Zack Ryder Calls Himself The “Cockroach Of WWE,” Talks Day Of Release
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Zack Ryder recently did an interview with Chris Van Vliet where he spoke about a wide range of topics including his release from WWE.
Last month, Ryder was part of a mass talent and staff release due to budget cuts. He recalled the situation where he woke up with a group text message telling them to check the talent app, which included a video of Vince McMahon talking about the state of the company and that layoffs would be coming.
Ryder discussed how he considers himself a smart guy and he knew what was coming for him so he set up a store on Pro Wrestling Tees.
“I knew it was coming. I mean, I didn’t know, but I had a pretty good idea. The thing is, my contract would have been up in August. I had never re-signed. I guess for over a year, we had been talking and the anxiety that I had been living with, ‘Do I stay or do I go?’ I grew up wanting to become a WWE Superstar. My career has been up and down, up and down, up and down. With all these new opportunities, do I really want to stay when I could go somewhere else? When the decision was made for me, I was like, ‘Oh my god thank you! Thank you so much!’ Instant relief.”
Ryder talked about how it was weird because Curt Hawkins got the call first which led to him, Heath Slater, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson being left thinking what’s going to happen next.
“I was thinking, ‘Are they going to let me sit home until my contract runs out and just rot?’ Please call me! I had to call to get released. I knew something was going down. A couple of texts had been ignored for the last couple of days. It is what it is. Business is business. No hard feelings. I’m so grateful for my time in WWE.”
Ryder then made an interesting comment about the time where he and Hawkins were just done with the Edgeheads storyline.
“They put out the new program and Hawkins and I wasn’t in it. ‘Oh No! We’re going to get fired.’ I always seem to…I call myself the cockroach of WWE. I always seem to survive everything, you know? All those cuts. I always made it, except for this time.”