(NOTE: My brief conversation with Dave Lagana over Twitter this morning began with no intention of it being turned into a blog post. However, as the discussion went on, I realized how important it was to get these thoughts out to everyone who couldn’t see them for themselves on Twitter. And anyway, out of the 175 million registered Twitter accounts, only 69 of them follow @StuntGranny, and one of them is Lagana himself. See, people know who we are! Dave, I appreciate you allowing me to interrupt your morning and am sure these thoughts will be well-received by the literally dozens of SG readers. P.S. Follow Dave Lagana @Lagana, and follow his podcast @IWantWrestling)

As many wrestling fans were last night, I was distraught (yeah, that’s a strong word, but following wrestling is my hobby, and it’s still real to me, darn it) over Long Island’s own Zack Ryder not appearing on Monday Night Raw last night as it emanated from Ryder’s hometown.

Ryder has made a name for himself in the past 12 months as a “Jersey Shore”-like guido with an obnoxious but infectious catchphrase (“Woo WOO woo! You know it!”), one-legged tights (he’s down to no-legged trunks now) and a four-month-old YouTube Web show that garners more than 100,000 views per episode thanks to Ryder’s and friends’ sense of humor, self-deprecation, charming amateur videography and editing, and especially the feeling that they’re creating this just as much for us, the fans who care, as they are to kill time and have fun.

Hell, Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett came out in support of Ryder on Twitter after his lack of appearance Monday. Ziggler said WWE didn’t “rib ‘the kid’,” they ribbed “the fans” and “the boys in the back” (wow) and even “kicked [Ryder] in the nuts” (double wow). Jericho called it “lame,” saying wrestling should be about “fun,” and Barrett simply Tweeted the initials of Ryder’s battle cry: “WWWYKI.”

Are you serious, bro? Really, would it have been so hard for WWE to allow Ryder to wrestle on Raw in front of his hometown crowd?

To hear former WWE writer Dave Lagana tell it, it’s not as easy as you’d think.

I lucked into a Twitter conversation with Lagana on Tuesday about the fact that the increasingly beloved Ryder didn’t get the chance to capitalize on his growing popularity by basking in his own glory on his employer’s flagship television show. There’s no better, more experienced and more appropriately responsive person on Twitter to ask these questions of, so I inquired if he had any “insight as to why hometowner @ZackRyder was left off the actual Raw program.”

His response echoes what’s been said for years, about wrestlers from the territory days who’d come in to be squashed by the Hogans and Santanas, to Ric Flair’s not-100-percent push as he came over from WCW in 1991, to WCW and ECW wrestlers being buried in 2001 and 2002 as soon as they stepped foot in the WWE locker room: “They don’t like people who are ‘made’ anywhere else.”

Unfortunately, as I responded, “anywhere else” includes YouTube, where Ryder has energized thousands of otherwise disenchanted fans, as well as a hometown arena, who happily chanted Ryder’s name during the Raw broadcast. Lagana pointed out that these reactions “won’t change the perception of people who are ‘stuck’ in their way of thinking,” where “people” could be presumed to mean anyone from writers to agents/producers to Vince, Stephanie and Triple H themselves. Eric’s perception: Those in charge believe it’s their way or the highway, and all of us “Internet fans” can be damned.

My belief, as I Tweeted next, is that those in charge are “people who need a Von Erich iron-claw grip on a character, rather than using their skills to make organically hot characters hotter.” “Or,” as Jeremy put it, “people who fear being asked, ‘Who came up with that?’ and not being able to say ‘Me.’” After years of this pattern being repeated, one could see where insecurity and fear would come into play, causing Jeremy to ask, “Just how scared of Vince are the writers? Does their fear of him prevent good ideas from flourishing in an open environment?”

Lagana’s answer begins opening the door on WWE’s inner workings while closing the door on the beliefs outsiders hold “true,” saying, “that’s a ‘tall tale’ told. You are there to pitch ideas. He either likes them or doesn’t.” At this point, I tried weeding through my frustration with WWE’s current product without piling onto its employees (and potentially Lagana’s friends), saying, “Gotcha. Too bad plenty of fun, engaging, rewarding ideas aren’t getting pitched/accepted since they aren’t homegrown.”

But for all I know, they are, and Lagana let me know that in no uncertain terms: “[Y]ou have NO idea what ideas are being pitched. Only the people in that room know.

I can’t disagree with that.

So many of us with wrestling Web sites, blogs and podcasts think we know what’s happening behind the curtain but don’t, assume what’s happening but shouldn’t, and think we know what would work when we’ll never truly know the intricacies of running a wrestling company. I essentially apologized for jumping to conclusions, saying, “You’re 100% right. I got overzealous. Just want the best for fans, wrestlers and employees alike.”

And Lagana came back with the best advice a person could give, on this or any other business- or entertainment-related topic: “[S]upport the products that give you what you want. If you’re not getting what you want. Let the company know with your dollar[.]”

And while I wholly agree with Lagana on this point, I still look at the wrestling landscape today – one major company who can’t put a newly beloved character on TV in front of his friends, family and neighbors; one semi-major company who continues to bleed money while drawing a fraction of a once-average rating thanks to inept direction and illogical storytelling; one semi-major company whose recent dive into syndicated television has vanilla-midget-fearing experts crying “doomed from the start;” and a hundred tiny companies who either barely pay gas money to their weekend warriors or cough up twice the gate to see Scott Hall pass out in the middle of the ring – and wonder if voting with my dollars will really get me what I want in this boutique, vanity, “slice of Americana” entertainment genre (sometimes, depending on who you ask) known as professional wrestling.