Ryback has been getting pushed heavily in the WWE. He has a winning streak, defeating jobbers and WWE Superstars in singles or handicap bouts. Vince Mcmahon has even deemed Ryback as someone he would build a company around. Since Vince Mcmahon sees Ryback as one of his future top babyfaces, than Ryback is going to continue to get a solid push. However, Vince may be wrong. Ryback may not reach the magnitude of Vince’s expectations. Just like Drew McIntyre didn’t reach Vince’s expectations. Who knows? The only way to find out is to test the waters with Ryback’s character to see how successful his character will be before pushing him to the top of the food chain (no pun intended). It’s basically finding out his weaknesses and exposing his strengths. Here are many ways the WWE officials and Vince himself can test the waters with a character like Ryback:

Mic time

Since Ryback debuted, he hasn’t really been able to cut a promo. We all know that promos are a main way of connecting with the crowd like CM Punk, John Cena, The Rock, or Stone Cold. The greater your mic skills are, the easier the crowd will connect with you. Give Ryback more mic time to see if he is at least consistent and articulate when speaking. Give him more mic skills along with backstage promos for a month and if he hasn’t improved or doesn’t seem confident when cutting promos, than give him a manager to do the talking for him. It worked for Brock Lesnar so it will work for Ryback.

Working with monster heels

Since Ryback’s character is all about dominating his opponents, what better way to give him a good rival than to rival with the likes of The Big Show or Tensai? Working with other monster heels will be a testament to see how well his character can play off to monster heels. His character is all about dominating so him going against another dominant character would be an interesting dynamic.

Making him more human

Another way to see if he can work with monster heels is to make him more human. Give him a loss. See how well he takes someone else’s offense. There is going to come to a point where he will have to take a loss sooner or later once he hits the main event status. Making him more human will be easier to book since it’s harder to book a character that isn’t built to lose (for instance, Goldberg). If he isn’t good at selling someone’s offense, than strengthen his weakness by giving him loses.

Mid-card domination

To see how well he can be a WWE champion or a World Heavyweight champion, give him a lengthy mid-card title reign. Have him carry it around as if it was just as important as the WWE world championship belts. This will give him a good reign where he can dominate the mid-card scene with gold around his waist as a stepping-stone to head to the main event scene.

Working main event matches

To see how he will fair in the main event scene, have him go against main eventers. It won’t hurt if they book him against CM Punk or John Cena in the main event for the WWE championship. I’m not saying he will have to win the WWE title in one of those bouts but it will give him a feel of what it it’s like to work main event matches, thus putting the spotlight on him. Think of it as a 123 Kid vs Bret Hart type match.

Turning him heel

Turn Ryback heel just to see how he works as a dominant heel. It’s good to have another dynamic to a character just to make a character much more interesting. If the crowd doesn’t respond to his character as much, than that would be a great time to turn him heel ala Rocky Maivia style. If he works as a face, turn him back as a babyface but if he works better as a heel, keep him as a heel and book him to dominate babyfaces.


Ryback's character is entertaining to me. It's also easily marketable to the masses. But if WWE are planning to push him to the main event scene or ever think about doing so, there will have to be some tweaking to his character and testing the waters when it comes to a dominant character like Ryback. Thanks for reading guys. Take care.