WWE Pulling Ryder From Main Event Status

[Jack-Hammer]

As a few others have pointed out, exactly when was Zack Ryder elevated to the status of main eventer? He's wrestled a tag match with Cena and a six man tag with Punk & Bryan to close out Raw. That's been the limit of his exposure as a main eventer. The fact that Zack Ryder is currently a mid-card champion and a storyline has been ongoing for months to get him that mid-card title would suggest that WWE's ultimate idea has been for Ryder to become...surprise surprise...a mid-card star at this point in time.

As usual, whenever the story pops up that an internet favorite looks to be in danger of being pushed back down the ladder, internet fans immediately overreact and start blindly attacking the WWE in general without any certainty that this story is true. Even some that've posted in this thread have blasted Ryder in other posters, but have jumped on this bandwagon for any half baked excuse to attack the WWE.

Like I said, and others before me, Ryder is currently firmly entrenched within the mid-card scene and there are any number of wrestlers that can be elevated to the status of being a challenger for his title, especially since brand exclusivity is pretty much gone at this point. Drew McIntyre, Ezekiel Jackson, Hunico, Ted DiBiase, Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Brodus Clay if he ever debuts, etc. I'm not saying that those feuds would be as overall interesting as Ryder's feud with Ziggler has been but, that's how the mop flops in wrestling. Not every feud is going to measure up to others.

As far as his program with Eve goes, it's possible that it could simply be a harmless little program to help get Ryder more intuned with the mid-card scene. Like the Divas or not, they still tend to draw an audience based on sheer eye candy. If WWE is concerned about Ryder's drawing ability, maybe they're hoping a brief program with Eve will work. They've done it before with the Knockouts in TNA so maybe the WWE is giving it a try.

I just think it's a little too early to blow your stack. The WWE has invested a lot of time into Ryder over the course of the past several months in particular. He draws strong responses from the audience, his merchendise sells well and the guy has worked hard to really get himself over. As much as some people despise Vince McMahon, he's not egotistical or irrational enough to simply walk away from good business just because of one low rating. Lower ratings are to be expected when you're introducing new guys into certain spots.

 

[H33LTurn]

The whole Ryder push was simply not going to work for the long run. The entire reason fans were behind Ryder was because he had a web show and got himself over like that, not because hes any good on the mic or in the ring. Hes a feel good story as someone said and now that he actually has the title theres nothing to do with him. Hes not going to feud with Ziggler again because Ziggler has exhausted his spot in the midcard. In my opinion they should make him feud with someone like Jack Swagger but then again they're worried about ratings so why pair up two people that dont draw. Miz would also be a good opponent for Ryder but instead hes feuding with Truth. I also wont find it suspicious if Vince has some hard feelings towards the internet darlings. They've all escaped the touch of his creation, they've been able to make themselves marketable on their own. This means Vince doesnt have as much control over the show as he'd like and now his hands are tied with guys that sell a lot of merch but dont draw, or someone like Cena who draws and sells merch but has nothing left to accomplish in the business.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

The whole Ryder push was simply not going to work for the long run. The entire reason fans were behind Ryder was because he had a web show and got himself over like that, not because hes any good on the mic or in the ring. Hes a feel good story as someone said and now that he actually has the title theres nothing to do with him. Hes not going to feud with Ziggler again because Ziggler has exhausted his spot in the midcard. In my opinion they should make him feud with someone like Jack Swagger but then again they're worried about ratings so why pair up two people that dont draw. Miz would also be a good opponent for Ryder but instead hes feuding with Truth. I also wont find it suspicious if Vince has some hard feelings towards the internet darlings. They've all escaped the touch of his creation, they've been able to make themselves marketable on their own. This means Vince doesnt have as much control over the show as he'd like and now his hands are tied with guys that sell a lot of merch but dont draw, or someone like Cena who draws and sells merch but has nothing left to accomplish in the business.

This. I think this is a perfect example of the Zack Ryder experiment but my worry is that eventually Cm Punk will fall into the same category, I mean not as fast as Ryder will but I fear Punk will soon become stale. There's only so much a gimmick like speaking the truth can do before you labeled as stale.