DOES CRYBACK RULE, OR IS HE FEEDING US TEARS?
WWE RAW comes live to us tonight from Sioux city Iowa, and the road to money in the bank is beginning to heat up. Last week, the universe was treated to a fine performance to end the show, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton battling it out in a street fight, with Bryan picking up a clean victory. For the wrestling purest, the two superstars put on a memorable performance, and it was nice for raw to end with an entertaining match with a clean result. Today's pre-show review will focus on the developing feud between Ryback and Chris Jericho, Ziggler and Del Rios entertaining exchanges, as well as the Heyman Punk love hate affair, and a look at this years money in the bank participants.
Cryback!Cryback!Cryback FEED ME TEARS
Chris Jericho is pure gold. Since his return to the WWE, Jericho has managed to ruffle the feathers of all the top superstars, and has kept the audience entertained through out. But what he also does, is set the benchmark for the new superstars to put there newly found WWE status to the test. He has put on some outstanding performances, week in week out against the old and the new. Although his win to loss record is nothing to shout about, he has in the process put over some of brightest rising stars in WWE, including the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, Big E Langston, and even Ryback himself. He not only performs on both raw and Smackdown, but he also makes appearances on the NXT show, putting on a great match against Bray Wyatt in his recent outings. He has now turned his attention to Ryback, who is still licking his wounds from being beaten by Cena, and still searches for the acceptance of the WWE universe.
Goldberg Goldberg Goldberg
You hear it at every show, the Goldberg chants show no signs of letting off. When given the microphone chants of boring have been evident, the fans have simply not warmed to him since his path of destruction began in 2012. I think the writers and Ryback must take blame for this. It was obvious that last year, Ryback was propelled into the main event scene prematurely. It was meant to be the summer of Punk and Cena, but Cenas injury meant a replacement was forced in the hands of the writers. They opted for Ryback, a man that was steam rolling through the roster, and his win loss record in the run up to survivor series was 40 and 0. Although many would rightly argue that the majority of his matches, pitted him against local and mid card wrestlers, nevertheless, WWE had been planning to make Ryback a dominant main event player eventually. However, his ascendency in to the main event scene was rushed. The problem was that it was the summer of punk, his long reign as WWE champion was at its peak. The only man that WWE had in mind to stop him was The Rock, everyone new this to be the case. Punk vs the Rock followed by The Rock vs Cena equalled money, and Ryback was far from an established superstar for officials to believe he could rub shoulders with the rock. So he lost against punk, albeit an unclean victory for punk. He would go on to loose another pay per view again and again and again, to the point that Ryback has gone on to loose in all seven of his pay per view appearance! As noted last week, unless your Brock Lesnar, its a much more challenging task for superstars in the mould of a wrecking machine like Ryback to gain legitimacy. The only way for Ryback to be a legitimate beast is for him to put over most superstars a lot of the time the same way Sheamus is. His growth should have been organic, dominating mid card titles before breaking in to the the title picture, much like goldberg in his devastating run to the top(he was the united states champion before reaching his peak). Unfortunately for him, he was the wrong man at the wrong time.
But what about the man himself?
Many would argue that Ryback has done himself no favours in the development of his character. WWE fans have been less than impressed by Rybacks promo skills, with many arguing the beast should have remained muted. His chants of feed me more before his heel turn seems to have been replaced with Ryback Rules in his current heel character, again, the face to heel turn being something that was rushed. Its not for the lack of trying. Ryback has put in the effort with the microphone, especially since his heel turn were he was given a lot more microphone time, but his execution hasn't blown me away. His in ring ability has improved. The problem many have had with Ryback is that he was still green when he was thrown in to the title picture. Again this can be blamed on the writers, because the only notable superstars Ryback fought before his title opportunity was Dolph Ziggler, The Miz and Tensai which is hardly enough time to gain televised competitive experience before a WWE title match. By the time he feuded with Cena, he had improved a lot. But again the writers should take some blame. How do you legitimise a man who lost the previous night at wrestlemania, to then be the number one contender for the title, with the backdrop of the story being a sob story about how Cena never saved him. Instead of having him win a number one contenders spot, he simply got given one. Again, a lack of legitimacy means a lack of a reaction by the audience, and although the match at payback was a great match, the storyline was lacklustre.
This is were Y2J comes in to play
Improvements in Rybacks in ring skill were evident in some great exchanges between Ryback and Jericho on two episodes of Smackdown. The pair worked really well together, and the matches were praised by the WWE universe. Ryback needs to find that legitimacy again, and has the perfect chance to do so. A decent feud with Jericho, followed by a great match, will get him noticed again. He has the opportunity to put himself back on the map because Jericho is such a great worker both on promos and in the ring. Ryback must be put over at money in the bank, for him to hold on to any legitimacy. A defeat for Ryback, will be a devastating blow, and a sign WWE may not have plans for him in the near future, his omission from money in the bank being a statement to back that up!
