WWE Superstar Zack Ryder stopped by Lilian Garcia‘s Chasing Glory Podcast highlighting his days before signing with WWE in 2006, starting his YouTube show which potentially saved his career and his high school battle with cancer. It’s an engaging 73-minute listen on with the Long Island Z Superstar:
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Ryder on the success and struggle of his YouTube Show:
“I don’t have many regrets, but there are three things I wished I should’ve done in wrestling. One of them is during that time period is that I should have knocked on Vince’s [McMahon] door, walked in, and ask him, ‘Hey, what are we doing here?’ But I didn’t, was I scared? Was I intimidated? I don’t know, but I didn’t do it and that is one of my biggest regrets because then I would have had a ground to stand on… I was definitely using [YouTube] to my advantage and turned nothing into something. I was doing it all by myself doing the editing and producing. I had some help from a few of my friends but none from the company as I did it all by myself and the fans realized, ‘this guy doing this on his own, we want to get behind him’ and without the fans getting behind me, none of this would happen. I wouldn’t be here today.”
On overcoming cancer and not wanting to be seen as a Make-A-Wish kid:
“I never wanted that to be my story, not that I was ever embarrassed or ashamed of it. I never wanted to be the cancer guy or the cancer wrestler. I wanted to make it, and then I wanted to tell my story if that makes sense. I never hide it; I have a scar right on my chest. When people ask about the scar, I would tell them… It’s great to give back [participating in Make-A-Wish] as I remember being the fan meeting the superstar and now I am the superstar meeting the fans and kids. I still have 8×10 photos signed by superstars. I still have one signed by you (towards Lilian) [laughs]. It means a lot to me as one of these kids could be signing autographs down the line soon.”
