CM Punk vs Ryback = Bad Booking

So this is the first post I have written in a long time, and I mean a long time! It’s been even longer since I wrote anything about WWE, but here goes, so please bear with me and if you comment (I’d love to know what you think, good or bad) please be nice ha!

Firstly, before I get into anything to do with the Punk/Ryback feud, I have to say I’m not, wasn’t, or probably will ever be the biggest Ryback fan, but I can see the potential in his future and if it’s done right, I think he could be pretty huge within the company. I’ll be honest, when Ryback first debuted, I hated everything about the gimmick. On the whole ‘Skip Sheffield’ wasn’t a bad gimmick, but when he came back as ‘Ryback’ I didn’t get why they repackaged him into such a terrible gimmick.

The endless squash matches, every one of them being more and more pointless filler on every show including PPVs and the gimmick as a whole, the robot/machine gimmick, is so 80’s! It was completely unrealistic! It’s like if the Kane or Undertaker gimmicks debuted in WWE today; no one would buy into them because there’s nothing to relate to as a fan. Seriously, no one was ever going to buy into him on a long-term basis if they didn’t tweak and turn the gimmick. Thankfully WWE did change him slightly and he’s working well, but then WWE stupidly decided to push him into the WWE Championship picture? Can anyone say too much, too soon?! *cough* Sheamus! *cough*

Now, onto why I think this that this is such bad booking. It’s obvious that WWE (and more importantly Vince) are really high on Ryback at the minute and why not? The crowd love him! The comparison to Goldberg may hurt him in the long run, but that’s what wrestling fans as a whole do, so it’s no big thing at the minute. Because they’re so high on Ryback, it’s probably why he’s still undefeated and I would have thought that he was going to remain undefeated for a long time.

So why, in WWE’s infinite wisdom, have they thought that it would be a good idea to firstly, have his first actual feud against the WWE Champion and secondly have a match for the WWE Championship, when they’ve got no intention of putting the belt on him?

Basically, the way I see it, in one night, WWE are going to destroy Ryback’s momentum and make him look pretty weak in the process. As I’m writing this, there’s a week to go until the Hell in a Cell PPV and there have been reports of WWE still not knowing how to finish this match, and honestly I’m not surprised! There’s no way they can make Punk look good as the champion, keep Ryback’s momentum going and have the majority of the fans go home happy and looking forward to the following night’s Raw. I understand WWE have backed themselves into a corner with the way they push John Cena. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Cena fan, but it’s a shame that they rely so much on one superstar. To go with having Ryback step up was a bad call.

The easiest thing to do would have been to have Vince take the decision away from Punk and announce some sort of match to determine the new Number One Competitor. Even if the match was an over the top rope battle royal full of superstars who have never been WWE Champion and have Cena backstage with the one he wants to win, keeping him involved. Possibly R-Truth or Kofi, someone who’s established enough that the push would be a shock but believable, and they wouldn’t suffer from a loss to CM Punk in the long run.

So what are WWE going to do to make the ending of the match good enough for the fans to go home happy and both Punk and Ryback look strong? The only thing I can think is if Ryback takes a huge bump. Not Mick Foley huge, because I don’t think he would do anything like that and I don’t think WWE would want to go down that route with them being PG. Maybe Ryback could do a Shawn Michaels style bump from the first Hell in a Cell. Go through the announce table and get stretchered out, the match gets thrown out and while Punk is cutting a promo, Ryback comes back out and decimates him. This would help them both to look strong and Ryback would still be undefeated.

The only other thing I can think of is Brock Lesnar getting involved, but this would bring up more problems than solutions. It would be a waste of one of Lesnar’s very few appearances; it would inevitably change the continuation of the Lesnar/Triple H feud; and what would happen after that? There would have to be some sort of altercation or at least a promo between Lesnar and Ryback. I really hope they don’t go this way with the finish, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did.

Whatever the finish is, I may not be looking forward to it in the conventional sense, but I’m looking forward to it purely to see if WWE drop the ball as they unfortunately have a habit of doing. I’m sure at the very least John Cena will have some sort of involvement.

I really hope if nothing else, WWE will finally learn from this whole situation that they need to develop and push more stars, other than John Cena. I know that seems contradictory of the whole post because they are pushing Ryback, but I don’t think anyone can disagree that it is far too soon to have Ryback in the WWE Championship picture, and there are far more deserving superstars who could take John Cena’s place.

What do you think the finish of the CM Punk vs. Ryback match will be? Do you agree? Disagree?

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