The sad thing for Ryder is, he has been earning the spot he craves.
A similar thing happened with Chavo Guerrero. Both men were told that because they were small, they had to work harder. Both men did everything they were told to do, and spent their spare times working harder to become better at their jobs. They cut/grew their hair whenever they were told too. They endured televised humiliation when they were told to. They were told to act in certain ways. And while Chavo spent time improving his in ring ability and training younger stars, Ryder used his media expertise to promote himself, lower talents and the WWE. Most of their careers have been spent making others look good.
But the sad thing is, by giving their best to the crap stuff, they became good at the crap stuff. So they were the only ones booked to do the crap stuff, because no-one did the crap stuff better. And all of the things that they worked for were handed to the people around them because they were taller, had the right look for now, etc.
Chavo Guerrero is one of the best performers in the history of American professional wrestling. But he will never be remembered along the same lines as Eddie or Gory. And what did Chavo do wrong? He was putting on matches when he was 3 years old. He toured the world. He practised every style of wrestling going. He took acting and speaking classes to connect with audiences better. And he has kept himself out of trouble for most of his career. But his career highlight will always be "multi-time" Cruiserweight champion, and being related to Eddy.
Yes, there are better performers than Zack Ryder right now. But who in the WWE can connect with fans like he does? Fans even chanted "We Want Ryder" while the Rock was cutting a live promo, the one thing that Rock is best at. Ryder is the reason why McMahon is so high on social media for the last year. He is right to call himself the "self-made superstar".
