Other Media
Ryder started a YouTube web series called Z! True Long Island Story in February 2011, which has amassed over 12 million views to date. The web series is a collection of short comments from Ryder, containing comedic allusions to wrestling and pop culture; it also features cameos from his friends and family, as well as fellow WWE colleagues. The show's theme song Just Take Care, Spike Your Hair was written specifically about Ryder by The Luke & Duane Show. In April 2011, Ryder proclaimed himself WWE Internet Champion complete with a children's replica belt covered in stickers, as it was unsanctioned by WWE. In July 2011, Ryder would appear to defend his Internet Championship at a non-televised show in Australia against Primo, but later commented that it was a non-title match, and that he would never defend his Internet Championship. However, on a later episode of Z! True Long Island Story, Dolph Ziggler challenged Ryder to a match for the Internet title at Wrestlemania XXIX from NY/NJ, and Ryder accepted the challenge. Ryder soon replaced the toy belt with a $1,500 custom-made belt by Wildcat Championship Belts in July 2011. On episode 50 of Z! True Long Island Story, Ryder announced the show will be part of WWE's YouTube funded channel. Z! True Long Island Story ended on January 11, 2013 which was the show's 100th episode. Overall, the series ran 50 episodes on Zack Ryder's YouTube channel and 50 episodes on WWE's official channel. After the end of Z! True Long Island Story, Ryder released a music video entitled "Hoeski" five days later on 16 January 2013. The song amassed over 100,000 views in 4 days and was also posted on WWE's official YouTube channel.
Ryder's online popularity also translated to social media. He has over 1,000,000 followers on Twitter, over 435,000 Facebook "likes", and over 120,000 YouTube subscribers. This led him to be featured in Sports Illustrated's list of the 100 most influential social media users in sports. Ryder became the fourth WWE performer to reach 1 million followers on Twitter on January 14, 2013, minutes after the conclusion of the 20th Anniversary edition of Raw.
Zack Ryder was the inspiration behind the "RYDER OR RIOT RADIO" show from British independent record label Audio Antihero.
Ryder has appeared in several WWE video games, including WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2011, WWE '12, and WWE '13. Despite never being used on television, Ryder's Internet Championship belt can be defended in WWE '13.
Read more about this topic: Zack Ryder
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