WWE Superstar Study: Analyzing the State of Zack Ryder's Character

Zack Ryder is stuck in a major rut—woo woo woo, you know it. 

Though the man known as “Long Island Iced Z” went from relatively unknown to incredibly popular in 2011, he’s gradually seen his stock drop since then and is on the brink of irrelevancy. 

Today, we’re going to take a look at just what the heck is going on with Ryder in this week’s Superstar Study. 

Where He’s Been 

In February of 2011, Ryder started his ever-so-popular YouTube show, Z! True Long Island Story, to get himself noticed, and it worked, eventually.

By June, he was finally appearing on Raw, and by July, he was named the assistant to SmackDown GM Teddy Long. It wasn’t really until September that he started to make a huge impact on TV, though. 

On Sept. 18, Ryder defeated United States Champion Dolph Ziggler in a non-title match on Raw, which earned him a title match on the next Raw and again at Vengeance. Unfortunately for Ryder, he lost both matches due to interference from Jack Swagger. 

Ryder, however, started a campaign to get another US title match, and after main eventing Raw for the first time ever in early November and beating Mark Henry in a singles match (thanks to interference from John Cena), he earned his US title match against Ziggler at WWE TLC in December. 

Ryder would beat Ziggler at the pay-per-view to win his first singles title in the WWE, but as we shifted to 2012, he became romantically involved with Eve and was inserted into the feud between Cena and Kane. 

Ultimately, Ryder would become somewhat of a punching bag for Kane, who beat him down on several occasions, breaking his ribs and even his back. As a result, an injured Ryder lost his United States title on Jan. 16 to Swagger and was eventually written off of TV for a couple of weeks after being chokeslammed through the stage by Kane. 

On Feb. 13, Ryder saw his friend John Cena kissing his love interest Eve (which, of course, broke the poor guy’s heart), and later in the show, was once again the target of an attack by Kane, this time being pushed off the stage in a wheelchair by the Big Red Monster. 

This worsened Ryder’s injuries, and though you would think he would want some vengeance on Kane for everything he put him through, there was never really any payoff to everything that happened between those two. 

Where He is Now 

As Ryder recovered from injury, the object of his affections, Eve, turned heel and revealed that Ryder was stuck in the friend zone. 

When Ryder returned, however, he couldn’t overlook Eve’s beauty and still chased after her, which would ultimately cost him in arguably the biggest match of his career. 

Ryder was named to Team Teddy for the battle of the GMs at WrestleMania, and during the match, Eve interfered and distracted Ryder, causing him to lose the bout after a Skull Crushing Finale from The Miz. 

After the match, Eve hit Ryder with a low blow, and for all intents and purposes ended their on-screen storyline. 

Following WrestleMania 28, Ryder was squashed by The Miz the next night on Raw and has been squashed by Alberto Del Rio and Kane recently as well. 

His only victory since WrestleMania came on this week’s Raw, when he and Santino Marella defeated Epico and Primo, though it’s unclear if there are any plans to keep the two together as a team. 

As you can see, though, Ryder has had a tremendous fall over the last several months. 

Where I Think He’s Headed

In short, nowhere. 

The WWE had so many opportunities to turn Ryder into a huge star during his involvement in the Kane/Cena feud, but instead of doing something smart (like having Ryder actually go over Kane at WrestleMania), the creative team didn’t capitalize on Ryder’s momentum whatsoever. 

Instead, Ryder’s storyline with Kane and Eve turned him back into just another guy and set him back several steps after his breakout year in 2011. 

Why would I think the creative team is going to change their booking of Ryder all of a sudden? 

Ryder has become a comedy figure and a glorified jobber at this point, and thanks to the Raw “SuperShow” format that leaves little room for Raw mid-carders to advance, I don’t see Ryder moving up anytime soon. 

Given that he and Santino just beat the WWE Tag Team Champions, I could see those two becoming No. 1 contenders for the tag titles and eventually winning them. But given the state of the tag-team division, I wouldn’t exactly say that that’s a step up. 

It seems like the most likely thing that will happen is that Ryder stays stuck on Raw with little to no opportunity for advancement, instead being used in comedy roles and to put heels over. 

That can’t be considered anything but a major disappointment for Ryder after the way he climbed up the card in 2011, but start-and-stop pushes are the norm for the creative team. 

Where I Think He Should be Headed 

Well, for starters, I would have picked back up on the Kane/Eve/Ryder storyline once Ryder returned. But since it seems like it’s too late to do that now, I guess we have to come up with something completely new for Ryder. 

You know what I’d do? How about starting with that United States Championship rematch that he never got? 

Since Santino Marella is facing The Miz for the belt at Extreme Rules (on the pre-show, that is) this Sunday, I’d have The Miz win the title (why not?), defeat Santino in the rematch and then have Ryder demand his US title rematch that he should have received but never actually did. 

The Miz is doing absolutely nothing of note right now, and neither is Ryder. So, my solution is throwing them together in a US title feud that could make Raw’s mid-card actually matter for a change. 

Although The Miz has been a bit stale lately, he’s still one of the WWE’s better heels, and as a former WWE Champion, he could bring some credibility back to the mid-card as the US Champion. 

Meanwhile, having Ryder feud with The Miz and eventually beat him for the belt could help Ryder rebound from a really rough start to 2012. At the very least, it’s 10 times better than whatever the hell it is that he’s doing right now. 

Ryder is still pretty over with the crowd despite his terrible booking, and with a lack of mid-card baby faces, he’s one guy who should help carry the feuds in that division. 

The dude has a tremendous amount of talent and a fan-friendly gimmick. It’s just a matter of the WWE using him the right way. 

I’d start by giving him the US Championship he spent four months chasing in 2011 and then continue it by giving him a lengthy run with the belt. 

Final Thoughts 

As hard as it is to believe, Ryder is still only 26 years old, which means he’s got a ton of time to improve and continue to develop his character. 

His problems aren’t because of anything he’s done wrong. They’re a result of some absolutely horrendous booking by the creative team. 

Although Ryder is stuck in No Man’s Land right now, though, all it takes is one good storyline to turn his career around and make him the breakout star that he looked like he had become in 2011.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.