RYAN REEVES ! RYBACK

Ryan Reeves (November 10, 1981) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs under the ring name Ryback. After being one of the eight finalists on WWE Tough Enough 4, he later signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and wrestled in its developmental territories Deep South Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling, and Florida Championship Wrestling. He also participated in the first season of NXT in early 2010 under the ring name Skip Sheffield. Reeves headlined four pay-per-view events for WWE in the early 2010s, three of those for the WWE Championship. As of May 31, 2015, he is the current WWE Intercontinental Champion.Reeves started watching wrestling at the age of 8 and was allowed to ring the bell at a live World Wrestling Federation event. Wanting to become a professional wrestler, Reeves began weight lifting at 12 years old. He was nicknamed "Silverback" as a teenager, after a childhood friend joked that he resembled a Gorilla, and later adopted it as a part of his ring name. Reeves excelled at baseball and football while attending Western High School and Palo Verde High School. He also played college baseball during his freshman year at the Community College of Southern Nevada, but broke his leg and ended up missing two seasons. Reeves attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and entered in its fitness management program.

After training in DSW for most of 2005 and early 2006, Reeves was transferred over to Ohio Valley Wrestling in early March. He defeated Kasey James, Pat Buck, Da Beast and Nick Nemeth in dark matches over the next two months and, with Mikey Batts, defeated the teams of Billy Kryptonite and Russell Simpson, and Jack Bull and Vic Devine.

The two did not fare well against the trio losing both tag team and single matches to them during the next few weeks. On October 18, he and Bolen also lost to them in a handicap match. Things soon changed however when High Dosage beat Eddie Craven and Mike Kruel a month later. As a result of their victory, they were allowed five minutes alone with Shawn Osbourne but he was able to escape with the help of Craven and Kruel. Although continuing to face their rivals throughout the year, High Dosage also won matches against Los Locos and Bad Company defeating them later in a Handicap Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole match on November 29. On December 9, High Dosage teamed with Seth Skyfire and lost to Craven, Kruel and Milena Roucka. Reeves also took part in a four-way Elimination Christmas Present match with Kruel four days later. The participants included Justin LaRoche and Charles Evans, T.J. Dalton and Steve Lewington, and Seth Skyfire and Paul Burchill who eventually won the match.

On January 6, 2007, High Dosage lost to Justin LaRouche and Charles Evans. They also lost to the Tag Team Champions Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears four days later. This was their last match together as Reeves was officially released from his contract less than two weeks later. Despite having been released from his developmental contract, Reeves returned to OVW on November 14 and teamed with Pat Buck in a losing effort to Colt Cabana and Shawn Spears for the Tag Team Championship.

After over a year's absence from OVW, Reeves returned to OVW under the ring name Ryback and under a new Terminator gimmick. In his first match since returning, he managed to win the Heavyweight Championship on October 15, 2008 by defeating Anthony Bravado. After wrestling Bravado to a double count-out on October 22 and thus retaining the title, he ultimately lost the title to Bravado on October 29. Soon after the title loss, Reeves was then re-signed to a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. To explain his departure, Ryback lost a Loser Leaves OVW match to Bravado on December 17.

On December 16, 2008, Reeves, under his Ryback ring name and character, made his in-ring debut in Florida Championship Wrestling, losing a tag match with Jon Cutler against Kris Logan and Taylor Rotunda. Ryback soon formed a tag team with Sheamus O'Shaunessy and the duo unsuccessfully challenged for the Florida Tag Team Championship on a few occasions until O'Shaunessy was called up to the main roster. After the Ryback character was scrapped, Reeves made his FCW redebut on October 25 under the ring name Skip Sheffield, a cowboy gimmick, where he defeated Jimmy Uso.

On February 16, 2010 during the final episode of ECW, Sheffield was announced as one of eight FCW wrestlers, called "rookies", to take part in the first season of WWE's new NXT show. Although Montel Vontavious Porter was originally to be his mentor, or "pro", he was later replaced by William Regal. Sheffield made his NXT in-ring debut on the March 2 episode, where he teamed with Regal to lose to Matt Hardy and Justin Gabriel. On the April 27 NXT, Sheffield picked up his first victory with a win over Daniel Bryan. However, Sheffield was eliminated by the Pros on May 11, despite an earlier win over Darren Young, in the first NXT elimination poll. He was one of three eliminations that same night, behind Bryan and Michael Tarver, and said he would be back.

On the June 7 episode of Raw, Sheffield along with the other NXT season one rookies, interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors as well as the announcing team before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment. On the June 14 Raw, the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts. The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new General Manager, who had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts. The following week, the group was named the Nexus. On the July 12 Raw, The Nexus (without Darren Young) competed in their first match together, defeating John Cena in a six-on-one handicap match. The feud continued at SummerSlam, where Team WWE fought the Nexus in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match. Sheffield eliminated both John Morrison and R-Truth from the match before becoming the third member of the Nexus to be eliminated. Ultimately, the Nexus lost the match. On August 18, during a live event in Honolulu, Hawaii, Reeves broke his ankle in a tag team match with David Otunga against The Hart Dynasty.

Ryback returned on the October 27 edition of Raw, as a face, defeating Bo Dallas. On the November 10 edition of Raw, Ryback joined Team Authority by attacking Cena, thus teasing a heel turn. However, this was later proven to be a ruse when he attacked Team Authority and defected to Team Cena. Ryback was eliminated by Rusev, but Team Cena won the match, putting The Authority out of power. Ryback defeated Team Authority member Kane in a Chairs match at TLC. After Seth Rollins coaxed Cena to bring The Authority back into power, Ryback, along with Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler, were (kayfabe) fired by Triple H on the January 5 episode of Raw as punishment for insubordination, but they were re-hired after Cena defeated Rollins, Kane and Big Show in a handicap match on the January 19 episode of Raw. On the January 22 episode of SmackDown, Ryback defeated Rusev via count-out to earn a spot in the Royal Rumble match, where he was eliminated by Big Show and Kane. At Fastlane, he teamed with Rowan and Ziggler in a six-man tag team match against Rollins, Big Show and Kane, but lost. Ryback participated in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31, but was eliminated by the eventual winner, Big Show. On the Raw following Extreme Rules, Ryback was attacked by Bray Wyatt (who sent a series of mysterious promos aimed at Ryback weeks prior), leading to a match at Payback, which Ryback lost.

At Elimination Chamber, Ryback won the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship, his first title in WWE, by defeating Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, King Barrett, Mark Henry and R-Truth in an Elimination Chamber match. The following night, before Ryback was scheduled to make his first title defense against The Miz, Big Show attacked Miz and confronted Ryback, starting a feud between the two. At Money in the Bank, Big Show defeated Ryback by disqualification after Miz attacked him; Ryback retained the title as a result. It was later announced that that Ryback would defend the title against Big Show and Miz in a triple threat match at Battleground.