WWE still seems intent on pushing CM Punk and Daniel Bryan as top-level talents (more on that later,) but their partner-in-Internet-fan-favoritedom, Zack Ryder, isn't faring so well these days. After a ton of television time on both Raw and SmackDown, WWE had Ryder win the United States Title only to get injured by Kane last week as part of a largely unrelated storyline, and then turn around and lose the belt to Jack Swagger this week.

It's a crazy way to treat a guy you have so much invested in already. Even if someone decided that Ryder wasn't all that he was cracked up to be (and it still seems early to be making that decision), there had to have been a better way to handle this. As it is now, Swagger has the belt, but he won it from an injured opponent, which does little to make him look like an impressive threat, and the title itself feels like little more than a gaudy accessory passed back and forth between Vickie Guerrero's boys. Also, Ryder's ridiculous injury sell wasn't helping anybody, as he performed pain by repeatedly sucking the saliva out of his mouth.