10 Underutilized Wrestlers In WWE (Who Could Be Stars In AEW)
Rusev Day-EW?
What a time to be a wrestling fan. Raw kicks off Mondays with three hours of action, AEW and NXT are battling it out on Wednesday, and SmackDown has a new Friday night home on Fox. It is truly a wrestling fan's dream.
But what about the wrestlers themselves?
For those who are big parts of the historic week in wrestling that has just passed, this probably feels like a highlight of their career. But what about those who STILL can't make it to television?
WWE is suffering from a weird and confusing affliction; they have so many talented wrestlers across all their brands that they can't possibly utilize them all. Part of that is to hold talent away from the competition. That policy is terrible for the fans, but more importantly, the careers of the wrestlers held hostage.
Whether it's because they don't have the look, size, or mic skills, whatever keeps them off of Vince's nice list, sitting on the shelf will not improve anything. Treat your wrestlers like a trophy; don't give them atrophy.
Thus, it stands to reason that some wrestlers being stuck in this "hire and hide" game would be better off jumping ship to the other company.
Nobody wants to play the waiting game through the prime of their career. They'd rather play with Dynamite.
10. Sami Zayn
Nobody knows his spot on the shelf more clearly than Sami Zayn.
After suffering defeat after defeat, Zayn has now been taken out of the ring altogether as if every show was in Saudi Arabia (where a Syrian like Zayn isn't allowed).
The slight glimmer of hope is that his work as Shinsuke Nakamura's manager (a happy accident birthed from an obvious lack of direction) has been fantastic. Narrating Nakamura's dirty work is entertaining and attention grabbing. But it's a bit like hanging a Rembrandt in your bathroom. It's fine there, but is that the best use of such a great artist's work?
Sami would be much better off in the type of wars he had with longtime partner/rival Kevin Owens (then Kevin Steen) in ROH than shouting insults at the side of a WWE ring.
Initially, it seemed like Zayn was going to reclaim this glory in the WWE with his push to the gold in NXT. But we saw the reinvention of Owens and Zayn in WWE with Vince choosing Kevin as one of "the guys" and leaving Sami in limbo.
Couple that (all too common, frankly) lack of direction with it being near impossible to win a title around any of the Saudi shows, and there may not be much up the card from manager. With at least a few more years of Saudi Arabia, Zayn may hope his contract ends before then.
Then we can finally ask him (or better yet, El Generico) about AEW. And maybe his client, too.