Zack Ryders best bro was released in June this year at the same time as Yoshi Tatsu and if Ryders story is sadder than Hawkins, its only because Ryder came closer to realising his dream. The criminally underrated Hawkins (born Brian Myers) and Ryder had teamed together for a couple of years, in the indies, in developmental and on Smackdown before catching their big break to join Edge, Chavo Guererro and Vickie Guererro in the La Familia heel stable. Theyd win the WWE tag titles shortly before their stablemates began to feud, but would then lose every match for the remainder of that year. 2009 would see the tag team split, after four years together under various names, and without a single match so far that year, when Ryder was drafted to ECW in April. You think thats soul crushing? It looks like the only reason Hawkins wasnt included in the draft was that WWE officials forgot he existed. Still matchless (and not in the good, undefeated kind of way) a month later, Hawkins would actually voluntarily return to developmental in FCW in May 2009 just to have something to do. After a year with the rookies, Hawkins would return to tag team action on the main roster for about five minutes, before settling back into developmental with NXT. In the next couple of years, Hawkins would play a variety of character and storylines whenever he got the change for television time, whatever the status of the show, always looking for the part that would get him back into the midcard again. With partner Tyler Reks, Hawkins put together a YouTube show under the heading Midcard Mafia, along the same lines as Ryders own Z! True Long Island Story show, but WWE bosses objected and the content was deleted. Reks asked for and received his release in August 2012, leaving Hawkins without a significant role to play in the company. Once again, the office would forget he existed. He would job to developmental wrestlers 11 times in 2013 and 3 times in 2014 before his release. Heres hoping this creative, committed and talented worker gets a decent break on the independent circuit: he deserves it.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
