10 WWE Champions Who Wouldn't Make It In Today's Developmental System

8. Pedro Morales

Once upon a time, WWE's biggest babyfaces were all avatars for New York City's largest ethic populations. Bruno Sammartino was famously an Italian immigrant who made good, Spiros Arion repped Greece, and Pedro Morales was a hero to generations of metro-area Puerto Ricans.

When its audience was mostly working class New Yorkers, WWE was happy to push a Puerto Rican as its top star. In its homogenized, post-cable form, WWE has tended to choose the whitest dudes possible (and The Rock) to personify the company. Since the days of Pedro, the most visible WWE stars of Puerto Rican descent were Savio Vega and the Colóns, who have subsequently been made into Spaniards (?).

Pedro filled a niche that WWE no longer feels compelled to fill, and he was hardly the kind of dynamic, indy-flavored star currently being scouted by NXT.