Zack Ryder has had his fair share of moments on WWE TV, and he's creating more across digital platforms, which is no surprise to anyone who has followed him.
Ryder and his tag team partner Curt Hawkins have found big success on the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, along with their Youtube Channel and the WWE Digital Figure It Out series. When speaking with Fightful, Ryder told us about how the channel and the podcast all came together.
"Almost a year ago exactly, Hawkins and I started the Major Wrestling Figure podcast. It’s a podcast about, you guessed it, wrestling figures! And wrestling collectibles and stuff like that. And we didn’t really expect for it to grow as fast as it did. So pretty soon our fans were demanding merchandise and shirts, and then we started doing live shows. Then we’re like, well, we need some Youtube content because the Figure It Out show we do with WWE it was coming out like once a month, if that. We need some regularly scheduled stuff. So we just decided “Let’s go film these vlogs of us hunting for toys. If we’re on the road and there’s a cool store, let’s film it selfie style and just see what happens.” And the fans love it, you said you liked it. So, thanks," said Ryder. 'We’ll find these vintage stores. If it’s cool enough to film something, we’ll do it. We’ll put it out there and hopefully bring some traffic to their stores.'
In the past, many WWE Superstars have given up their podcasts upon signing with the company. That has relaxed significantly, with a plethora of talent continuing or creating shows and digital content while under contract. Ryder explained to us
"The podcast is as Zack and Brian, not Zack and Curt, but yeah. WWE knows about it, we’re not hiding it. I promote it all the time. We’re talking about it right now. So it’s very cool to have this, it’s still wrestling related, but its something we do on our own. Let’s say we want to make a backscratcher. We don’t have to ask somebody to do it. We’ll just make some stupid item and sell it. It’s cool to have that kind of creative freedom," said Ryder.
If you've never checked out Ryder and Hawkins' show, let him sell you on it.
"It’s called the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, wherever you download your podcasts. We’re on Youtube, youtube.com/majorwwfpod. Check it out, if you had figures you’ll enjoy it. If you like figures now you’ll love it. But, what I like is a lot of people who listen to it just because they’re Zack Ryder fans, they’re like “Oh my god, I had these figures as a kid, now you have me going on Ebay buying my old stuff.” Or “I’m at Target or Walmart and I’m finding the new Mattel stuff.” Or “I never bought a figure in my life, and now I’m buying them.” So it’s cool to be building this little figure community of adult men and women who are playing with toys. I love it," said Ryder.
