Around eight years ago, Zack Ryder created his own YouTube show called “Z! True Long Island Story”. It caught on more than anyone could imagine and legit catapulted Zack Ryder to the forefront of fan support. After Survivor Series where The Rock and John Cena teamed up for the first and only time, all the fans were chanting was “We Want Ryder”.
WWE took notice of this up and coming Superstar and quickly moved his YouTube show to WWE.com. Where the show was edited and eventually died off as quick as Zack’s fan support.
Ryder breaking down that door has lead to other wrestlers creating their own YouTube series’ while dodging the pitfalls that took “Z! True Long Island Story” down. Xavier Woods/Austin Creed created his UpUpDownDown juggernaut and has yet to let WWE get involved.
On an episode of Table For 3 on the WWE Network Xavie Woods, Zack Ryder and Matt Hardy discussed what making your own brand is like and what Ryder should have done differently. Shortly after that dinner, Zack Ryder got with his former Major Bros. tag team partner Curt Hawkins and they created the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast.
The action figure community is a strong and loyal group, so the fans flocked to the podcast and supported it since the beginning. MWFP created it’s own YouTube page with unboxing videos and fun parody’s like the S.T.O.M.P. trailer.
Over on the WWE YouTube page, Major Wrestling Figure Podcast made a show called “Figure It Out” where cameras would follow Hawkins and Ryder to different toy stores to see what the Major Brothers could find and spend money on. There was about five episodes released on WWE’s YouTube page, and then nothing. Rumors that Hawkins and Ryder filmed more episodes surfaced, when they themselves said they had more episodes in the can, but was unsure if they would see the light of day.
Today news surfaced of the future of Figure It Out
This is part of WWE Networks attempt to expand their catalog beyond wrestling. From cooking shows, to video games to action figures. The wrestling world is much deeper than wrestling, which is becoming more apparent by the day.
