>>18481801Ryback was never over. I know the guy is a meme here but outside the shitposting, who can tell who actually understands wrestling properly based on whether they think Ryback was over.
Ryback used to use his body actions, like an arm pump thing, and shout FEED ME MORE to try and get the crowd to chant. And they did, loudly. But this isn't being over. Wrestling crowds are desperate to chant and will join in with basically anything that they recognise. This isn't heat, its Pavlovian heat.
Being over is the idea that somebody is emotionally invested in your character. They have to care strongly about the results of your matches, even if thats "meta" such as marks complaining that someone's booking is bad.
Ryback had a very small amount of people who genuinely cared about him in an emotional investment way that would create interest or sell tickets.
In fact the Pavlovian heat was such a problem at that point that Daniel Bryans legitimate overness was confused for it until they started leaning into the "injustice" of his booking and built whole stories around it.
Getting a recognisable chant that you start yourself going isn't being over, emotional investment is. This is also why, and I say this as someone who doesn't even watch AEW really, AEW wrestlers are more over with their audience than WWE ones are outside the main event. The audience has an emotional connection to them. That audience deeply cares about these people and their successes. Nobody is emotionally invested in Finn Balors brother.
