Over the past 15 months, the WWE Universe watched as Zack Ryder transformed himself from an unknown jobber into a United States champion and fan favorite, only to get buried once again in one of the most obscure character builds in history.
It all began last February when Ryder started a YouTube show called "Z! True Long Island Story." The pithy episodes gave a brief glimpse into the life of a WWE superstar struggling to get noticed in a dog-eat-dog industry.
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Slowly but surely, he started to gain momentum as the Internet wrestling community began to embrace him. He would regularly make references in the show about getting overlooked by the WWE, almost always with comedic effect, such as putting an action figure of himself on the back burner.Fans ate it up. Even though Ryder still wasn't getting featured on Raw or Smackdown, chants of "We want Ryder" started to ring out throughout arenas across the country. It was unprecedented for a wrestler who spent most of his time on the low-level Superstars show to get that type of support.
He started to get showcased alongside John Cena during backstage segments, making it clear that the Ryder Revolution was officially underway.
Ryder was soon named Teddy Long's assistant on Smackdown to help increase his exposure before his initial push. That allowed him to appear on both shows on a weekly basis, helping grow the size of his fanbase even more.
By September, seven months after his YouTube show began, he was getting crowd reactions on par with some of the company's biggest names. At that point, it seemed like nothing could stop him from becoming a megastar.
He started feuding with Dolph Ziggler, the United States champion, in a storyline that often carried over to "Z! True Long Island Story." By then, the show was getting over 150,000 views on a weekly basis, giving him one of the best web presences of any superstar.
Ryder can be credited—or blamed, depending on your outlook—for the WWE's increased focus on the Internet. From constant Twitter mentions throughout the shows to the company's own YouTube channel, it took what Ryder was able to do and made it a huge priority.
After battling Ziggler for a couple months, he was picked up the biggest win of his career at TLC to take control of the United States title. The next night, he celebrated with fellow rising stars CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in what looked like the company trotting out its next wave of talent.
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While Punk and Bryan have both gone on to bigger and better things, the same can't be said for Ryder. Soon after winning the belt, things took a turn for the worse, as he was involved in a storyline with Cena, Kane and Eve.
He suffered kayfabe injuries at the hands of the "Big Red Monster," causing him to drop the title to Jack Swagger less than one month after winning it. Ryder continued to take beatings from Kane, and his stock started to plummet.
And he's never recovered. He was pinned at WrestleMania, causing Team Teddy to lose the 12-man tag match for control of both brands. Most recently, he lost to Kane at Over the Limit in a pre-show match that took place on, where else, YouTube.
In the mean time, Ryder has taken his talents back to Superstars and hasn't been featured on Raw in a month, something he talked about on Twitter.
Just like that, 15 months and 67 "Z! True Long Island Story" episodes later, Ryder is right back to where he started. That can't be what he had in mind after finally getting pushed late last year.Zack Ryder ✔
@ZackRyder
For those counting, I haven't been on Raw in 4 weeks. This could be like a modern day Goldberg streak.
22 May 12
Nobody knows what the future holds for the "Ultimate Broski," but the outlook isn't nearly as bright as it was six months ago. He worked hard to get noticed, and while it worked for awhile, he's right back to fighting for another opportunity with dozens of other hopefuls.
Thus ending a bizarre run for Ryder that was never given a chance to reach expectations.
