What if WWE pulled the trigger on Ryback in 2013?

Honestly Ryback should have won the Rumble. Everyone knew Cena was facing Rock, him winning the Rumble wasn't necessary. Have Ryback win the Rumble and defeat Big Show at Mania for the WHC with the last image of him picking up Show. That's what should have happened imo.

That Hell in a Cell PPV did really good number so Ryback was over.

I think with good booking he would have been a real draw for a while (6 months to a year) but eventually his limitations would have been too much.

Still it's funny to think that Ryback might be the last guy to get over and make an impact on business.

Still would have ended with a lose to the rock, but it would have been ok with me, cause I liked Ryback, was entertaining and interesting, WWE in the end made nothing out of it.

Assuming they kept running with him basically being unstoppable and didn’t bog him down with bad storytelling and forced him to be unnecessarily weak...

Okay, he would’ve lost steam one way or another.

Wasn’t he a botch machine? I thought he kept hurting people so they scaled him back some time before that dope survivor series w/ the Dolph Ziggler miracle comeback

I’ll tell you what though, there is nobody in WWE that was as committed to developing their massive shoulder muscles as Ryback

That Ryback-Punk situation is a prime example of why they have needed to scrap the theme PPV shows for YEARS now.

The HIAC stip forced them essentially to book that feud into a match that didn’t need to even happen - and in the process the wonky finish ended up hurting a talent more than helping him - sound familiar?

Matches like HIAC, Elimination Chamber, TLC should be saved for stories or feuds where it actually makes sense - not just used for the sake of the PPV name!

Even MITB should be scrapped as a PPV. The gimmick match can be used at Wrestlemania and Summerslam adding 6-8 big time talents to the card in 1 match. The men have their big match at WM, the women have their big match at Summerslam, adding a huge attraction to each show.

Using gimmick matches simply because of a PPV name is inevitably gonna water down the concept. It’s almost ruined HIAC. If they’re not careful they will end up doing the same thing to WAR GAMES in NXT. Having the match each November simply because they feel the show needs to be called War Games? No one remembers how even that concept was practically ruined by WCW?

Just tell stories that revolve around the two talents that could/ should eventually (and sensibly) lead to a big gimmick blowoff.

Don’t try to squeeze the gimmick match into a story just for the sake of the gimmick.

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They should have. He was over as fuck, and as usual, they didn't strike while the iron was hot. In 6 months he went from arguably the most over guy, to then lose to Mark Henry, turn heel (when nobody wanted it) to lose to Cena, then Cryback, then Bully Ryback. And he never really recovered.

He would have been a main event star.

The only problem is that it would interfere with their intended plans to get the championship on The Rock since Ryback vs Rock face vs face at the Rumble would have been a bad dynamic.

They should have never hot shotted Ryback vs Punk. They saved one PPV and popped a buyrate but they did more long term damage to both Ryback and Punk.

Punk would have won the title back because the Rock needed to win it from a heel.

Insane how many PPV and big matches he lost from the HIAC on.

Im not sayinf the guy would have brought the business to a boom period but theybhad a little something here.

I have no doubt Ryback would be the “John Cena” WWE was looking for had be beaten Punk at HIAC; he was that over at this time from the unbeaten streak.

he wasn't and still is not capable of main event calibre matches. he would have been exposed quickly and it would have flopped.