10 Insane Things WWE Stopped Wrestlers From Doing

5. Saturating Z! True Long Island Story

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Matt Cardona

With his career stagnating, Zack Ryder made himself one of the hottest names in the business with his Z! True Long Island Story show.

Taking to YouTube, Ryder brilliantly showcased his creativity as he put together a weekly offering that was entertaining, funny and often poked fun at himself and some of his fellow colleagues. At the time, True Long Island Story was utterly revolutionary, with fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of each new episode.

Despite the Long Island Loudmouth barely being featured on WWE TV at this time in 2011, his merchandise sold out at WWE Shop and "We want Ryder!" chants filled the arenas of shows he wasn't even on.

By January 2012, during Z! True Long Island Story's 50th episode, Ryder announced that the series would be moving to WWE's YouTube channel. And with that, it was the beginning of the end for this once must-see show.

The move to the WWE channel could've been absolutely fine, but the problem was the real-life Matt Cardona was creatively shutdown on so many fronts. As Cardona detailed to Chris Van Vliet, he would now have his Z! True Long Island Story episodes returned to him by unhappy WWE staff, and plenty of what he'd submitted would be edited out of the final product.

It was great while it lasted, but WWE killed Z! True Long Island Story by stopping Matt Cardona from doing what made the series work so well.

Remember, just take care. Spike your hair.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.