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Zack Ryder On His Biggest Regret With Vince McMahon

October 20, 2018 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with Prime Time with Sean Mooney (via Wrestlezone), Zack Ryder spoke about the ups and downs of his career and what his biggest regret with Vince McMahon is. Here are highlights:

On his fight with cancer and what got him through it: “I had a tumor in my right foot that spread to my lungs. I had two tumors in one lung and one in the other. I had all the surgeries, the chemo, losing the hair, all the horror stories, I went through them. All these complications, it was a big deal and it sounds so cliche; but, the only light at the end of the tunnel was I gotta survive this, I gotta make it through this, I gotta get to WWE. That was it. I know it sounds so cliche; but, it’s so so true. What happened was there was a pea sized tumor on my right foot. I showed my mom and went to the doctor and they said, ‘Keep an eye on it.’ I was an idiot kid, so I didn’t realize that it was getting bigger every day. One day we were at the beach and my mom was like, ‘Woah! What’s going on?’ A couple weeks or maybe a month or so went by and it had gotten to almost a golf ball size and I don’t know, looking back, I’m like, ‘How did I not notice this?’ I can’t make any excuse. Anyway, we went to the doctor and they ended up removing it and doing the biopsy and everything. They realized it was a cancerous tumor; but, they thought they had caught it early enough that no chemo or anything would be needed; but, they said that if this type of cancer, synovial sarcoma, if it were to spread it’s going to spread into your lungs, so you need to get a chest X-ray every month, so that’s what we did and just about a year later of getting it every month, we saw the two tumors in one and one in the other. We caught it as early as you can catch it, but that meant the cancer was in the blood and now chemo was needed. It was 100% necessary.

The passion for wrestling is what drove me to get through it. I can’t even describe to you in words how bad it was. I had no feelings sometimes. I was like a zombie. Literally my parents were taken me to the hospital and I would be in the hospital for a week getting chemo and I was out of it the whole time. I wasn’t even like a person on the weeks I’d be getting the chemo and stuff like that. I had to get through this. Obviously, it’s not up to me to get through it; but, that was my mind set. ‘No matter what, I can’t give up. This is just a set back. This isn’t gonna be forever. Eventually, I’ll get through it and fulfill all my dreams. I know it’s so cliche.’”

On the story of his career: “I haven’t been there [the WWE] for a cup of coffee. I’ve been there for over a decade. I could probably count on a couple of fingers how many people have lasted longer than I have and I’m counting without any stops on their run and granted I hadn’t had a Hulk Hogan Hulkamania run; but, I’ve been here. I’m still here and I’m surviving. I’m proud of that. That’s something I’m very very proud of that I’ve always found a way. When everyone has counted me out, even maybe I started to count myself out, I’ve found a way and that’s the story of my career whether it be The Edge Heads or the YouTube show. There’s so many different times where you thought Zack was out. Nope, 1-2 kick out.”

On his biggest regret with Vince McMahon: “I don’t like living with regrets; but, one of my biggest regrets was not going to Vince McMahon personally at this time and kind of asking what the deal is; but, now I can only speculate. I don’t know if it was, ‘Let’s just use this guy and shut people up,’ or ‘Let’s see what he’s got.’ I don’t know and I can’t speculate. I wish I would have found out for myself and that’s on me. They did start to use me and I started the year as nothing….I ended the year as United States Champion, so 2011 was a hell of a year for me and then it all started kinda going down hill.”

article topics :

Zack Ryder, Joseph Lee