At one time, Zack Ryder was one of the most popular superstars in WWE. After years of inconsistent pushes, WWE should give Ryder a chance to thrive in Raw’s tag team division.
It feels like ages ago, but it was only 2011 when Zack Ryder started the Z! True Long Island Story YouTube series that would briefly propel him into stardom in WWE.
At the time, Ryder was a lower mid-card talent who wound up receiving a fan backing the likes of which WWE has rarely seen in its long history as a result of the web series. In fact, Ryder’s overwhelmingly immense popularity with fans led to his inclusion in some of Raw’s biggest storylines of the year.
Ryder would excel in the spotlight, eventually even winning the United States Championship from Dolph Ziggler. In the process, he continued to cultivate a legion of loyal “broskis” that looked ready to push the new champion to the top of WWE.
Then, 2012 came.
In what felt like a snap of the fingers, Zack Ryder went from the pinnacle of success back down to the lower mid-card, and eventually off WWE TV all together. “Long Island Iced Z” was only featured sporadically afterwards, with no real explanation for why his push ended.
Momentarily, there was a brief glimpse of hope, when Ryder shocked us all with an Intercontinental Championship win in a ladder match at WrestleMania 32. Unfortunately that glimpse was just that, an all too brief reemergence of a push for Ryder that quickly was snuffed out the next night on Raw by The Miz.
A superstar who was able to do what Ryder did, create a massive fan following from nothing with seemingly little support from management, deserves better than that.
More from Raw
- WWE Raw Predictions: Seth Rollins Will BURY Jey Uso
- Three feuds for CM Punk on WWE Monday Night Raw
- Three candidates to take the Women’s World Championship from Rhea Ripley
- WWE Raw Predictions: LA Knight Will Return The Favor To Cody Rhodes
- Why Drew McIntyre turned heel during WWE Monday Night Raw
Zack Ryder deserves a chance to recapture at least a hint of that level of success he had in 2011, and Raw might have given him the opportunity to do just that.
What initially started as a seemingly random angle between Curt Hawkins and The Revival soon turned into the perfect opportunity for WWE to give Zack Ryder another chance at the spotlight.
Hawkins, one of Ryder’s long-time friends, was declared guest referee to the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship match between The Revival and Chad Gable and Bobby Roode. Hawkins played the role of a face in the match, frequently preventing Dawson or Wilder from stealing a win through underhanded tactics.
After The Revival lost to Gable and Roode, they then blamed Hawkins for costing them their chance at gold through his upstanding refereeing. A brutal beat down followed, which led to Zack Ryder hitting the ring to defend his friend and former tag team partner.
Once he cleared the ring, Ryder extended a hand to Hawkins, potentially signaling the start of a new tag team.
It’s no secret right now that potentially quality, natural tag teams like Ryder and Hawkins are sparse on Raw right now. The Revival, Authors of Pain, Roode and Gable, and the recently debuted duo Heavy Machinery are the only tag teams on Raw that could be positioned to challenge for the red brand’s tag belts at the moment.
While that may sound like a healthy amount of teams, when you take into account that 3 of those 4 teams have been feuding over the Raw titles for months now, you realize how stale the division might get without an infusion of exciting new tandems.
Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins could easily be presented as the exciting new team the division would need, by featuring a reemerging fan-favorite and a lovable loser type who’s received his own fair share of fan support recently for going on a historic losing streak no less.
WWE shouldn’t miss this golden opportunity to not only give Zack Ryder one more chance at stardom, but to freshen up Raw’s tag division by giving it a team fans could really get behind.