Jumped The Shark Week: Zack Ryder

In honor of Shark Week still existing, I will be discussing moments in certain wrestler’s careers where they “Jumped The Shark” (no, not John Tenta) and lost my interest.

Zack Ryder was pretty much thrown into the abyss that is known as the WWE undercard after his run with Edge and Curt Hawkins but he did something about it… or tried to at least. He created a Youtube show to help develop his character and in a way, call out WWE for not using him.

Z! True Long Island Story would go on to win over many fans, making Ryder’s character popular enough for WWE to use him… for a short while. He even got a short run with the US Championship. However, they made him look like a goon in the long run and at first, I felt bad for him.

From the outside looking in, it seemed that WWE used his internet popularity to milk him and his merchandise for the little bit of money they could and then threw him aside instead of developing his character further. I hated it for the guy. He went out of his way to try to make it in the WWE.

My feelings quickly changed as he began to complain and moan on Twitter every week. If he had just kept quiet after maybe I would still see him in some sort of positive light. His griping and complaining voided out everything I had thought of him for trying as hard as he did to get over on his YouTube show. Looking back, he looks pathetic through the entire thing. The guy created his own “Internet Championship” for God’s sake. We should be ashamed. Zack Ryder jumped his own shark and it was really depressing.