wrestling / Video Reviews

Views from the Hawke’s Nest: WWE Superstar Collection: Zack Ryder

August 17, 2012 | Posted by TJ Hawke
5.5
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Views from the Hawke’s Nest: WWE Superstar Collection: Zack Ryder  

The DVD starts with a montage of Zack Ryder’s Youtube show, “Z! True Long Island Story.”

July 28, 2009
ECW TV

Christian comes out and is announced as the new ECW Champion. He had just defeated Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Title at Night of Champions (which took place two days earlier). He says his second time as ECW Champion is just a little bit sweeter. Tommy Dreamer comes out wearing a sports jacket and a very orange tan. Dreamer says he just spoke to Tiffany (the ECW GM) and that they will have a rematch next week on TV in an Extreme Rules match. I assume this segment was on the DVD because of Dreamer’s fake tan. Oh, Zack Ryder interrupts and says he will defeat Christian for the title right now.

Christian vs. Zack Ryder
Ryder is wearing his fantastic single legged pants.

Christian was in control early. Ryder cut him off when he reversed an Irish Whip that sent Christian into a turnbuckle chest first. Christian came back with a flapjack. Ryder ended up on the floor and Christian hit a Silverking Plancha. Commercial Break. They returned with Ryder knocking Christian off the top rope to the floor. Ryder started getting the heat after that. Christian looked to be starting a comeback at one point, but Ryder hit a superplex to give him back the firm control. Christian blocked another superplex and hit a top rope cross-body for a nearfall. Christian hit a reverse DDT for another nearfall. Christian then hit a pair of missile dropkicks. Ryder came back with the Rough Ryder: 1…2…NO! I guess that wasn’t his finisher at this time. Christian came back with a tornado DDT for a nearfall. Ryder tried to for the Zack Attack, but Christian escaped and hit the pendulum kick and a diving European uppercut. Christian followed that up with the Kill Switch: 1…2…3

This was definitely Ryder’s breakout match in the WWE, because before this match, he was really just the “Woo Woo Woo” guy that was put into backstage “comedy” segments. This is the match where people (like myself) really started to see that he had some potential. Any Zack Ryder DVD that ever gets made should include this match. These two would go on to have another fun TV match on ECW. All of Christian’s matches from this time were worth watching. That should be a DVD.
Match Rating: ***1/2

September 19, 2011
RAW

Zack Ryder (w/ Hugh Jackman) vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/ Vickie Guerrero)
Hugh Jackman is managing Dolph on Monday Night Raw. This is Earth.

Ryder rolls up Ziggler for a quick nearfall. Ryder is very over with this crowd. Ryder actually busted out the Facewash for an early nearfall. Ziggler cut him off with a thrust kick. Ziggler was in control of the match, but he was also berating Hugh Jackman. Both men went down after they hit clotheslines at the same time. Vickie slapped Ryder, but the referee saw it, so he kicked her out. That had the referee distracted. Hugh Jackman then punched Ziggler in the face, which allowed Ryder to hit the Rough Ryder: 1…2…3!

Ryder and Jackman celebrated together in the ring.

Not much of a match, as this was mostly a segment to give Ryder a rub for being associated with Hugh Jackman (who is an actual Hollywood star unlike a lot of the celebrity clowns WWE gets on their shows). Ideally, Jackman would have thwarted interference from Vickie instead of actually attacking Dolph, but I honestly think this was a cool thing to do with Ryder. As usual with the WWE, the follow-up was less than ideal.
Match Rating: *

November 7, 2011
Raw

The Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth) vs. John Cena & Zack Ryder
WWE screwing up the Awesome Truth in the build to Survivor Series 2011 is still mind bottling (my mind is literally trapped in a bottle). They actually showed highlights of Cena handling the two of them by himself. Hilarious WWE booking.

In case there was any doubt that Cena didn’t need a tag partner, he easily handled Miz and Truth on his own for a while (as the crowd chanted for Ryder no less). Cena finally tagged in Ryder, and the crowd popped. Ryder sent Truth the outside, as Raw cut to a commercial break. Back from the commercial, Ryder was now dominating Miz. They showed a replay of Truth absolutely cracking his head when he was tossed to the outside. Ouch. Meanwhile, Miz and Truth managed to cut off Cena. They got the heat for a while. Cena finally managed to tag in Ryder who ran wild on Miz. Cena then got back in the ring, with Ryder’s sunglasses on. They hit stereo fist pump facewashes. Truth and Miz then managed to cut off Ryder, so we get another heat segment. This went for a while until Ryder finally tagged in Cena. Cena ran wild and hit a pair of Protoplexes. He and Ryder then did stereo Five Knuckle Shuffles. Ryder and Truth ended up on the outside. Miz hit Cena with a running boot. Truth held Cena’s legs down from the outside as Miz pinned him: 1…2…3? Lame.

My mind is kind of blown that a Zack Ryder DVD contains a match that a.) is almost entirely about selling a PPV match that he was not in and b.) was seemingly designed to show that he is useless. The video before this match made clear that Cena could easily handle Miz and Truth on his own, but once he had an incompetent partner at his side, he lost. Incredible. There were obviously spots in this match that were meant to use Cena to give Ryder a rub, but in reality this match really did nothing for Ryder. In conclusion, Ryder was really over, got a rub from John Cena, but in the end, the WWE made him seem incompetent so he was really back at square one. The match was also uninspired. Quite frankly, this match perfectly sums up Zack Ryder’s 2011-2012 in the WWE.
Match Rating: **1/2

December 5, 2011
Raw

Zack Ryder vs. John Cena
If Ryder wins, he gets a PPV shot at the US Title. If Cena wins, he gets a PPV show at the WWE Title. The stipulations were orchestrated by Johnny Ace. Neither man got a loud reaction, which does not bode well.

They went back and forth at the start with neither man getting a decisive advantage for very long. Ryder hit a missile dropkick for an early nearfall. Ryder then hit a tornado DDT for a nearfall. Ryder called for the Rough Ryder, but Cena avoided it and made his standard comeback. Cena got a mixed response for the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Cena set up for the FU, but Ryder avoided it and hit the Fist Pump Facewash. Ryder called for the Rough Ryder again. He went for it, but Cena caught him and hit the FU: 1…2…3.

Ryder is distraught after the match, saying it was his one shot. Cena tells Ryder to hang on and leaves the ring. The story would end up being that Cena gave up his PPV title match and let Ryder have a PPV shot at Dolph Ziggler. That storyline was a mixed bag. On one hand, it was a very interesting and different way of pushing Cena, as his character had gotten very stale. On the other hand, it made Zack Ryder look like a bitch. I think that latter outweighed the former.

An OK TV match. They didn’t seem to go out of their way to do anything special. The match didn’t come across as important. Ryder losing was stupid.
Match Rating: **1/2

December 16, 2011
Smackdown

Zack Ryder & Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler & Wade Barrett
This match took place right before Ziggler and Ryder met up on PPV. Orton and Barrett were scheduled to have a Tables match at the upcoming PPV match as well.

Not much of note happened early on. Orton and Ryder were in control as they went to a commercial break. They came back from the break, and the tecnicos were still in control. Eventually, Barrett managed to catch Orton with a big boot to the face to cut him off. The rudos worked over Orton for a while. Orton was able to hit a back suplex on Barrett and then tag out to Ryder who ran wild. Barrett avoided the Rough Ryder, and Ziggler attacked Ryder from the outside. The rudos then started to work over Ryder. Ryder almost got caught in Barrett’s Wasteland, but Ryder reversed it into a DDT. That was actually pretty cool. Orton tagged in and ran wild on Ziggler. Ryder managed to send Barrett to the floor, but Barrett then sent Ryder into a barricade. In the ring, Orton avoided a FameAsser from Dolph and then hit a RKO: 1…2…3. Barrett probably had a chance to break up the pinfall, but he chose not to.

Another baffling selection for a Zack Ryder DVD. This match was almost entirely about setting up Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton on the PPV, and Ryder/Ziggler were just tools to help them. The match was solid.
Match Rating: **3/4

December 18, 2011
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs

Dolph Ziggler© (w/ Vickie Guerrero) vs. Zack Ryder [United States Championship]
This match should have probably happened at Survivor Series, but oh well.

Dolph was messing with Ryder early. Ryder quickly came back though and sent Ziggler to the floor. Ryder then wiped him out with a somersault plancha. Ryder went to bring Ziggler back in the ring, but Ziggler managed to hit a DDT on the apron. Ziggler then started to work over Ryder in the ring. Dolph hit the Drunk Slam for a nearfall during the heat. Ryder managed to come back with a missile dropkick for a nearfall. Ryder started to run wild. He hit (a commentator finally informed me of the name) the Broski Boot: 1…2…Vickie put Ziggler’s foot on the ropes. The referee saw it and threw Vickie to back. Ziggler tried to roll Ryder up with a handful of ropes, but Ryder kicked out. Ziggler then hit a FameAsser: 1…2…NO! Ryder avoided a Zig Zag, but ate a great dropkick for another nearfall. Ziggler went to the top rope, but Ryder crotched him and hit a super hurricanrana: 1…2…NO! Ziggler avoided the Rough Ryder and rolled him up with a handful of tights for a nearfall. Ziggler went for a running charge in the corner, but Ryder blocked him with his kness and then hit the ROUGH RYDER: 1…2…3!!!

Ryder treated this like he just won the Super Bowl by himself. I believe they showed Ryder’s dad losing his mind. Yes, that appears to be his dad. Ryder hugged his dad. That was nice.

Dolph Ziggler deserves a lot of credit for this match, as he did every trick and bump in the book to make Ryder look very credible. Ryder has proven that he can have fun matches with great workers, and this (along with the first match on the DVD) is a good example.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to my Twitter or to my email address: [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my own wrestling website, FreeProWrestling.com.

The 411: This was a very strange DVD. The concept of these Superstar Collection DVDs seems to be to provide cheap products that fans may be more willing to buy (given the current economic conditions), but I didn't like WWE's approach to it at all. This DVD was basically just a collection of matches (except for a very short montage of Ryder's Youtube show), and since only one of those matches happened on PPV, all of these matches are very easy to find on Youtube (not saying that people should pirate them mind you). If I was the WWE, I would have tried to add something (like Ryder's shoot thoughts on all the matches or something like that), so fans feel like they actually got more bang for their buck. On top of that, for this specific DVD, the matches selected don't really make a lot of sense if the goal was to make Ryder look like a bigger star (but when has that ever been the WWE's goal?). This DVD feels like a complete cash grab, and I think most fans wouldn't feel like they got much for their money. Then again, these DVDs are so cheap, that it's almost impossible to feel ripped off. Unless you absolutely hate Ryder, I would say this DVD will be worth watching when it gets put on Netflix.
 
Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]  legend

article topics

TJ Hawke

Comments are closed.