10 Reasons WWE Is Incapable Of Creating New Main Event Stars

Which of WWE's current roster can be considered a legitimate main event attraction?

The old-timers don't count. As if it wasn't self-evident enough, the fact that Goldberg et al. are booked far more favourably than their younger, full-time counterparts drives the point home. John Cena, obviously, is a headliner. Randy Orton has spent more time in the midcard in recent years, but he is a proper star. As this year's WrestleMania attests, he's never far away from the spotlight. Roman Reigns might not be widely accepted as a headliner - but he is a headliner, nonetheless.

It gets trickier further down the totem pole. AJ Styles has headlined more than one B-level pay-per-view, but there was never any notion of his going on last in Orlando. Being the recognised best wrestler on the planet doesn't mean anything, sadly. Bray Wyatt is the current WWE Champion - but WWE is notoriously capricious. There's every chance he'll enter a supporting series with Luke Harper when he relinquishes the gold to Orton. Chris Jericho is a chameleon. Seth Rollins continues to struggle for acceptance in the headline role. Finn Bálor is unproven.

The role of headliner is amorphous, subjective, but using the last match at WrestleMania as the barometer - and why not? - there are very few men WWE would trust in that position.

But why?

Caps for emphasis - and to denote the fact that it is so blindingly obvious, such complaints are probably as tedious to read about it as they are to write.

The narrative device was introduced by Stephanie McMahon in 2002, in WWE's nascent quest to detach itself from the pro wrestling industry it was (!). It has coincided with WWE's most barren spell of star power. John Cena and Batista entered the exclusive club in 2005, the former afforded rare creative license with his own personality, the latter one of very few to justify a push predicated almost entirely on his physique. Elsewhere, CM Punk had to threaten to leave before he was permitted to make a genuine connection with the audience. Jeff Hardy's rise was conditioned on hard-earned, literally painstaking sentimentality. It probably shouldn't have taken as long as it did.

Both Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have struggled to generate a true emotional bond with the audience. Rollins heard "CM Punk!" chants during his most raw, confessional moment a few weeks back. Ambrose is seen as a zany, carefree guy more concerned with seeking laughs than sympathy. It is patently obvious that both men read from the same script. Both poked fun at Chris Jericho's scarf because RAW isn't a professional wrestling show but a banal three camera sitcom.

Imagine courting a potential paramour, one who has expressed interest, whose nuances and desires you know how to manipulate, who is ready to embrace your own idiosyncrasies and delivery - and then having your juvenile wing man bark pick-up lines in your ear.

That's WWE's approach to star creation in the McMahon Helmsley era. It's little wonder so many have fallen out of love with the product.