10 WWE Superstars That Were Pushed And Then Punished
5. Ryback
Talk about someone straight from Vince McMahon's blueprint of a WWE main eventer. Ryback, formally Skip Sheffield from The Nexus of course, was elevated to main event status in double quick time after re-debuting as Goldberg V2 in April 2012. His run as the machine-like babyface kicked off with a number of matches against tiny local guys on SmackDown, matches that were put on only to show how strong The Big Guy is. After taking apart a whole catalogue of indie wrestlers, he would tackle some of the lesser names on the WWE roster with the same effect. It seemed WWE were building a streak of sorts made famous by someone of a similar ilk in WCW, but someone Ryback and the powers that be openly looked to divert any comparisons from. After defeating the Intercontinental Champion The Miz in a non-title match on RAW later in 2012, Ryback confronted the WWE Champion CM Punk at the end of the show after the straight edger attacked Mick Foley. Ryback would Begin a rivalry with Punk and RAW GM Brad Maddox. The-then champion would allude to this feud quite frequently in his podcast appearance with Colt Cabana last year... Numerous title shots, some against new champion John Cena, came to nothing as push number one came to a close when a renewed, and ultimately unsuccessful rivalry with The Shield and then Chris Jericho came to their respective heads. Then came the ultimately pointless and seemingly unplanned tag team of RybAxel with Curtis Axel. This really was a kick in the teeth for both men who had been afforded little time to make their real mark in the company. From an fan's perspective, it was just as if WWE said: "We've got nothing for these guys, let's stick them in a team." Thankfully, for Ryback at least, RybAxel broke up and The Big Guy resumed his place in the upper echelons of the WWE roster where he is one of the most popular superstars in the company today. Surely a title run, whether that be the big one or one of the secondary titles, is on its way.
