Can he do it? The announcers openly wondered on SmackDown. They doubted Rybacks ability to deliver a Shellshock on Mark Henry. Its a fair question. Or, it would be a fair one if we hadnt seen him do it before. He may claim its feeding time, but I dont think hes ever had this much on his plate before. Jerry Lawler chimed in. Actually yeah. Yes he has. For starters, how about The Big Show? Hes clearly larger than Henry. And why did they question Rybacks ability to win since hes beat The Worlds Strongest man multiples times, for example, like June 22nd on Raw. Two weeks ago. So Henry lost in one minute and twenty seconds to The Big Show on this week's Raw. A pretty pathetic loss right? So that could be a story. Is he nearing the end? That's something. Or maybe, Big Show is super pissed off, and can beat a former world champ in 80 seconds. That's also something. But by the time SmackDown airs...nothing. The announcers talk about how scary and intimidating Henry is, as if the Raw match never happened. So why bother with the quick knock out in the first place? Former world champs getting crushed means nothing. This is why nobody gains momentum in the company, because the storylines and announcing dont put anything over in a meaningful way. Nothing sticks. What you are watching on Raw may not matter by the time SmackDown comes around. It all feels so hopeless at times. WWE have all these rich, past angles, like The House of Pain and Henrys fake retirement angle to build off of. Hes been invested in by defeating top stars cleanly in the past. Theres so much to work with, but they don't. It all goes to waste, because nobody bothers.
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
