10 WWE Gimmicks That Were Basically Just Rip-Offs

10. Goldberg/Ryback

Goldberg Ryback A bald, ridiculously muscular man who squashed his opponents and used a running attack as the set-up to his finisher. Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah, that sounds like Bill Goldberg, possibly the second most popular wrestler in the late 90s (next to another bald man)! Fans were familiar with his time tearing it up in WCW, as well as the year he spent in the WWE before he decided that he'd had enough of the wrestling business. Apparently WWE wasn't ready to let Goldberg go, so they eventually created what they thought was the next best thing. Enter Skip Sheffield, the NXT competitor who proudly wore his cowboy hat. That's about all he had going for him upon his debut. Vince McMahon saw something in him, or maybe he just saw someone else. After being injured, Skip re-debuted as the unstoppable Ryback. Even though he was no longer wearing black trunks, fans were smelling a copycat from a mile away. Try as Ryback might, the Rob Van Dam inspired outfit wasn't going to take anyone's mind off of Goldberg. Unlike "da man", Ryback didn't gain traction with the fans first, he was clearly a product of McMahon. Some fans bought into it, but many just weren't interested in this repeat. "Goldberg" chants followed Ryback throughout his entire babyface run, and continue to haunt him to this day. Unlike Goldberg, Ryback never really reached the top. WWE didn't go all in on him, and made their unbeatable monster beatable. That kind of defeated the entire purpose of the act. Now, WWE doesn't seem to have any idea what it's doing with Ryback, and the results aren't pretty. Currently, he seems to be doing a better impression of Barry Horowitz than he is of Bill Goldberg.
 
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As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com