WrestleMania The Best Way To Book Ryback Against The Shield

[Lockard 23]

We all know Ryback and The Shield are gonna collide in some way at Wrestlemania. We also know Ryback's gonna give some form of comeuppance to them. The only question is simply how best to book it, without making Ryback look like a total loser again or making The Shield look weak (losing one match won't do that, but losing to Ryback in a handicap match, for example, might.)

A tag team match is out of the question for me. It seemed like Ryback/Orton/Sheamus against the Shield was planned for Wrestlemania, but Orton seems to have now moved on from feuding with them. Sheamus too, because he cut a promo against Barrett on Raw not even an hour after losing to them for the second time. Plus, Ryback has lost three tag team matches against The Shield already. I know a handicap match is horrible as well, but that's why I suggest a gauntlet match. If anyone watched at the time, Ahmed Johnson had a gauntlet match against the Nation Of Domination (Faarooq, Crush, Savio Vega) at Cold Day In Hell 1997. He defeated Savio, then Crush got himself DQed by hitting him with a chair, which only further weakened him. Then, Faarooq finished him off. They could do a similar thing here. Have Ryback run through a member. Then another member. Have both 'matches' last about ten minutes each. Then have the last match - with Ambrose, probably - last about the same length, and have Ryback go down because he just can't sustain the energy against three different guys in a row. But by nearly accomplishing it, it puts Ryback over huge, as does what comes afterwards. (The only question is, can Ryback last for that long without totally breaking down in the ring?)

The Shield are about to gang attack Ryback after the match and further damage him, but a shitload of people come from the back (just like on Raw a week before EC) and surround and gang attacks the Shield themselves, giving them a taste of their own medicine. They then pick up The Shield and one at a time, they throw ("feed") them to Ryback, allowing him to put each of them through a table and stuff. And when they're picking them up and preparing to toss them to Ryback, it'd be cool if the fans chanted along accordingly, what with "feed me more" being his catchphrase and "feed me Shield" being something he's been saying lately.

This could be not only Ryback but the WWE locker room's delivery of comeuppance onto The Shield, with Ryback as the highlight of it. Plus, it gets a lot of people on the Wrestlemania show that would have been left off otherwise. That gets them a WM paycheck just for this one segment alone.

 

[BaraaKhalaf92]

I like the idea tbh, way better than Ryback going over in a 3 on 1 Handicap match, which won't make sense especially after he couldn't beat them with 2 superstars on his side.

 

[Aids Johnson]

We all know Ryback and The Shield are gonna collide in some way at Wrestlemania. We also know Ryback's gonna give some form of comeuppance to them. The only question is simply how best to book it, without making Ryback look like a total loser again or making The Shield look weak (losing one match won't do that, but losing to Ryback in a handicap match, for example, might.)

A tag team match is out of the question for me. It seemed like Ryback/Orton/Sheamus against the Shield was planned for Wrestlemania, but Orton seems to have now moved on from feuding with them. Sheamus too, because he cut a promo against Barrett on Raw not even an hour after losing to them for the second time. Plus, Ryback has lost three tag team matches against The Shield already. I know a handicap match is horrible as well, but that's why I suggest a gauntlet match. If anyone watched at the time, Ahmed Johnson had a gauntlet match against the Nation Of Domination (Faarooq, Crush, Savio Vega) at Cold Day In Hell 1997. He defeated Savio, then Crush got himself DQed by hitting him with a chair, which only further weakened him. Then, Faarooq finished him off. They could do a similar thing here. Have Ryback run through a member. Then another member. Have both 'matches' last about ten minutes each. Then have the last match - with Ambrose, probably - last about the same length, and have Ryback go down because he just can't sustain the energy against three different guys in a row. But by nearly accomplishing it, it puts Ryback over huge, as does what comes afterwards. (The only question is, can Ryback last for that long without totally breaking down in the ring?)

The Shield are about to gang attack Ryback after the match and further damage him, but a shitload of people come from the back (just like on Raw a week before EC) and surround and gang attacks the Shield themselves, giving them a taste of their own medicine. They then pick up The Shield and one at a time, they throw ("feed") them to Ryback, allowing him to put each of them through a table and stuff. And when they're picking them up and preparing to toss them to Ryback, it'd be cool if the fans chanted along accordingly, what with "feed me more" being his catchphrase and "feed me Shield" being something he's been saying lately.

This could be not only Ryback but the WWE locker room's delivery of comeuppance onto The Shield, with Ryback as the highlight of it. Plus, it gets a lot of people on the Wrestlemania show that would have been left off otherwise. That gets them a WM paycheck just for this one segment alone.

I agree, as always.:

 

[Leo C]

Great idea, sounds like something to happen at WM. No one looks weak and there's comeuppance for Ryback and the faces. Nice going.

 

[seabs]

I wonder if he could shell shock the 3 of them, Reigns may be the challenge.

 

[Crayo]

Fantastic way to book it. But if The Shield aren't remaining together for long, would having them go over Ryback serve any purpose?

 

[Lockard 23]

No, but I was thinking of a plausible way to have Ryback get some sort of 'victory' over The Shield without completely jobbing them all out (handicap or gauntlet match) to just one guy.

 

[Aids Johnson]

Fantastic way to book it. But if The Shield aren't remaining together for long, would having them go over Ryback serve any purpose?

I really think the best way to do it would be Ambrose goes over (you came) and then Reigns has a promo about the match being an undercard night for him, as he deserved a shot. Reigns vs Ambrose to prove who is better. It works well and they do work for another ppv or so, but then Reigns loses to some asshat like sheamus, and Ambrose chimes in about him saying he could have beaten the mighty ryback.

We have them go back and forth, both crushing ryback and sheamus (wet dream) and then eventually face each other mid summer, killing the shield and opening them up to singles.

It's a fantasy, but i'd like it. If you don't agree, tell me how you want it. Especially you @Seabs .

 

[RoyalRaven]

When reading this I was thinking a gauntlet match vs the shield, however I think the last one in would be Reigns and not Ambrose.

 

[Lockard 23]

When reading this I was thinking a gauntlet match vs the shield, however I think the last one in would be Reigns and not Ambrose.

The way I would see it going down would be him taking out Rollins first, then struggling with the big guy Reigns but overcoming him, and then he has to finish Ambrose but he's almost at the end of his rope and by the end, he eats a pin fall. I'm thinking of the different kind of match he would have with each of them - Rollins would be more fast paced and would try to use his quickness and maybe a bit of high flying to take down Ryback but it would ultimately fail, then the second match would be big man against big man and involve a lot of tests of strength and hard, impact moves. Here, Ryback would have to survive a lot of power moves but he would ultimately defeat Reigns. Then there's Ambrose, who Ryback would fail against. Not that he would be so weak that it would last only around a few minutes since that's a disappointing first Wrestlemania bout for Dean but it would be a lot more evenly matched (or tipped towards Ambrose's favor) because of Ryback just wrestling two other matches.

Also, Ambrose stands out more than anyone else in the group (to me, anyway, that backstage review of The Shield did say that Ambrose had more of the "it" factor than anyone else) and so it's fitting that he wins the match for The Shield. I could see the argument for Reigns being the last guy in though, being the big guy who puts Ryback away, even though Ryback would still make him struggle to do so.

 

[Mustafar Reginald]

Love the idea and I can legitimately see this happening (though my optimism towards The Shield and lack of paying attention most likely attribute to that) with the exception of the time you allotted to them. Each wrestler lasting around ten minutes just doesn't seem realistic to me, especially with the post-match portion. I mean, this PPV already has a Rock, Brock, and Taker match in the works, plus all other factors that take up time. Which is probably for the better considering otherwise means more in-ring time from Ryback. Just throwing that out there because I'd rather not just type "I love it" and actually try to contribute to the topic at hand. I'm well aware time management of the whole PPV isn't really the point here.