10 Wrestlers Who Did Unusual Things Vince McMahon Hated
9. Zack Ryder: Got Over
"It's a different group of guys and gals. It's millennials. They're not as ambitious, quite frankly. They're not trepidatious at all, I just don't think they necessarily want to reach for that brass ring." - Vince McMahon, December 2014.
Zack Ryder grabbed the brass ring at the turn of the decade. Dismayed at the lack of opportunities handed to him by creative, he made his own via his Z! True Long Island Story YouTube series. This was pre-NXT, or at least the exponentially improved version of it. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan hadn't yet ripped up the recruitment blueprint. Ryder was one of countless old developmental graduates without buzz. He created his own with the charming series, by which a mobilised set of the fandom was very much charmed. "We Want Ryder!" chants lit up arenas. WWE wanted Ryder...
...to get cucked and thrown off a stage, in a wheelchair, by Kane.
Zack Ryder might have ended up a fad. He wasn't nor isn't to this day a super-worker. The Jersey Shore-styled gimmick was one-dimensional and of its time. Time has exposed the act, and arguably the performer - but he enjoyed next to no exposure in WWE. He didn't even get his 15 minutes of WWE fame, not really. What's a United States Title win? Santino Marella succeeded the man who succeeded Ryder in Jack Swagger.
Ryder earned his shot - but that word is spiritually and literally forbidden...