"Ryback is more Neanderthal, more animalistic" - Chris Jericho on why he thinks Ryback should win on Sunday

Chris Jericho on why he thinks Ryback should win on Sunday: “I don’t know anything and I don’t work for the WWE. I haven’t talked to Vince in about a month. But I personally think and this is something that obviously Busted Open Radio has very hardcore wrestling fans who are listening as we all are. The number one thing people bitch about is that there is nothing new and it’s the same old same old with John Cena. This is the chance to create a new guy. This is the chance to make a new star instantly, and I know tradition says you must build a star. There is no tradition in a case like this. The comparisons are to Goldberg. Most of the fans in this day and age have no idea who Goldberg is and don’t care. We do, but in the year 2012 Goldberg was over ten years ago. How did Goldberg get over? …. By beating everybody. There was no loss for Goldberg. As soon as he did lose, that’s when things started going downhill for him. Ryback is not a normal guy. This is not a guy that we see that builds his way to the top and fans get behind him slowly but surely. You want to pick a new guy? Have him beat CM Punk this week. Who gives a sh** about Punk’s title reign? It means nothing. Here is a chance to take a guy who people are getting behind. If he beats Punk at Hell in A Cell and after three hundred and thirty seven days or whatever and Punk is finally beaten, people are going to start to take notice of this guy. Those who don’t watch Raw are going to tune in to see what’s going on. Ryback beats everybody. Ryback faces Rock at Royal Rumble. What happens if a couple of weeks before that something goes on with Ryback and Undertaker got involved in the Rock match? What if Rock wins the title and goes on to face Cena we expected and what if its Ryback vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania? What if Ryback beats Undertaker at Wrestlemania? You have a new star for the next ten years to headline pay-per views and main events.”
Has CM Punk gone as far as he can go as a character? : “He has gone as far as he can go. The Rock is the Rock. He comes from a different era. Undertaker, Steve Austin, that comes from a different era. Nobody will ever be a bigger star than those guys, because people in their heads…It’s like the old Batman TV show when we were kids. We thought it was the greatest show ever. You watch it back now and it sucks. But it has a certain place in your head that it will never be replaced. The band KISS in 1978 if you’re old enough to remember was thought of as the greatest band ever, even if they weren’t. Rock is a guy unto his own. Punk is as big of a star as he can be as a heel in WWE. Beating Ryback doesn’t make him a bigger star. It doesn’t.”
Can the injury to John Cena be a blessing in disguise?: “It is a blessing in disguise. The biggest breaks I ever got in this business was when someone got hurt, or when someone went to make a movie. I won the undisputed championship because Triple H was hurt and Rock was leaving. Cena got hurt. What do we do? One thing about Vince McMahon is his motto is to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Vince knows how rare it is for someone to get over so quickly. Vince knows Ryback is not a money making star right now. But if he goes into Hell In A Cell and he destroys Punk and beats him, a hundred percent those fans are going to go bananas for Ryback. You have created a new star. Punk can come back the next night and bitch and complain and do what a heel does. Heels aren’t built to win. Heels are built to lose. That’s what heels do. The fact that Punk has held the title for three hundred and thirty seven days, it might mean something to you guys. I can tell you Punk doesn’t care. Punk wants to make money and if that means Punk and Ryback becomes the hottest feud and suddenly something happens where it goes to Ryback and Rock, that’s a match where suddenly you made a new guy. I would love to see Punk and Rock and I’m sure Punk would be disappointed if it didn’t work out. But this is business. If you have a chance to build someone that can put a company on his back, then you do it. The stop and start pushes that the WWE has been doing and infamous for the last ten years has got to stop and this is the perfect time for it.”
Does he think the WWE will pull the trigger and have Ryback become champion?: “I do because of the reasons I’ve talked about. I’m not saying I know anything. I could be completely wrong. Maybe there would be a scenario where they can protect Ryback and still have Punk as champ. But for me what I like as a wrestling fan, when I was a kid, what I like as wrestling fan now even after doing it for 22 years is the element of surprise. I hate the same old same old. I worked in WCW for three years when guys were passed over. As hard as it is to believe at this point, Eddie Guerrero was the top heel in the company at certain points, but they never let him beat anybody. Billy Kidman was super popular. Probably one of the top two or three babyfaces in the company at certain points, but they never pushed him over the edge. There are guys for whatever reason, get over, even when they are not supposed to get over. If you take advantage of that and push it over the cliff, people will get behind it especially a guy like Ryback because we haven’t seen anyone like that in a long time. We haven’t seen a powerhouse come in and annihilate people. The last time might have been Batista but Ryback is more Neanderthal, more animalistic, more a beast. Batista is very well spoken. Ryback does remind me of Goldberg and like I said it’s not a copy of Goldberg. It’s like saying Jericho is a copy of Shawn Michaels. There are elements and lots of similarities but it’s a different guy and nobody has seen a guy like this in a long, long time. So I think if they do pull the trigger that it will work huge and it will create a superstar instantly. Someone that will be a money drawer, someone that people will tune in who are not watching now to see.”

Jericho should be a writer for WWE. just imagine if Ryback wins and takes the WWE by storm. Ryback vs. Rock at the Rumble. have Undertaker get involved somehow but have Ryback still win. have Ryback hold the title until Mania and face Taker. Ryback give him all he’s got. Undertake wins by the skin of his teeth. Taker wins the title in his last match in WWE. shakes hand with Ryback. now Ryback has an awesome title reign and Undertaker sort of “passing the torch” to Ryback. Ryback is now a superstar.

But it's...it's...Skip Sheffield...

Great idea to make a new star, but why do that for Ryback who just isn't very good at the end of the day.

rather Ryback annihilate Taker and take the streak, if indeed he was given the Goldberg treatment. Taker stealing Ryback's streak when he only wrestles once a year would be a travesty. Taking the streak would be a bigger rub than a stupid handshake.

We're meant to forget that he was that Goofball Cowboy Skip Sheffield, he's the mega man mountain Ryback NOW! Ha!

VDT wrote:We're meant to forget that he was that Goofball Cowboy Skip Sheffield, he's the mega man mountain Ryback NOW! Ha!

Batista debuted on TV as Reverend D-Von's Deacon.
Stone Cold used to have long blonde hair and was called "Superstar Steve Austin"
Triple H debuted as an aristocrat.

Not everyone gets a great debut character.

Samo wrote:

VDT wrote:We're meant to forget that he was that Goofball Cowboy Skip Sheffield, he's the mega man mountain Ryback NOW! Ha!

Batista debuted on TV as Reverend D-Von's Deacon.
Stone Cold used to have long blonde hair and was called "Superstar Steve Austin"
Triple H debuted as an aristocrat.

Not everyone gets a great debut character.

dolph debuted as a cheerleader and now he is the show master show off showstealer y2j retirer and the best thing to happen to sports entertainment since the spirit squad were split up put in a box and shipped off to ovw telling you to scratch and claw your way to the top i go all night long and i will never stop show offs like to do it in front of a crowd and wrestling is like the 5th best thing i do show.......off

sjh5678 wrote:

Samo wrote:

VDT wrote:We're meant to forget that he was that Goofball Cowboy Skip Sheffield, he's the mega man mountain Ryback NOW! Ha!

Batista debuted on TV as Reverend D-Von's Deacon.
Stone Cold used to have long blonde hair and was called "Superstar Steve Austin"
Triple H debuted as an aristocrat.

Not everyone gets a great debut character.

dolph debuted as a cheerleader and now he is the show master show off showstealer y2j retirer and the best thing to happen to sports entertainment since the spirit squad were split up put in a box and shipped off to ovw telling you to scratch and claw your way to the top i go all night long and i will never stop show offs like to do it in front of a crowd and wrestling is like the 5th best thing i do show.......off

Indeed, Kane was a Dentist and Mark Henry was May Youngs toy boy at one time

big shows the only opposite. he used be giant, now hes just big :/

I think for Ryback to work he needs to be aligned with Heyman and use him as a mouthpiece. The champion needs to be able to be a good talker. It would be impossible to build decent feuds if all he is going to say is "feed me more"

as much as i like punk and heymans work together imagine if they were involved in a feud against eachother

Heyman is too naturally heel-like, I just don't think he'd make a good face. The only way it'd work would for Ryback to be heel and then have Heyman as manager. The issue there being as a heel Ryback would inevitably be fed to the top face see Umaga, The Great Khali...every monster heel in the history of wrestling.

If WWE want Ryback to be a major star he needs to be face.

i agree with you with Ryback needing to be face.

Heyman was the first name that came to mind, but Ryback certainly needs someone to do that job and secure Rybacks push. I'm sure Heyman can do that job as a face for a short stint before inevitably turning on Ryback.

I just can't see how they can build main event storylines around him any other way. Unless he is secretly good on the mic!

Someone like Armando Estrada could work as a face manager!

anyone would be better than John Cena currently being Rybacks cheerleader

Armando Estrada would make an awful face, however Arrrrrmando Alejandrrrrro Estrrrrrada would make a fantastic face. Gotta have those rolling Rs back.

Which one was Ziggler in the Spirit Squad anyway? Besides he was much better as Kerwin Whytes golf caddy, that gimmick has limitless possibilities.

Personally i'de have Cena go back to his old OVW gimmick of Mr P/Prototype and see how much better it is than Super Cena.

NICKY!

The problem is that in general faces don't have managers, it's quite hard for them to have a manager without looking like they are hiding behind them. Ryback's last of mic skills is something I imagine the WWE are just trying to ignore and avoid for now and they'll come to that problem when they have to, which is an awful attitude, but almost definitely the one they are taking.

There are lots of problems with Ryback, including the obvious lack of mic skills, the fact that his entire character and push is based on the undefeated streak, meaning when that's over, it'll be hard for him to stay over I think, I doubt he'll be able to ever wrestle long, classic matches, the style in which he wrestles will never suit it as he is too intense, too quick to be in a long match. Perhaps most importantly, he will always be compared to Goldberg, no matter what, and this will hold him back.

While I agree his lack of mic skills will hold him back if it isn't addressed, does anyone know for certain that he cannot put on a good match? He has been on a development contract since 2005, I'm sure he's learned a lot in that time.
He has been put against jobbers and the odd mid carder since his debut, there was no way he was going more than 10 mins with any of them. He had to look to be a big step above all of them, this doesn't mean that once he takes on Punk, he can't last much longer. This would also get Punk over as the first person to really trouble him in a match.

Gimmicks like this can always come back from having their first loss, if it is booked right. Brock Lesnar did.

From the interview that Al Snow did it was clear that Ryback gassed on eating a big meal, never mind a 10 minute match. I think though that a Cell match may help as there will be moments where the supposed brutality of it will allow rest periods.

nasisillmatic wrote:While I agree his lack of mic skills will hold him back if it isn't addressed, does anyone know for certain that he cannot put on a good match? He has been on a development contract since 2005, I'm sure he's learned a lot in that time.
He has been put against jobbers and the odd mid carder since his debut, there was no way he was going more than 10 mins with any of them. He had to look to be a big step above all of them, this doesn't mean that once he takes on Punk, he can't last much longer. This would also get Punk over as the first person to really trouble him in a match.

Gimmicks like this can always come back from having their first loss, if it is booked right. Brock Lesnar did.

I think putting him with mid-carders and jobbers in short squash matches is deliberate though, most likely because he wouldn't be able to keep up that style for longer than ten minutes.

I agree that they can come back from their first loss, but Brock Lesnar had much more to his character than Ryback does. WWE will have to do a lot more development of Ryback's character before he comes anywhere near ready to be a decent main eventer.

At the end of the day, I don't think Ryback is that good, Goldberg was superior to him, even the likes of Batista and Bobby Lashley have been more interesting than Ryback for me.

I respect your opinion Crimey and can see where your coming from.

As you can tell I'm a fan of him, ever since he appeared on tough enough I thought he had something in him, and wasn't just another meat head. Hopefully he gets the chance to prove it.