WWE Raw: Zack Ryder's New Storyline with Eve Torres Is Undermining Him

Following last month’s WWE TLC pay-per-view, Zack Ryder was on top of the world. 

“Long Island Iced Z” had won the United States championship after months of chasing it. All of his hard work on YouTube, Twitter and in the ring had finally paid off. 

Ryder seemed poised to make 2012 even bigger than 2011 and perhaps take his career to its highest point as one of the new faces of the WWE. 

However, thanks to one segment on Monday Night Raw, all of Ryder’s major dreams and aspirations may have been temporarily put on hold. 

From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via WrestlingInc.com): 

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Zack Ryder being placed in a romance storyline with Eve Torres and away from the main event scene stems from the staggeringly low quarter hour rating for last week's RAW SuperShow main event, which saw Long Island Iced-Z, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan stand tall against The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler. 

The main event garnered a 2.67 cable rating (2.55 for the first half of the bout), which was the lowest-rated main event on Raw in 2011 and possibly the lowest since Dec. 8, 1997 for a non-holiday show in its regular time slot. The overrun gained 59,000 viewers, which is considered terrible. 

The Ryder/Torres storyline is slated to continue for at least a few weeks. 

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Wait, wait, wait. So—let me just get this straight—Ryder was put into a pointless storyline with Eve because one segment he was featured in performed badly in the ratings department?

That’s absolutely asinine. 

If this is the WWE’s new philosophy, we better get used to seeing wrestlers placed in ridiculous angles all the time. Ratings fluctuate just about every week. Ryder is being used as the scapegoat in this situation when there were two other wrestlers (Punk and Bryan) in that segment with him and a number of other factors that could have contributed to the low rating. 

Yet, apparently, WWE officials don’t think about stuff like that. Instead, Ryder now finds himself in a romance storyline that I’m sure will do nothing for either him or Eve. The only thing that this angle will accomplish is that it will completely undermine Ryder. 

He has worked his tail off to improve in every aspect of professional wrestling and yet he’s essentially being de-pushed for something that may not have even been his fault. 

I might not criticize this Eve/Ryder angle if pairings between WWE superstars and Divas actually worked for the benefit of all parties involved. However, as recent WWE history tells us, they almost never do. 

Remember Maria’s pairing with Dolph Ziggler? How about Daniel Bryan’s relationship with Gail Kim? What about Santino Marella’s romance with Tamina? 

Oh, yeah, those storylines all led to great things for the Superstars and Divas, huh?

Of course, I’m being completely sarcastic. 

Unless a superstar and Diva have some sort of natural connection that allows their on-screen partnership to make sense—for example, if they’re dating in real life—it almost always winds up being completely pointless in the long run. 

I don’t think there’s anyone out there who really thinks that anything good is going to come out of Ryder’s angle with Eve. It seems pretty clear that this is a “punishment” of some sorts for Ryder. 

What a joke. 

Ryder is already being made out to look like a total douchebag, dropping lame jokes about his name, Jack Swagger and the E.R., and turning up the goofiness to the highest level we’ve seen since he’s got some sort of a push. 

If that’s what we’re going to get out of the ongoing storyline between Eve and Ryder, I guess I should congratulate the WWE for accomplishing what it wanted to do. 

After months upon months of building Ryder up, the WWE will officially turn him into a flop of a United States champion.

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