10 WWE WrestleMania Moments That Meant NOTHING In Hindsight
4. Marking Out, Bro
WWE gaffers appeared to take perverse pleasure in making a big joke of Zack Ryder's self-made rise in 2011, furnishing him with a United States title run before systematically destroying his entire character almost immediately in the aftermath.
Sharing the screen with John Cena and Kane masqueraded as a main event run to the lifelong WWE superfan so much so that he probably felt in no position to complain about the relentless physical and emotional abuse he was forced to suffer. Winning a secondary strap was a childhood dream come true - him holding another one was right out of the family photo album.
Following the online emergence of a photo of a young Zack with then-Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon doing the rounds on social media, WWE decided to exploit the gem for numbers. A late insertion and unfancied entrant in WrestleMania 32's multi-man ladder war, Ryder had again cannily used viral marketing to climb the WWE ladder. Unlike his prior desecration, this death would be quick and deadly.
Ryder rushed backstage to take a picture with VIP guest Scott Hall holding his title, before dropping it to actual star The Miz the next night on Monday Night Raw and never getting within a spiked frosted tip of it again.