I started watching again right around the time of Ryback's ambulance match with Cena at Payback 2013. To someone coming in just then, Ryback seemed real terrible.
See he actually got over as a face and was getting genuine cheers over the other WWE superfaces of the period (Cena and lolSheamus) but since they were too afraid to pull the trigger on him he went from winning streak to...
- Screwy losses against champ CM Punk in late 2012
- Shield fodder
- Cena wins lol at the Rumble in 2012 when they were the final two
- Throwaway match with Mark Henry at WM which he lost if I recall.
They basically damaged him beyond belief in a few months and hastily repackaged him as a heel for the Cena feud you came in on, by then he was pretty much done.
He at least had a good motivation for being a heel (yeah Cena, why did you just let the shield keep mugging him off huh?)