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WWE: Ryback’s Departure and What it Means for Big Guys

By AJ Balano

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With Ryback officially no longer with WWE as of August 8, yet another talent has left the promotion under no-so-friendly terms. He was always the kind of superstar WWE has always sought after, though. What does this mean moving forward?

The prevailing paradigm in WWE for the past 30+ years has been that Vince McMahon likes big guys. Huge, hulking, mammoth men who towered over the average civilian. Most of their rosters of that duration, both faces and heels, fit that mold. Overtime, WWE’s definition of “big” grew to include bodybuilders, professional athletes, and fitness models, but at the end of the day, WWE was always known as the “Land of Giants”.

After a lengthy dispute beginning in May, Ryback and the WWE have officially parted ways. However, what is interesting about Ryback’s departure compared to other recent ones, is that Ryback was by definition, exactly the kind of superstar that WWE and Vince McMahon have historically preferred. So much so, that Ryback’s nickname was “The Big Guy”, an obvious reference to WWE’s precedent of nearly three decades.

must read: WWE Officially Releases Ryback After Lengthy Dispute

Ryback had the look that Vince and WWE liked. He was big, he was muscular, and much to his credit, he was far more athletic and could compete in the ring at today’s high level, as opposed to the lumbering behemoths of eras past. Ryback had a personality and was relatively solid on the mic, and he could work with men bigger than him (such as Kane) and men smaller than him (Kalisto). By all accounts, WWE hit the jackpot when they first introduced Ryback.

Ryback emerged in WWE perhaps a generation or two late

So, what happened? As unfortunate as it may sound, Ryback emerged in WWE perhaps a generation or two late. By the time of his TV debut as Ryback, the company had entered a paradigm shift where the two biggest stars were not necessarily the big guys in John Cena and Batista or Randy Orton; instead, it was men physically smaller in stature than Ryback in CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Things would get further complicated for Ryback with the debut of The Shield; two of its three members were also smaller guys in Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Ryback’s story is the quintessential tale of right place, wrong time, ironically, much like Roman Reigns.

Despite having everything that WWE looked for in their male talent, Ryback found himself poorly booked, a point that has drawn the ire of many fans and wrestlers in regards to WWE. The company simply does not know what to do with the wealth of talent in their roster, which has led to many unfortunate departures, highlighted Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow. Much like those three individuals, WWE missed out on a golden opportunity with Ryback.

But is there historical precedent for this treatment of big guys in WWE, despite it being the supposed land of giants? Over the years, big guys and giants would come and go in WWE, with many of them not amounting to much; to no fault of their own, WWE simply didn’t know how to present them, ironically since they were exactly what they were looking for. Talent such as Nathan Jones, Matt Morgan, Snitsky, Heidenreich, Mark Jindrak, Renee Dupree, Umaga, Bobby Lashley, Chris Masters, all of whom were built much like Ryback, suffered the same fate. Why is this? If these types of athletes are what WWE is looking for, why do so many of them not pan out in the end?

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Perhaps the answer lies in character. Most of the names listed above, while came equipped with a gimmick, may not have had the charisma to pull it off, or enough of it to impress WWE. Of the names, Chris Masters had everything, similar to Ryback: the look, the physique, the entrance, and the gimmick. WWE brands itself as sports-entertainment. While all of its roster are wrestlers, what separates the good wrestlers from the great wrestlers is entertainment. Can you entertain the crowd? Does the crowd care about you? Despite their impressive size, majority of big guys historically in WWE, have been bland or uninspiring, causing them to flounder around the middle or bottom of the crowd, or to disappear altogether. Size matters, yes, but in WWE, it’s not the only thing that matters; it’s one piece out of many that are needed to complete the puzzle of what makes a superstar in WWE.

Punk was the rebellious anti-hero and Bryan got every arena in America to stand and point their fingers to the sky in unison. Both men were physically smaller than the average WWE big guy, but they were able to entertain the crowd in their own unique ways, as opposed to just stand there and look physically imposing, hoping the audience would be awestruck, much like how they were and still are by a big guy such as Brock Lesnar. Lesnar’s return to WWE in 2012 may have unintentionally hurt Ryback’s stock as well because now Ryback, as impressive looking as he was, he was no longer the only big guy; there was another, much bigger, much more athletic, much more dominant, much more credible big guy in the company who people would pay money to see in Lesnar.

Ryback departs the WWE with a solid career. His best work was the 6-Man Tag at Survivor Series against the debuting Shield, and his second title match against Kalisto for the United States Championship at Payback. He leaves at a time that could have been beneficiary to his career as we enter this New Era and brand split; he could have been huge on Smackdown. We’ll never get to see a Ryback vs. Roman Reigns feud, and more importantly, with Goldberg seemingly to return to WWE programming to promote WWE 2K17, we’ll never get to see the Ryback-Goldberg encounter that fans have been clamoring for ever since they started chanting Goldberg at Ryback.

Being just a big guy in WWE no longer guarantees you anything. It may have back in the days of Hogan, Warrior, Razor, and Diesel, but not so much now

Ryback’s story is a lesson. WWE has changed. Hiring practices, what they look for, everything. To quote Bull Dempsey, another big guy who left WWE, Ryback is one of the last of a dying breed. The breed of a classic big guy, a throwback to the late 80s and early 90s, and even the PG era, where Ryback surely would have flourished against the likes of John Cena and Batista in their prime. Being just a big guy in WWE no longer guarantees you anything. It may have back in the days of Hogan, Warrior, Razor, and Diesel, but not so much now. These days, it’s the smaller guys who are running the joint; Rollins, Ambrose, Balor, Zayn, and an entire fleet of cruiserweights waiting in the wings.

Next: Ryback: Another Missed Opportunity by WWE

You can’t just be big and be a character anymore, which was most likely Vince’s sole criteria. You have to be able to produce quality matches, something that Triple H most likely introduced during his tenure as COO, which explains why he believes in the smaller guys like Rollins and Zayn. After Vince is gone, WWE will likely be run by Triple H, Shane McMahon, and Stephanie McMahon sooner than later, and the shift towards smaller, leaner, athletic, credible, experienced talent has been in effect for nearly four years now. We may be witnessing the phasing out of the big guy paradigm, the last stand of the land of giants. The Big Guy was, unfortunately, the right guy at the right place at the wrong time.

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