A Diet of Wins Alone Is Not Necessary: Hell in a Cell Preview

Eating doesn't necessarily mean "winning"
Photo Credit: WWE.com

What is Ryback? Not who, but what does the actual Ryback character represent? What is the most important part of the character? People who are throwing their analysis into the main event of Hell in a Cell this weekend aren't asking those questions. Instead, if they're asking anything, they're asking "How bad is WWE going to fuck up Ryback if they take his win streak away from him?" On the surface, that's a fair question to ask. The streak is a big thing. Much like Goldberg, the name snarky fans have chanted since Ryback has reappeared under that name in the springtime, he's a bald, musclebound brute with an impressive finisher (Shell Shocked is pretty impressive), an even better set-up move (dat lariat... whoooo) and a win streak. But really, are those comparisons enough to say that Ryback is the same as Goldberg, and that his streak defines him?

The answer, to me, is that it doesn't. John Cena even made this eminently clear when he passed on the chance to wrestle at Hell in a Cell in favor of Ryback. He spoke pretty forcefully about how Ryback may not even care about being Champion, something that would require him to, duh, win matches. Ryback doesn't chant his record. He doesn't make a big deal out of his streak in character. He demands to be fed. He just wants meat. It doesn't matter if that meat is fed to him in a sanctioned environment or whether it's like the time Jack Swagger ran his mouth and got meathooked for his troubles without a bell ringing other than the one in his head.

To me, there's a far better story that can be told here that doesn't involve a title switch, a run-in or even a pinfall. Ryback has been beating people in wrestling matches for months, but they've been able to walk away and fight another day. Even the jobbers he annihilated have all lived to tell about. What if the next evolution isn't him going from beating jobbers to midcarders to main event guys, but from beating people to absolutely consuming. What if Ryback doesn't care about wins and losses, but he just cares about beating the everloving shit out of people until they're lifeless heaps of skin and bone?

In a way, it's the best way to go, and it's far easier than having a fuck finish or a clean victory either way. Ryback would just demolish Punk after giving him Shell Shocked, showing he's really not interested in winning the match. He couldn't be DQed, because it's in the cell. He would devour Punk and the referee who trying to stop him. The cavalry would come down to stop it but would have trouble because of the bottleneck at the cell entrance. Ryback would totally rip through everyone until someone went to extreme means to subdue him (maybe a cattle prod in a trolling nod the end of Goldberg's streak?).

Cena would look intelligent in letting Ryback go after Punk first. Punk would have injuries to overcome to keep his belt over Cena at Survivor Series, giving him his vaunted "moment" that everyone seems to think he doesn't have. Ryback would be viewed as too dangerous to let near the title any time soon, and his WrestleMania story could begin. To me, that's more intriguing than anything that anyone else seems to think they have to do.

Why would that be the case? Let's answer the questions from start. What does Ryback represent? Death, destruction, entropy... hunger. What is the most important part of his character? It's not winning. It's devouring. There are many different ways that he can devour CM Punk without having to eat the WWE Championship too...

...although I would pay good money to see Ryback literally eat that title belt.