COLOHUE – Winner Leaves Town: Zack Ryder – WWE Talent Who Would Do Better Elsewhere

Indy wrestling right now is under a huge surge in popularity. There are more wrestlers, more talent, more promotions and enough TV time to drown in. Wrestling is coming back in a big way.

The affect that this has had on the WWE is huge. Not only can WWE essentially snare ready made talent with a good start of drawing power but those WWE talents who get lost in the shuffle have a legitimate avenue of escape. WWE might give you drawing power but the room at the top isn’t infinite. Three members of the class of 2002, the continual returns of the Rock, even names such as Kurt Angle now are being used in favoured spots because they make money.

What they don’t make is new stars and this is where other federations stand to gain from the WWE’s business model. I’ve got fourteen names, two of which are tag teams and I’m going to run them down one a week because I believe that these are people who would do better outside of the WWE.

I’m Tom Colohue and this is Winner Leaves Town.

Follow Tom Colohue on Facebook and @Colohue for updates.

Zack Ryder

There are a lot of great things about Zack Ryder. He managed to tap into a whole generation of excitable YouTube watches and caught fire in a truly amazing way. He proved that you don’t even have to be on TV to get over and boy did he get over. He got over big. When you have a whole arena chanting your name and you haven’t been on TV for months then surely you’re doing something right.

Now if it was back then then there wouldn’t be a problem. If WWE had capitalised on his immense popularity when everyone was into it then you wouldn’t be here reading this article. Of course, that didn’t happen.

You see, Zack Ryder was one of a whole generation of missed opportunities in WWE, some of which you’ll hear about later. Some of them would later make it but it would be slow and it would be painful and without some immense luck and personal commitment they never would have. Amongst that generation, Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk, The Miz and Daniel Bryan.

This was the age of the smaller guy. Someone with great mic skills and intense charisma but who was never presented as any sort of star because they lacked the overall muscle and presence of your bigger ‘WWE style’ performer. Naturally, when Zack Ryder broke out of the mould and became more than they wanted him to be, WWE squashed him straight back down into nothing.

John Cena, put simply, was far more important.

Since then, many many years have passed. What has Zack Ryder done? Well, not a whole lot.

I was going to be gentle with the videos in this one but seriously, look what they did to poor Zack Ryder.

Nobody deserves this.

So let’s catch up. Zack Ryder had a good moment recently, winning the Intercontinental title in the opening ladder match from last year’s Wrestlemania. Unfortunately he would lose it again the very next night in the first night of what would become the greatest run of The Miz. Ryder suffered but as usual the end result was something bigger and greater for someone else.

So that was a big moment. We’ve had almost two years and a brand split since then, so what’s Zack Ryder been up to since?

…

Erm…

Yeah, I got nothing.

Now admittedly Zack Ryder had a major injury and he’s been slow to return but let’s be very clear here; Zack Ryder came back over. He came back popular and then proceeded to do, well, absolutely nothing. It’s almost scary how blatantly Zack Ryder has been squashed. The man has pushed himself repeatedly and gone absolutely nowhere.

Nowadays he doesn’t even have his YouTube channel anymore. WWE host his videos and thus control his content; preventing him from being much of anything to the wrestling community.

For the last year and a half Zack Ryder has been the tag team partner of Mojo Rawley. Finally, last week, they broke up and finally there might be something of value in their upcoming feud but it really does depend what comes next for Ryder. I can’t be the only one worried that they have absolutely nothing planned next.

So where would Ryder do better? Literally anywhere. The man knows how to become a major player and if he had control of his own YouTube channel again Ryder would once again become a big deal. So where would give him the freedom to publicise himself properly? Literally anywhere.

Ryder is not one of WWE’s top performers. He hasn’t won a match in a long time. He hasn’t been featured consistently in a long time. This means that he can’t be getting all that much money from WWE. Elsewhere he could take his relative star power and take a much deserved push from any location. He has wrestling talent and he has unending charisma.

Just give the man his YouTube channel back! What’s wrong with you, WWE? This should be the easiest thing in the world.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: COLOHUE: Winner Leaves Town: Kalisto – WWE Talent Who Would Do Better Elsewhere