Gutted With Ryback :'(

[Regal>Cena]

I was interested to see where they would go with his gimmick, but I have to say after watching his outing at Extreme Rules I thought his gimmick was just plain awful - it feels really forced. All this business of shouting "Finish Him!!" is like they are trying to nod to Mortal Kombat fans and gamers, but it just doesn't work for me.

The gimmick needs to be understated, not these stupid robotic movements that just make him look like an idiot. Just have him show up in leathers and beat the crap out of people.

[Bennyladd1]

Don't give up on the guy , I'm sure when he actually has a feud you will see more of his gimmick in his promos atleast. Personally I really enjoy Ryback and I can't wait for his first feud.

[TheLegendaryIcon]

Yeah... They need to stop the finish him bullshit. It's like they refuse to let him have the gimmick that could make him big. Hint: Whoever gets the pin, gets the push...



The gimmick isn't that far out there or comic book-ish to come off well, especially considering Mr. Celtic Warrior up there in the mix. Hell, even go as far as to claim he went insane and believes he's actually a cyborg.

[Lucas Chapel]

Yeah... They need to stop the finish him bullshit. It's like they refuse to let him have the gimmick that could make him big. Hint: Whoever gets the pin, gets the push...



The gimmick isn't that far out there or comic book-ish to come off well, especially considering Mr. Celtic Warrior up there in the mix. Hell, even go as far as to claim he went insane and believes he's actually a cyborg.

I thought WWE might do this to explain the transition between Skip Sheffield and Ryback, but I didn't want a man who thinks he's a robot, I wanted an actual Terminator. I was thinking at PPVs, they could have him come out with parts of his robotic "exoskeletion"

[Regal>Cena]

Yeah... They need to stop the finish him bullshit. It's like they refuse to let him have the gimmick that could make him big. Hint: Whoever gets the pin, gets the push...

The gimmick isn't that far out there or comic book-ish to come off well, especially considering Mr. Celtic Warrior up there in the mix. Hell, even go as far as to claim he went insane and believes he's actually a cyborg.

I think that's a good call. Kane is presented as insane, whilst also demonic, so it could work well.

[Cabers]

I would actually like to see the character the way he developed it not a watered down version would you have a video or photo of the gimmick? (This is a general question feel free to reply!!)

[mrbluto]

I thought Skip was boring and I think Ryback is boring. Another Goldberg clone with 2 minute matches, plus the fact he cannot do an interview. The WWE builds him up as a monster with short matches, then he loses, all his mystery is gone.

[The Piper]

This would get him pretty over with the fans, all of us need some bad/cliche gimmicks in pro wrestling, and for some crazy reason, they always seem to work. A cyborg Ryback could get the ratings as high, if not higher, than RAW. Smackdown needs something like that to keep the fans going and interested, Raw has the destructive force of Brock Lesnar, but SD has the watered-down "monster" Kane. So, if prepared properly, Ryback could be Smackdown's saving grace in the ratings department.

[imswm]

I would have loved for his gimmick to be closer to what it was!! I had a feeling they'd change it though, when he came to the main roster!


If I could be pedantic for a minute, cyborgs aren't supernatural!

They constantly change gimmicks when bringing workers up to the main roster. Not sure WHY in the instances when it's really working for the guy/gal, but that's their SOP.

As for this particular guy, he has bombed on several prior tries, and if he wasn't all jacked up, he would have gotten canned ages ago. I see the Goldberg comparisons often on this site, but I don't really see it in Skip. Goldberg had genuine presence and I don't recall his early opponents being such obvious job boys.

[LuckIsForLosers]

I think Ryback has potential to impress - he has the build, the look, and the explosive, monstrous and strength orientated in-ring presence. However, there are two reasons why he'll probably be a footnote this time next year.

1) He isn't convincing on the mic at all (judging by his Skip days and the irritating and inane sounding "FINISH HIM...FEED ME MORE"). To this there is a solution - in-ring talent aside, I remember someone similar who had the build, look and presence of a monster but who had the charisma of a moth and sounded just as yokel-ish (sorry to any Southerners on here) as Skip Sheffield. To make him a huge draw and dominant, they added a fantastic mouthpiece to him called Paul Heyman. He became Brock Lesnar. Same with Batista (though it was Naitch rather than Heyman for him). Three very different wrestlers. But the two examples I gave both had the look and the presence. So does Ryback. He just needs somebody other than himself to TELL the world that he's good.

2) Today's fans won't give him a chance. Unfortunately there is no solution to this. Fans nowadays just aren't happy with anything. They are somewhat fickle, never pleased and always find a hole in everything. After seeing Ryback's first match they decided they would not give him a chance - just because they are fans and this is how we are nowadays. A shame I guess...