Long Island Iced Z and former internet darling Zack Ryder was moved to Monday Night RAW in the 2018 Superstar Shakeup but don’t feel bad if you haven’t noticed him. He has yet to wrestle a match on RAW since the switch and the last time he had an official match on the red brand, he was two years younger. But don’t think Ryder doesn’t realize that, he just knows his career could be going a lot worse.
“At the end of the day, like right now with Monday Night Raw, I am not being used. Can I cry about it or can I be grateful and say that I am still here. I mean, you can go to a toy store and buy a Zack Ryder action figure today so my life can definitely be a lot worse. What am I going to do, sit around and be bitter? I hate when people do that. Like, poor me. Come on, we’re here in WWE. Can things be better? Yes! But they can be so much worse. I am not a super positive person, but come on. You have to look at yourself in the mirror. Trust me, there have been times where I have been bitter, but what does it solve? Nothing.”
Ryder was riding a career high from 2011-2012 when a YouTube show he begin in his spare time to get noticed succeeded in getting him noticed by fans and WWE officials alike. Ryder went from the opening match to his name being chanted while The Rock was in the ring. A US Championship followed and all seemed perfect for the broski… until WWE moved his YouTube show to their own, company-controlled channel. Suddenly everything that made the show popular was censored by the WWE brass and Ryder’s popularity dwindled. Viewers vanished overnight, as did his title opportunities.
“I was doing the YouTube show and it was at the peak of its popularity before it went to sh–. That whole process where I basically had to hand over my YouTube show I saw my hard work literally go down the drain, and everything I did to earn my spot on television only to see it bump down lower and lower. I will admit, I was bitter. I was asking myself why all of this was happening. I had proven myself and I felt like i was being punished. I was definitely bitter for that.”
But Ryder truly only blames himself for his career shortcomings and is hoping to grow from the experiences instead on dwelling on being bitter.
“I think I could have done a couple of things [differently]. I don’t really have any regrets, but three in particular with one of them being that time period I should have went and knocked on Vince McMahon’s door and asked what was going on here but I didn’t. Was I afraid or intimidated? Maybe, but I didn’t do it, and that is one of my biggest regrets because I didn’t have any ground to stand on. Since then we have built a relationship, but then when I was in my hottest point and was in the top three of merchandise selling at one point I should have went in there but I didn’t, which is on me. It was nobody else’s fault but mine. I could have been in better shape, a bit bitter. I was still kind of skinnier there; perhaps not by much but 10 lbs makes a big difference but back then I didn’t know what I was doing. All that is on me. I am not blaming anyone else but myself.”
