10 Times WWE Dropped The Ball With Ryback

1. Turning Heel At The Peak Of His Popularity

Ryback working out
WWE.com

I discussed earlier how the first mistake WWE made with Ryback was having him lose to CM Punk at Hell in a Cell. Their next mistake was having him lose at every pay-per-view from that point forward. Despite all that, hope was not yet lost for The Big Guy, and there was still a chance he could succeed as a singles star.

But his biggest pitfall without a doubt was his heel turn the night removed from WrestleMania 29.

That was the absolute worst thing WWE could have done with Ryback because, without his patented "Feed Me More" chant, he had nothing going for him. His promos were barely passable at the time and his in-ring work still needed improvement, but WWE needed a heel for Cena to work with, so they decided to have Ryback go rogue. It worked in the short term, but was an epic failure in the long-haul.

Once Ryback was finished feuding with Cena, he attempted to adopt a bullying gimmick, but it led him to nowhere but dark matches and 'WWE Superstars.' After a while, fans simply stopped caring, thanks to WWE's lack of long-term vision for him. He eventually reverted back to his babyface roots, but his days as a potential main event level performer were long gone, and thus it shouldn't shock anyone that he now wants out of the company that dropped the ball on him so many times before.

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Contributor

Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.