Revamping Zack Ryder
My apologies if this blog is all that eccentric as it’s midnight as I write this. Ladies and jets, Zack Ryder is the classic case of a superstar getting buried. For recent years, can you believe that I try my best to offer a solution to not let Ryder get lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, as I write so many blogs about revamping his career, he is out there in Raw jobbing to Kevin Owens. Zack Ryder, and I am sorry if I throw this around loosely revolutionized today’s product. That might seem bias since I marked for Ryder back in 2011, but all media platforms and social media platforms used today, came directly from Ryder. Ryder was trying hard to get noticed after the dude buster were debunked in 2010, and all he wanted to do was to safe his job.
Back in 2011, Ryder was close to the free agency. He was in a stomp. It was because of his revolutionary idea, even creating his own web show and championship, that he kept his career. For crying out loud, Ryder won the U.S Title and had a Wrestlemania match. Now begs the question how we revive the 27 year old superstar. On a good note, he is still young; on the bad note he was buried. Now to revamp Ryder, I suggest a gimmick change. Ryder persona as many recall is based off of famed television show, “The Jersey Shore.” Ryder gimmick was suppose to be a hot head who won matches luckily and although it ignored the hell out of me, he won the fans over. To avoid gimmick infringement, I’m surprised no one from MTV sued the WWE from Ryder gimmick, let’s adapt an Alex Riley gimmick.
A term I throw around loosely is “simplicity.” Instead of making Ryder a foreigner, why not work him from the ground up. Like Eva Maria is doing, let Ryder have a personal trainer like Brain Kendrick train him the in and outs of the ring. Ryder has been wrestling for a long time, but he is not that ring general per say to a Ziggler or Cesaro. After training for months, start him in development again, and let him feud with Tyler Breeze. A rejuvenated Ryder could come back, in the likes to stop Breeze from becoming of what he became, a social media junkie. Ryder adaptable old values could preach wonders to the NXT locker room, a contradiction to his own self, like Val Venus in 2001. With Ryder’s anti-social media rants, he could come off as a heel and thus getting a cult following, maybe at times teaming him up with a heel group. After Kevin Owens finally let’s go of the NXT Championship, let Ryder slowly transition into the role as a top heel in NXT.
With a anti-social media and conformity to traditional standards gimmick, Ryder could start winning more matches. His excuse thus being that social media ruined his reputation and made him lose out on many opportunities. He mentions the time that he could off faced Dolph Ziggler at Wrestlemania and his opportunity of beating John Cena on RAW. After Ryder wins the NXT championship, he throws a non-social media celebration with no cameras allowed and get this, he bans cellular devices to record his matches. He prohibits the use of an entrance, as he dreads his old theme song “Oh, Radio” and comes out in opera, such as Damien Sandow back when he debuted. During his post NXT Championship celebrations, his goons bring in the Internet Championship, and they burn it.
To keep Ryder safe, I would keep him in NXT for a while until he gets proper footing. In order to avoid him getting buried again, I would recommend him to be a steeping stone at times in NXT and only come to WWE when there is a feud worthwhile. A Breeze/Ryder feud seems promising as Ryder adapts a new style which contradicts Breeze beliefs with social media and that dreaded selfie stick that he carries around. Also to correspond with the new likeness of Ryder, have him team with traditional gimmick superstars, who, are boring and could use a superstar to boost them. The main key as I listed in my other blogs, is to help as many superstars as possible without pushing them to their peak, but so possible that they stay relevant. While guys tell me what you think in the comments section below and as always the bashing section about the blog is always in the comment section. Cheers!
