10 Wrestlers Way Too Desperate For Your Approval 5

5. Zack Ryder

Pro wrestling and social media are strange bedfellows. The best pro wrestling presupposes that the fan is leaving the real world behind and stepping into a universe wherein real-life things happen that in no way affect actual reality. It’s a super-athletic live event with well-scripted acting, and thus when wrestlers take the worked shoot world into real-life social interaction, things get weird.
Zack Ryder’s use of social media to “get over” worked because it allowed Ryder the chance to create an alternate-alternate universe in which he was allowed to interact with his fanbase. However, at some point when WWE’s fourth wall infringed on Ryder’s unique fifth wall, the fans actually saw less of the Ryder that they had been allowed to see both in real-life and in Ryder’s wholly related/unrelated to WWE universe, and became dismayed.
Once Ryder’s entirely unique world had become co-opted by WWE, Ryder attempting to merge his real life, wrestling life and “Z! True long Island Story” life reeked of desperation. When Ryder’s wrestling persona failed after his Internet show persona won, it created a real-life dilemma for Ryder (and Ryder’s fanbase) of wondering why this was all done in the first place. In a case of everyone investing everything, all three sides of the equation canceled each other out and nobody got anything in return. Now floundering, Ryder’s story is a cautionary tale of the thin line beterrn excellence and desperation.