10 Major Mistakes WWE Has Made In 2016 (So Far)

10. Bouncing Off The Main Roster

My number one pick exactly one year ago for the potential next big thing in the WWE, Apollo Crews has it all: he’s a big guy with a great look, who could easily pull off the charismatic powerhouse main event babyface character that WWE love so much (see Hogan, Diesel, Sid, Cena, Batista, Lashley, Reigns, etc etc).

More than that, though, the former Uhaa Nation isn’t just a quality all-round athlete, he is athletic. He’s got a jaw-dropping vertical leap - his finishing combo used to be a gorilla press drop followed by a standing moonsault followed by a standing shooting star, for God’s sake.

Alongside all his other unteachable upsides, he can talk, he has an effortless, natural charisma and, best of all, he comes across as genuinely likeable, which means that once he gets over, he could make it to that elite upper echelon of babyface stars.

Everything was set to prove me right… except it wasn’t. Creed’s eight-month tenure on NXT television was weirdly unexceptional. Cast as a blue chipper babyface, supremely talented to the point of overconfidence, he was never positioned in a storyline or angle that advanced that one-note characterisation.

On this year's post-WrestleMania RAW, Apollo Crews found himself promoted to the main roster. However, just as in NXT, nothing’s really changed in the ten weeks since then. Crews briefly feuded with the Social Outcasts stable, and then coasted along with meaningless wins against job guys like Stardust and the Ascension.

In May, his only real showing on RAW was in a loss to Chris Jericho in a Money In The Bank qualifying match. Since then, he’s been entered into a feud with Sheamus, one of the few talents on the roster in more of a holding pattern than Crews himself.

Apollo Crews is the kind of one-man opportunity that doesn’t come around very often, and he ticks all of WWE’s boxes for the kind of performer they’re normally desperate to find and push hard.

However, the more Crews is booked in meaningless action on nothing shows, the more the crowd will believe he belongs in that placeholder role.