Ryback – How successful will he be as a heel?

As WWE rolled into second gear from WrestleMania, this past week’s RAW came to us from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Going into RAW, the WWE Universe was eagerly anticipating to see the WrestleMania fallout; the RAW events after WrestleMania are generally interesting, and this RAW was no different. Although, the talking points of RAW from NJ weren’t the performers, but the fans who had flown over for the WrestleMania weekend. The fans were entertaining to say the least, and there were two ‘big moments’ on RAW. One was Dolph Ziggler cashing in his money in the bank briefcase, and the other was Ryback attacking Cena at the end of the show to make his intentions clear that he would face Cena at the upcoming PPV.

Although the biggest news coming out of RAW was Ziggler finally cashing in his briefcase to become the new World Heavyweight champion, RAW closed with Ryback standing over Cena with the WWE title in his hands. The internet since then has been abuzz with talks about Ryback turning heel, and that might have already happened. Is Ryback now a full-fledged heel? Although he has been booked to partner up with Dolph Ziggler to face Cena and ADR at house shows, this still doesn’t take away the possibility that Ryback might still be a face. The crowd popped when Ryback brought down Cena with a meat hook clothesline, and at the end of the night, Ryback was being cheered by the NJ crowd.

We have to understand one thing – you turn heel when you attack a babyface. Cena, to his disadvantage might just be the lousiest babyface in the industry. Cena gets about 20% crowd support wherever he goes, and gets booed by the rest. That doesn’t mean Cena is a heel, or a bad guy, and that’s the sad point about people turning heel on Cena. Think about this, when Punk was a heel, he was booed, but as soon as he attacked Cena in the Summer of ’11 and challenged him for the WWE title, he became a huge babyface! That is something that can only happen if you’re a heel. Let’s now turn our attention to a returning Brock Lesnar last year. Lesnar attacked Cena and received one of the biggest pops of last year! Does that mean Brock is a face? No.

The disadvantage Cena and WWE faces while turning people heel on the champion, is that Cena is not a legitimate babyface. Yes, he is a good guy, and yes, he is marketable. The meaning of a babyface is ‘A guy who is liked by all the fans’. So technically, that takes Cena out of the ‘babyface’ contention. And the other thing about Ryback is that he is a monster for whom the fans like to cheer. Many times, WWE has gone into a PPV with a ‘good guy vs good guy’ concept, and this might turn out to be the same. Does it imply that Ryback is still a face? No one knows, until we get to next week’s RAW where we will get all the answers.

Now the point comes where we question the impact of Ryback as a heel. I for one, do not think Ryback will get over the fans as a heel. He is very limited on the mic and on the ‘working the crowd’ part. As a face, it’s pretty simple to get over the crowd, and Ryback has done that successfully, albeit he had taken some time to do so. Now, is Ryback as good as Lesnar in becoming a heel? The answer is a simple no. Ryback is a babyface power house who decimates his opponents. It is as simple as Goldberg’s WCW run. Could Goldberg ever be a good heel? Eric and WCW management were intelligent enough to realize that can never happen, and so, he remained a crowd favourite. WWE can take the gamble to turn Ryback into heel and see how the crowd reacts, but I’m afraid they might cheer him on, which won’t be an ‘Orton heel cheer’, but a more ‘we don’t care’ cheer, which isn’t a good thing.

In the end, if WWE wanted to turn Ryback heel, they should have had him attack a babyface that the crowd likes. They could have ‘fed’ him a Zack Ryder or a Chris Jericho, but I understand WWE needs a new contender for the WWE title and to get into a feud with Cena. Although I might be wrong in my analysis, and Ryback might end up as a believable heel, but when you get the crowd to cheer ‘Feed me more’ just after attacking the WWE champion, who I remind you again, is a good guy, there is a big possibility that this might just backfire. Ryback has been pretty successful till now as a baby face, and someone who might become the #2 babyface in the company after Cena (The reason I put Cena in the ‘babyface’ category now is because of his character and marketability). It all depends on how the crowds at the house shows receive Ryback. If they still cheer him on, WWE might take the ‘face vs face’ route for the WWE title. But if the crowd makes Ryback a believable heel, then we might just see a new dimension to his character.

Do I think Ryback will be a believable heel? No. But I’ve been wrong before, and I might be wrong again. 3 months down the line, if Ryback gets over the fans as a top heel, then it’s a job well done by the WWE and Ryback himself. Till then, we can only provide opinion about what’s right and what’s wrong.