When TLC 2011 occurred Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder were finishing up a four month feud over the United States title. Fans had been clamoring for what seemed like forever for their internet darling to wear WWE gold. On this day Zack Ryder defeated Dolph Ziggler to capture his first singles title in the WWE to the delight and joy of the entire WWE universe. Ryder had done the unthinkable he got himself over using his own YouTube channel. We all know this joy would be quickly halted as he lost the title just twenty nine days later and was also thrown into a John Cena and Kane embrace the hate storyline. In this storyline he was pretty much someone that Kane would attempt to murder every week and John Cena would come to the rescue OH and in the process he would make out with Eve Torres who was the love interest of Zack Ryder. After this Ryder kind of fell back to the wayside and never really regained his footing. Let’s say things didn’t quite go like this and he didn’t just fall to the wayside overnight. What would that look like? I tell you here’s how.
TLC 2011 would have gone the same exact way with Zack Ryder capturing the US title and the fans would rejoice and party in the streets. Well maybe not that severe but you get the picture. It’s hard to say that Zack Ryder shouldn’t have been put into the storyline with Cena and Kane however it happened and it was shit so therefore that doesn’t happen. He enters into a feud with Jack Swagger and has a non-title match with him on Raw. Ryder would be shown backstage with his US title and Eve Torres would walk up to him and congratulate him on his title win and let him know if he ever needed a manager to keep her in mind. Woo woo woo you know it. Ryder would lose in his match against Swagger due to Swagger hitting Ryder with an illegal object before getting the pin-fall. The Royal Rumble would come around and both men would be in the man and we would continually get Eve and Ryder segments backstage.
After Zack Ryder would go on and eliminate Jack Swagger in the rumble we would get a build to his first title defense on a PPV against Swagger. This would be at elimination chamber and with Vickie Guerrero in the corner of Jack Swagger we would see them attempt to cheat Ryder out of his first US title PPV defense. However instead of it working out Eve would come down mid match and keep Vickie Guerrero from interfering allowing Ryder to pick-up the win and keep his title. We could get an embrace at the end of the match and Ryder raising the hand of Eve and his title before leaving the ring rejoicing with his new valet.
We would then have Wrestlemania the showcase of immortals and Zack Ryder would lead team Teddy in as the United States champion. Ryder would eliminate both Swagger and Ziggler in this match the two men he won feuds over to have his US championship. Team Teddy however would not be victorious as he would be pinned by The Miz and team Laurenistis would go on to have brand supremacy. The Miz would now have a claim that he pinned the US champion and he was the number one contender. This would bring us to Extreme Rules and Zack Ryder along with Eve would be taking on The Miz in a US title match on the Pre-show.
Eve would get involved in the match when it appeared the Miz was going to win and Zack Ryder would lose via disqualification. Ryder would be upset that Eve felt she had to get involved in order for Ryder to win and the Miz would say that Ryder purposefully had Eve interfere so he could keep his title. This would lead to Ryder giving The Miz a rematch on Raw the next night and asking Eve to please stay in the back.
Ryder would have this match very much under control and when setting up the brokski boot in the corner the Titantron would come on and Eve would be tied to a chair. This would distract Ryder long enough for The Miz to hit the skull crushing finale on Zack Ryder and end his title reign. Over the next few weeks we would have The Miz swearing that he had nothing to do with what happened to Eve and Ryder not believe him. This would bring out an aggressive side of Ryder however Eve would still not be found. This would lead to Ryder’s rematch at Over the Limit. Here again Zack Ryder would show his new aggression and have this match already sewn up when going for the pin-fall the lights go out and flames come out of the ring posts. Kane would chokeslam Ryder leading to a disqualification win for Zack Ryder.
The next night on Raw Kane would reveal he has taken Eve and now he’s here to show Ryder just how evil he can truly be. This would go on for weeks with Kane getting the upper hand on Ryder and Ryder not being able to find or see Eve. This would lead to the No Way Out PPV in which Kane promised if Ryder was able to beat him he would free Eve. Ryder would show heart in this match and not give up wanting to save Eve from what he felt was danger. Kane would continue his beat down on Ryder until Ryder was able to hit a rough ryder out of nowhere and score a pin fall victory over Kane. Ryder would roll out of the ring selling his injured ribs screaming where’s Eve?
The next night on Raw we see Ryder walking backstage and she tells the reporter that she’s going to the ring to see Eve. We would have Eve’s music hit and she would make her way to the ring with a huge smile on her face. They would get in the ring and she would say that not only is she grateful that she is back with him but she also got him a qualifying match for the World Title Money in the Bank briefcase. Ryder would go on to win the qualifying match and that would lead us to Money in the Bank with Ryder vs. Ziggler vs. Sandow. Rhodes vs. Sin Cara vs. Tensai. They would have a great match and it would appear as if Ryder was going to win the briefcase when Eve would get into the ring and low blow Ryder as he it at the top of the ladder. She would storm away and Ziggler would then climb the ladder and win the match.
This would lead to speculation on why Eve did what she did to Ryder. This would bring Ryder out on Monday asking why Eve why? Eve would come to the ring and degrade Ryder telling him that she has found a real champion in WWE and that she knew he could never win money in the bank or any other title for that matter. Tensai would come from the crowd and attack Ryder from behind. He and Sakamoto would put the boots to Ryder as would Eve and they would stand in the ring over Ryder hands raised. Tensai would now have Eve and Sakamoto accompanying him to the ring and the preshow match for Summerslam would be set. Tensai w/Sakamoto and Eve vs. Zack Ryder.
Summerslam is set and Zack Ryder has a match on it against Tensai. If you’re a Ryder fan this is where I’m going to ask you to stop reading as you may not like what comes next. Tensai would squash Ryder in the preshow match and gain some real heat for beating such a sympathetic baby face. Tensai and Eve would stand over Ryder yet again with Sakamoto standing behind him. Tensai would go on to feud for the US championship. Zack Ryder would now have value much like pre-world title Dolph Ziggler and would be great for up-coming heels to beat to take the next step. You could see feuds with guys like Cesaro, Cody Rhodes, and even Damien Sandow for Zack Ryder moving forward.
That concludes chapter seven of Re-Writing the Book and the tale of Zack Ryder. Ryder at this point after having a pretty good mid card title run and being in storylines for half the year would have established value and credibility for the long island native. Did you like the way Zack Ryder was booked here? Did you hate it? How would you have done it? Shoot me a follow and let me know your thoughts on Zack Ryder’s chapter. If you’re saying to yourself chapter seven? What happened to chapter one? That means you missed the beginning of the book go back through the archives and check out prior chapters. Also I’ll be putting the link up shortly after this comes out where you can vote for chapter eight. Until next time be awesome.
