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Siiiiiiiiick.
Believe it or not, it wasn't that long ago that Zack Ryder was a rising star in WWE. The fans were calling for his coronation after his cult following grew large enough to infiltrate live events. They chanted for him loudly at Survivor Series last year and at the very next pay-per-view (PPV), TLC, he won the U.S. title, beating Dolph Ziggler.
Now? Sadness.
Indeed, it's one year later and Ryder wasn't even used on the TLC event that took place last night (Dec. 16, 2012) in Brooklyn, New York. From his Twitter before the show:
"TLC is tonight in New York's (Barclays Center). Last year I won the US title at TLC. This year I got an e-mail saying that I was not needed."
Quite the reversal of fortunes, especially considering Ziggler spent last night beating John Cena in the main event of the evening. There were Ryder chants during the show but if we learned anything from his push last year it's not to expect that WWE will know what to do with a guy its creative brain trust didn't create.
Sorry, Zack!