Zack Ryder's revelation about his WrestleMania 32 win

Matt Cardona recently put forth a backstage revelation on Chris Van Vliet’s podcast. He revealed that originally, he wasn’t even supposed to be in the Intercontinental Championship ladder match from WrestleMania 32, let alone win it. The original winner was supposed to be Pac, then known as Adrian Neville, which many of us suspected following his high profile matches. 

Included in that was a WWE Title Open Challenge match against Seth Rollins, one of the first matches my younger self rated at 5 stars. Neville played the resilient underdog role so gracefully in the match that at one point--after he delivered his final Red Arrow-- I thought he was about to win. 

So I’m not shocked to hear he would’ve won, and I wonder how differently Neville’s career would have played out if so. 

My two picks for victory were Dolph Ziggler and the Miz. But WWE pulled a welcome curveball.

Cardona won over Road Dogg–then one of WWE’s top writers– by mentioning how he had never even heard his entrance music play at WrestleMania before. And that won him over, hence the insertion into the match. 

For Zack Ryder fans–Cardona’s previous ring name– hearing the iconic “Oh radio!” lyrics booming through the WrestleMania speakers was more than enough. But then, at the end of the match with an opportunity in hand, Ryder raced to the top of the ladder to throw The Miz off. Ryder gracefully grabbed the title and stole a victory for all of his fans. 

That moment was surprising, and that’s why it’s not surprising to hear that he wasn’t originally planned to win. Zack struggled and had to present his case for why he should even be allowed to join the match. But that struggle turned into triumph, as the “feel good” peak of the show was definitely–in my opinion– Ryder’s WrestleMania moment celebrating at the top of that ladder and with his father.

Even though he only held it for a day and lost it to The Miz the next night, that moment can never be stolen from the ones cheering. And it can never be stolen from Ryder himself, who etched his name into both the WWE history books and our hearts forever.