WWE Rumors: Ryback To Return Soon?

Everyone’s favorite ‘Big Guy’, Ryback has been cleared to return to the ring after recovering from his recent injury. He may be back on television in a month’s time, and there is speculation that the not-injured Curtis Axel is set to be back around the same time, possibly for the two men to reform the unpopular team of Rybaxel. Granted, I somewhat enjoyed them as a team and thought that being paired together might have been the last chance for either man to make it in WWE, but with Ryback’s short time off, I have come to feel differently about the matter.

Axel, I believe, is damaged goods and doesn’t stand much of a chance at making something of himself. He’s a good wrestler with decent presence but doesn’t seem to have “it” and that really drags him down. He sometimes feels like the product of a 10-year-old who got bored and didn’t finish his create-a-wrestler because his mom called him away to eat his grilled cheese.

Ryback, however, still has plenty of untapped potential. His initial face run was ruined by horrific booking and his subsequent heel turn was somehow able to top that by being handled even worse. He went from dominant face who beat up two or three guys at once to the first real threat to end CM Punk’s title reign to John Cena’s pity-party project and then became a choke-artist and finally a mid-card heel in a boring tag team. It was like an abridged version of WCW’s rise and fall.

But now he’s ready to come back. He has been on the shelf and off the radar for a few months, and the slate can realistically be wiped clean. There is speculation that his look may change, but unless it’s a significant metamorphosis it isn’t going to matter much, so he should just come back looking the same. Want to bring him back and have him make an immediate statement? We can look back to something that I have been advocating for a long time; the Sheamus heel turn.

Sheamus is a lame duck, dead fish, beached whale, clubbed seal — maybe that last one was a bit much — the Irishman is dead in the water and beyond stale. Finally turn the guy heel and have him go in a similar path that started Ryback’s career. He gets cocky and can’t find himself a challenge, so he spends a few weeks putting his title on the line in “triple threat elimination” matches in which he beats the living daylights out of both men and pins both at the same time. One week on RAW, have him talk about how his run as US Champion has been like a feeding frenzy and he just needs more.

Boom! Cue Ryback.

He challenges Sheamus for the title immediately and beats him in a brutal but short match, mostly dominating and winning the belt. Sheamus doesn’t get a rematch right away but both guys spend a few weeks beating up on multiple opponents in handicap matches. Ryback has fun with it but Sheamus just gets more and more frustrated and angry, getting very aggressive to the point where Ryback eventually comes to the aid of a pair of wrestlers being decimated by Sheamus. Ryback lays out the rematch challenge and they tangle in a much longer and more even contest that sees Ryback still win in very convincing fashion. Both men move on, with Ryback dominating as a face US Champion; this time utilizing his very entertaining personality instead of being a Goldberg clone. That will give him a shot at getting out of the man’s shadow — hell, it wasn’t even a good comparison in the first place.

Anyway, there’s more fantasy booking for me. I’d stop, but I’m just so darn good at it.

Nicholas A. Marsico is a pro wrestling writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter and Like him on Facebook!