Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect
I know you’re not saying it’s 1:1, but it’s not even close. Hulk Hogan had charisma for days and was a phenomenal worker. Amazing at selling and emoting. Zack Ryder couldn’t talk, couldn’t work and got over as a meme. When they tried to push him even a little bit, it was awful. Remember that promo he cut on Raw after winning the US Title?
Outside of being carried by Christian, has he even had a great match?
|
Nope. Not really. Then again, he never really got the chance to have one. Which is part of my overall point. We have no idea how he may have progressed if the machine actually got behind him and not one half-assed, late-to-the-party midcard title run or an angle where the payoff was to make him look like a complete asshole loser nobody should care about.
Remember, Vince is the same guy who even publicly admitted that he didn't see anything of value in one of his last great golden geese in John Cena. And if he decided to never pull that trigger, this conversation or some like it would likely be listing him as a failure of "all body, no substance". And even there, he didn't become the T-shirt moving company man overnight. It took YEARS and sustainability, not jobbing out in random matches on shows nobody watched once a month with him just walking by on someone else's backstage and spending the rest of his time going from city to city to be not booked.
Again, you personally didn't think much of Ryder. Fair enough. You look at him in nearly the same light I still see Keith Lee- whereas I can't deny the guy is over, but I personally still can only see him as one of the two schlub ex-football players as a tag team in ROH (the other guy was Shane Taylor, who's still there). He is a better talker than Shane, but just strikes me as a generic "big man" in a sea of "big men". I'm not creaming my pants over him. But he obviously has something I don't see, because he was getting reaction when crowds were real, and he seems like he should tick all the boxes for the Vinnie Mac approval checklist.
We don't know what could have been for Zack if he actually had gotten a fair shake while he was hot.
As for Fandango, I agree that was another dropped boat. Different way, though. Like, they seemed to think the whole reason he caught on was the dumbass song and not because he was talented. And even later when the Fashion Police started breathing new life into his and Tyler Breeze's careers, they got pushed to backstage segments (which were still getting huge pops), and then shuffled THAT off to "internet exclusive" territory. You basically had to go out of your way to watch one of the more talented and popular acts of the time. Almost as shameful as TNA's treatment of MCMG when they were the hottest tag team the company had in spite of barely being on TV.