NXT Season 1 Elimination #3: Skip Sheffield
The third individual to be eliminated from NXT was the muscled behemoth – Skip Sheffield. Sheffield was originally supposed to be represented by Montel Vontavious Porter, but MVP would soon be replaced by William Regal. In his first match on NXT, Sheffield would tag alongside William Regal, suffering a loss to NXT rookie Justin Gabriel and Matt Hardy. Throughout the first season, Sheffield would amass a record of two wins and five losses.
Just like Michael Tarver and Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield was also eliminated on the Week 12 edition of the product. However, his edition would come in the traditional sense – being voted off by the WWE pros. Following his elimination, Sheffield would return alongside the original cast of NXT rookies as a member of The Nexus. After taking part in the Summerslam 2010 match against Team WWE, Sheffield would suffer a broken angle, leading to him undergoing three surgeries.
On April 3, 2012, Sheffield would return to main roster television under the name “Ryback”. Ryback would squash independent talent Barry Stevens in his first match on television under the new character. Ryback would go on to compete for the WWE Championship multiple times, tag with Curtis Axel, and even win the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber 2015.
In May 2016, reports surfaced that Ryback had walked out of a television taping due to contract disputes. Three months later, the former WWE superstar would announce on Instagram that he had parted ways with WWE. WWE confirmed this statement three days later. His last match took place at the WWE Payback 2016 Kickoff Show in a loss to Kalisto.
After being released from WWE, Ryback immediately began taking independent bookings – wrestling as “The Big Guy”. In January 2017, he began competing as “Ryback” again. However, he hasn’t taken an independent booking since August 25, 2018. This would be his final match (as of this writing), where he defeated Dylan Bostic on the NEW Wrestling Under The Stars Tour. Nowadays, you can find Ryback trolling people on Twitter, pushing his new vitamin supplements, and recording his podcast Conversation With The Big Guy.
