One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WWE History
14. 2011 - WWE Really Didn’t Like Zack Ryder
You could write the story about the end of WWE’s monopoly entirely through the lens of Zack Ryder. His career was emblematic of everything.
In a rigged game, the WWE wrestler of his day was told to grab the brass ring. When they grabbed the brass ring and got over, as Ryder did by producing his own YouTube web series, they were punished. Investing in a new act was utterly pointless. They pushed the wrestlers you didn’t like down your throat, and pushed the wrestlers you did like off the stage. When they were in a wheelchair. The irony, provided you have that sort of humour, was hilarious.
“Oh, so you want this guy to get pushed, do ya?!”
Ryder was given the odd token, short-lived title reign, but you could interpret that cynically. If you’re a nasty sort, it’s funnier to take something away from somebody than to never give them it.
WWE’s disdain towards Ryder was wild, and borderline irrational. In the autumn of 2011, he whacked his ‘Take Care, Spike Your Hair’ catchphrase on a t-shirt. This made Vince McMahon blow a gasket because the channel Spike carried TNA programming at the time.
Vince was so livid - at something nobody else read as an endorsement of TNA - that he initially threatened to recall the entire line of merch before relenting.