More On Zack

Hi Scott, 

So I stopped wrestling for quite a while, but was drawn back in actually by Zack Ryder's youtube show. It was entertaining and reminded me a little bit of Team RECK and the like. I like a percentage of silly and purely entertaining in my wrestling show. But then of course, the only person who can make themselves over despite zero booking and get decent pops is buried immediately and with prejudice. Then to top it all off, they also took the guy's youtube show, put it on the WWE channel and disabled fan comments. #whatsupwiththatbro? What's the end game here for Ryder do you think? Should he just ride out his contract and go to TNA or ROH? Is he just "paying his dues" like Hunter did, oh so long ago and the WWE will make him a star after he jobs to Kane a few more times? What do you think his best path of action is? Also, long time reader, first time writer, etc.

I think the problem is that people are confusing “sympathy” with “pity”.  Feeling bad for someone who gets beat up week after week without ever defending themselves is PITY.  If Ryder was still champion and Eve put him in the Friend Zone anyway because Cena was the big alpha dog jock, then THAT’S sympathy because who hasn’t been there? 

There’s also a theory that Ryder will miraculously beat Kane at Wrestlemania to get his heat back, but who would even book that?  They spend thousands of dollars to refurbish Kane and push him to the main event, and they’re gonna job him out 7th from the top to some jabroni in a wheelchair?  I’m pretty sure that even Jesse Baker wouldn’t come up with a money-losing proposition that silly.  Zack’s best shot at even getting on the card is probably Money in the Bank.

Also, the other problem I have with this “push” for Zack is that even if the endgame is to get him into a higher position on the card, he’s been given no time to learn how to work in that position.  He’s basically an opening match guy and you can’t just stick someone like that into a main event and expect them to know how to do a 15 minute WWE Main Event Style Spectacular Encounter.  It doesn’t work that way. 

Finally, the major problem with the whole angle is that I think (although I hate getting into his head) that Vince thinks we are identifying with John Cena in this whole thing.  Because that’s Vince – the big bully musclehead with all the power who has to fight off the women.  Zack’s the nerdy little annoyance in his world, but he doesn’t get that the very people he’s trying to recruit as fans see themselves as Ryder, not Cena.