it would have changed much of anything.

Ryan Reeves was already the muscle & a favorite of Vince's in the Nexus. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Reeves had already worked on developing the Ryback character in other promotions & FCW.

So with all those factors taken into consideration, coupled with the obvious fact that Nexus was going to break up eventually & go there seperate ways, Reeves would have probably gotten his singles run start almost the exact same way he started squashing people as Ryback.

If anything I'd almost argue it would have hurt his career because from reports & interviews I have read Reeves really used the time off when he was injured to mature & 'perfect' the character he wanted to debut in WWE. Also debuting the Ryback character earlier might have not meshed as well with the landscape of WWE at the time.

All in all, I think it's a good thing that the Skip Sheffield character was cut short & the most memorable things about him are the Summerslam 2010 main event & "Yip, Yip, What It Do?!"

 

[Mustang Sally]

Kind of a mixed bag, no? Since he was injured before Nexus was finished as a force, Skip was essentially written out of the collective storyline. As the group's days were waning, WWE had to figure out what to do with these guys. They could have let most of them go and I certainly thought Darren Young, Michael Tarver and Sheffield might have been quietly dropped, injuries or not. As we know now, only Tarver was released. Darren Young reappeared out of nowhere and Skip was on the shelf for so long that many of us had forgotten him.

Everyone else found mid-card roles and managed to stay employed. Only Wade Barrett seemed destined for stardom, but the jury is still out on that one. Heath Slater has managed to find some useful things to do through some imaginative gimmicks written for him.

All of this probably worked to the good of Skip Sheffield. While the others were retained (except Tarver), they experienced varying degrees of success because they had to be dealt with as a disbanding group, while Sheffield gained the advantage of receiving the exclusive attention of the writers once he was ready to go again. That amazing physique sets him apart from most wrestlers.....and an idea was formed.

Sure, his injury probably worked to his ultimate advantage, although he most likely experienced some real frustration while sitting on the sidelines and wondering if he was going to go the way of Tarver and others who heard the dreaded words: "We have nothing for you. Here's a sandwich and a road map."

 

[R.K.O]

I think it was a good thing for him to get injured and got out of Nexus before it peaked. If he stayed around longer I think the crowd would have recognized him more and when he redebuted, imagine the crowd chanting "Yip yip yip what it do" or "Skip Sheffield" during Ryback's first match it would have been severely damaging for Ryback similar to what Tensai suffered. His streak would look more like a joke then it already was because he lost so many times at Nexus and NXT, and the fans will remember his goofy character.

 

[ccotreau1]

I am actually kind of glad that Skip Sheffield got hurt. He wasn't memorable, and had another ideas for the character he wanted to do, and was allowed to run with the idea, a lot like a certain Texas Rattlesnake, who had a bad gimmick and was allowed to change his gimmick and skyrocketed to something much better, and suits the person better. Granted I don't see Ryback being as successful title-wise as Stone Cold, but Ryback def has the potential of being a decent champ some day