10 Candidates For WWE's Bizarre Post-WrestleMania 36 Push

Who is the 2020 Jinder Mahal?

mojo rawley
WWE.com

It's that time again.

Every year, WWE, despite boasting a truly excellent talent roster, banishes much of the elite to Enfield, London and pushes heavily a goose-sh*t greenhorn on RAW because their thighs are incredibly long. In the WWE system, NXT UK's Tyler Bate is not too dissimilar to a children's bike in Halfords. He lives in an industrial estate, he's barely used, and people patronise him constantly when he is by telling him that he's a big strong boy. That's "not the way" a man of his outrageous talent should be positioned, but to quote his boss when he's explaining away the dementia of his boss, "it is what it is".

This...strategy is emphasised big in the immediate post-WrestleMania season, a time of heightened interest WWE squanders, inexplicably, by pushing the limited, the hopeless and the inexperienced in place of the incredible talent that, suspiciously, managed to get themselves over literally everywhere else they worked.

Darren Young was made great again. The Shining Stars scammed their way into our hearts. Jinder Mahal won the WWE World Title. Years and years and years after he was last relevant, Dolph Ziggler competed for the same prize on two successive pay-per-views.

Things get weird in the middle of April, and since things are already very, very weird...

10. Apollo Crews

mojo rawley
WWE.com

It's happening already, inexplicably.

It's not inexplicable that WWE would see something in Crews. He's not the most engaging of stars but he is an outrageously gifted pro wrestler. There must be some role for him, and on Monday, there was. He took Aleister Black to his limit. His absolute limit: this match went longer than Black's defeat to Tommaso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix in 2019.

That epic on RAW was an insult masquerading as a show of faith. If he was that good, why wasn't he used like that before? Because he can't recite sh*tty material in the same cadence as everybody else?

It's inexplicable that WWE would use him in such a role, given that he was getting blown away like piss in the wind on his last TV appearances. They needed to fill three hours of television, and since Brock Lesnar would have done that bird of prey shriek thing if they'd asked him, WWE instead turned to an experienced and committed hand, one with the ability to work such a long match. They relied on Apollo to get RAW over the line after scraping him off their boot.

"Good old Shelton Benjamin," Vince McMahon marvelled in gorilla.

"Let's give him a run with the Intercontinental Title, or whichever one is on RAW, quite frankly."

 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!