Just a few weeks ago, most wrestling fans thought that Ricochet was in line for a significant push. He had, after all, been booked in a prominent match against Brock Lesnar as the Saudi Arabia ‘Super Showdown’ event. Nobody seriously expected him to win the WWE Championship from Lesnar – that’s very obviously Drew McIntyre’s job at WrestleMania, but we were all expecting him to put in a similar performance to other smaller wrestlers who have worked with Lesnar recently. Finn Balor, AJ Styles, and Daniel Bryan have all looked great while losing to Lesnar. There was no reason Ricochet couldn’t do the same.
As you no doubt know by now, that isn’t what happened. Lesnar blew through Ricochet in less than two minutes. Ricochet didn’t get a single offensive move in. In execution and effect, it was similar to the way that Lesnar took the WWE Championship from Kofi Kingston when WWE debuted on FOX last year. Kingston has never recovered from being squashed for the title, and is now firmly back in the midcard, probably destined to stay there forever. For Ricochet, the signs are even worse.
Kingston has at least had a run at the top. Ricochet, aside from a US Championship reign, hasn’t been treated as a main-event level star. It’s probably telling that his name isn’t included on a list of wrestlers who will be featured on the new range of WWE online slots that are being released soon, you might check out UK Slot promos on websites. Most of the games, which are destined for online slots websites by October 2020, focus on legends of the past including ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels, but there are a few names from the present, such as Ronda Rousey, John Cena, and Roman Reigns. There won’t be an online slots game made for Ricochet, because someone in WWE doesn’t think that Ricochet is a big enough draw. Given the week he’s had, it’s likely that he never will be now.
For reasons that will likely never become clear to the average wrestling fan (or the smart one), having Brock Lesnar utterly destroy Ricochet wasn’t enough for Vince McMahon. He followed up on that by having him lose clean to 24/7 champion Riddick Moss on RAW this past Monday. Moss, lest we need to remind you, wasn’t even on the main roster a month ago, and the title he holds is widely regarded as a joke. It’s been held by Kelly Kelly, Pat Patterson, a slew of television hosts, and Santa. Ricochet, however, seemingly isn’t of the correct pedigree to hold such a prestigious championship. If he’s losing clean to Moss after being squashed in front of the whole world, it seems fairly clear that someone within the company – probably Vince McMahon himself – doesn’t see any upside to him.
This is a drastic fall from grace for Ricochet. The hugely talented performer was treated as a big deal in Japan, was a huge star on the indies, and was given main-event level billing during his (arguably too brief) stay in NXT. It always felt a little like he was called up too early and without a suitable plan in place to showcase him, but the company just-about got away with it by pairing him with Aleister Black as a tag team and running them through WrestleMania. Since then, even with his short US Title run, he’s seemed lost in the mix.
The criticisms that have been leveled at Ricochet have very little to do with his in-ring performance. Although his style isn’t to everybody’s taste, he’s an incredible athlete and gymnast, and he’s spectacular to watch. His famous match with Will Ospreay in New Japan went viral around the world, and he can do things with his body that few other performers can even dream of. For a time, there were rumors that Paul Heyman was going to make him the new face of RAW, but then he ran into a problem. To be the face of a flagship show, you need to be able to talk. Although he’s getting better at it, Ricochet still struggles with a microphone. It’s a charge that’s been directed at him before, and it’s a charge that can still be directed at him now. As much as he can ‘go’ when the bell rings, Ricochet can’t cut great promos, and if he can’t cut great promos, he can’t sell great angles. Being a great wrestler isn’t enough in WWE – you also have to be a great ‘entertainer,’ and it might be the case that McMahon has simply given up on the idea of that ever happening for Ricochet.
Where Ricochet goes from here remains to be seen. He first signed for the company in January 2018. Back then, a standard WWE contract ran for three years, as opposed to the five years the company is more likely to tie its performers down for today. To the best of our knowledge, he hasn’t signed an extension. That means that in theory, he has nine months left to run, and he’d become a free agent in January 2021. In practice, WWE has ways of extending a contract for multiple reasons, but Ricochet hasn’t missed much time since he started working for WWE. At the latest, he should be free to walk away in one year’s time. At 31, he still has many years ahead of him. Nine months isn’t too long to sit around, accept that you’re not going to be used well, and wait for a better opportunity to come along. We all know what that better opportunity might look like.
Just as WWE’s attempts to bury Jon Moxley on his way out of the company as Dean Ambrose failed, any attempt to make Ricochet look weak would also fail. He could lose every match between now and next January, and he’d still be a big deal when he became available as an acquisition. New Japan would welcome Ricochet back with open arms, but All Elite Wrestling would almost certainly make a huge offer to bring him into their company and treat him like the star he’s capable of being.
Maybe Ricochet sneezed in front of Vince McMahon. Maybe Vince hates the way he looks or talks. Maybe he’s done nothing wrong at all, and McMahon just doesn’t see money in him. Plenty of other people do, though, and if Ricochet is strong enough to walk away at the end of his current contract, he’ll likely find better opportunities waiting for him elsewhere.
