The 5 News Week Look Back At Each Individual Highlight Of Zack Ryder, Lio Rush as Cruiserweight Championship, The Writer Behind The Otis And Mandy Rose Story.

April 15th, 2020 is a memorable day for me. It is definitely the saddest and noteworthy day of not only mine and the fans' lives but as well as the performers and staff who were affected by this. I am of course referring to the day that WWE released dozens of talented, hard-working people. 

For those who are new, I usually report on the 5 major or minor news of the week and that was the original plan. 

However, since this week is probably going to be known in the future for the releases, I want to instead document 5 of the performers and staff's individual highlights in their tenure with WWE. 

Understand that without the hardworking wrestlers, producers, ring crew, writers and the rest of the staff doing what they do best, there wouldn't be a Playard Wrestling Post. Without further ado, Ladies and gentlemen, this is The 5 News Week Look Back. 

How Zack Ryder's Popularity In 2011 Played A Role In WWE's YouTube Strategy Today. 

It's hard to believe this but once upon a time from 2010 till 2012ish, WWE's social media particularly their YouTube channel, was a ghost town with no engagement whatsoever, you know, like my Facebook page. 

Back when YouTube was filled with Call Of Duty commentary videos, Zack saw the platform as an opportunity to debut his unique videos for the wrestling world to see and my goodness, the fans ate it up. 

As a result of his popularity, His merchandise on WWE Shop was selling and the crowd in various shows started to chant "We Want Ryder".  




Zack Ryder even built his upcoming United States championship match at TLC 2011 alongside Dolph Ziggler by utilizing YouTube which was fantastic might I add. 



Now, I could talk about his rise and fall in WWE because that's a topic worthy of its own article but the reason why I highlighted his most noteworthy time is because of one thing, his influence. 

WWE's YouTube shows like Santino Marella's Foreign Exchange, Dolph Ziggler's WWE Download, The JBL And Cole show etc all were the aftermath of Zack Ryder's Z! True Long Island Story popularity on social media. 

Thanks to Ryder, several performers in WWE are now creating content for their YouTube page. Guys like Xavier Woods' UpUp Down Down, Asuka's Kana Chan TV, Charlotte and Andrade's Anywhere, Aleister Black and Zelina Vega's A to Z and many more. 

It is Zack Ryder that made WWE see the potential that YouTube can bring to the content game to the point where the company made over $20 million off of their YouTube alone last year. 

It is only a matter of time that Zack Ryder tells WWE after their YouTube paycheck, "what can I say except you're welcome". 

Fit Finlay's Influence In WWE's Women's Wrestling Scene In the Early 2000s. 

Finlay has wrestled since 1974 and is known for his tough-guy persona that built his entrance as well as his in-ring style. 

But, there's another side to his legacy in professional wrestling and that's his role in women's wrestling within Titan towers (wow, that's a lot of "ins"). 

Shortly after the death of WCW, Finlay signed with WWE as a producer and he had a task in hand to train the women as legit competitors like the guys before he returned to the ring in late 2005. 

The process was highlighted in an episode of WWE Confidential and in it, Fit described how he prepares the women for their upcoming *ugh* bra and panties matches quote:

"I don't often really think there's much difference. There's a way a match goes you know, there's a flow. It's like a book, there's a beginning, a middle and an end." 

To put it simply, he was responsible for the success of WWE women's division in Raw in the 2002-2005 period (No F'ing sh*t, Omar). 

His idea to mould the female wrestlers as performers to be taken seriously was unheard of back in the day due to how the company, unfortunately, saw the women at the time and that idea now is obvious in today's world. 

Finlay even has my respect for taking a kick from Asuka in a 6 person tag team match against Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck. If there's one producer that AEW needs to improve their women's division is Fit Finlay. 

While I think that the level of interest in the division has gotten better, I believe that AEW sorely needs Fit Finlay's expertise in the field. 

Andrea Listenberger. The Mastermind Behind The Otis And Mandy Rose Love Story. 

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, WWE has laid off a lot of talented people and it included one writer in WWE's creative team and the person's name is Andrea Listenberger. 

Listenberger has taken part in 18 episodes of Smackdown since 2019 as a writer and it is because of her work that we got a story that is still going on in the Otis and Mandy love triangle. 



The story was better than any romantic movie I've seen for the past several years and it definitely had the best feel-good moment in any medium of entertainment all year. 

If there's one thing that I've learned for this storyline is that the writers in WWE got some amazing ideas in their arsenal waiting for it to be used and if Vince McMahon allowed more engaging stories from the writers then we might look at another golden era of storytelling in WWE once more. 

A Look At Lio Rush's Cruiserweight Championship Run (At Least The NXT Side Of Things). 

Lio Rush has been around with the company (until his release) since 2017 however, his time with WWE felt like he was around for a year or less. 

Debuted on NXT but wasn't on TV after he said something about Emma's firing that pissed a lot of the workers off, came back to television on 205 Live and made his Monday RAW debut as Bobby Lashley's associate, he parted ways with Bobby Lashley, showed up to NXT again several months later in a cruiserweight championship match against Drew Gulak which he won and that's the title I'm going to talk about. 

Now, the question is, how was his 63 day run with the purple belt? Honestly, it was good. By far the most memorable moments were at the end of his title reign aka his short and underrated feud with Angel Garza.

Garza showed up to the yellow brand as a participant in the NXT breakout tournament last year and he has made me a fan of his due to Angel's ladies man character that stands out among the rest of the roster. 

Once he became number one contender for the title, Garza was able to make this rivalry personal like blowing kisses to the cruiserweight champion's wife. 

That was a calling for Garza to use that persona to his advantage and that's how he captured the cruiserweight championship. In short, the feud told a simple story that led to a series of amazing matches which is NXT's greatest strength.

Lio Rush from my perspective is one of if not the person to thank for Angel Garza's first major rivalry that got Garza over in the end. 

How Drake Maverick Sparked An Interest In The Shenanigans That Is WWE's 24/7 Championship. 

The final performer highlight of the piece talks about a man that got the fans interested in the novice 24/7 title scene. 

Drake Maverick had recently moved on from his managerial duties with The Authors Of Pain, several months after he pursued the 48/7, 7/11, 24/7, I-95 South, European, television championship by creating flyers about the current champion that were given to fans, WWE officials, wrestlers to which WWE liked the concept so much that the powers that be gave him a push. 

He successfully won the ugly green belt a number of 6 times thanks in large part to his humour in the 24/7 segments especially the ones on YouTube with millions of views. 

Maverick's time with the 24/7 championship picture showed the fans the purpose of this belt which was that it's a title intended for laughter. I don't think that the belt would've caught the fans' attention if it wasn't for both R Truth and Drake Maverick. 


By the way, there won't be a 5 News Week next Sunday as I'm posting a separate article that day. The reason why I can't post that separate article on Monday is that I'm planning to binge-watch all of the shows and movies I've not caught up. 

What do you think about the highlights of the careers I just talked about and follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay safe smarks.