When fans think of burial in today's WWE, it's hard not to think of Zack Ryder. The Long Island Loudmouth has fallen, built himself back up with no help from WWE, and was then smacked back down again. Poor guy. Ryder adopted his Long Island gimmick in 2009, competing in ECW and later Raw. He went from forcing Tommy Dreamer to retire to being squashed in 11 seconds in a WWE Title match in the course of a year. He was then gradually used less and less on television, and in 2011 he began his own web series on Youtube. Over time, he gradually grew in popularity, until chants of "We want Ryder!" were heard on WWE programming. This saw him paired up with John Cena onscreen, as the ultimate cementing of his face status. This wouldn't end well, as Ryder would pair up romantically with Eve in 2012. At the time, his new best buddy Cena was engaged in a feud with Kane, who was trying to provoke Cena to "embrace the hate" and turn heel. Somehow, this situation resulted in Ryder getting put in a wheelchair by Kane, while his romantic interest Eve was swapping spit with Cena. In the aftermath of this storyline, he would fail to get revenge on Kane, was screwed over by Eve again, and never sought retribution from Cena. Basically, the whole angle made him look like a doormat, and popularity-wise, he has never recovered.
Stephen Maher has been a rock star, a bouncer, a banker and a busker on various streets in various countries. He's hung out with Robert Plant, he was at Nelson Mandela's birthday and he's swapped stories with prostitutes and crack addicts. He once performed at a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by accident. These days, he passes the time by writing about music, wrestling, games and other forms of nerdery. And he rarely drinks the blood of the innocent.
