After gaining snowball-like momentum late last year with a heavily featured position on Monday Night Raw that was highlighted by a United States Championship reign, Zack Ryder’s standing in WWE disintegrated once he became involved with Kane and Eve on television. From January to April, the self-described “Long Island Iced-Z” was routinely destroyed by the monster wrestler and made to look foolish by the cunning Diva. Though he managed to gain a measure of revenge on both parties on the “Great American Bash” edition of SmackDown on July 3, his career currently remains in limbo. Speaking to XFINITY® from Comcast, Ryder attributes his diminished role to both Kane and Eve.
He explains, “I was on such a roll at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 and the whole Kane and Eve thing killed my momentum. Basically killed my career. So, to turn that around and get revenge on them was something I needed. Hopefully it’ll get the Ryder Revolution back on track.”
With that behind him, Ryder says his current goal is to regain the United States Championship.
“I’d love to get that back,” he says. “In 2011 I think I proved to people that I’m not a joke, I can be taken seriously in the ring. And hopefully by the end of this year I’ll have a major championship.”
Ryder also has plans to tweak his character in the next few years since he “can’t be the same old guy forever.”
Ryder adds, “But that doesn’t mean I’ll have to drop all of the parts of my character to get to the top. I think eventually I’ll evolve. If you’ve followed my career I was a Major Brother, then an Edge Head, now I’m Zack Ryder, I’m sure in three years I’ll be completely different.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ryder discusses WWE embracing social media, the Internet Championship, working with Edge and more. Read more here.
