10 Great Matches Starring Dud Wrestlers

Curtis Axel isn't a dud, necessarily. He's smooth between the ropes, is a passable seller, and possess a dropkick which, while not quite up to the standards of Owen Hart and Kazuchika Okada, is mostly very well executed.

He's just deeply, deeply average. JBL is fond of saying that, if you were to build a WWE superstar from the ground up, he'd resemble Randy Orton.

If you were to build an FCW wrestler from the ground up, he'd look like Curtis Axel. Possessing nothing in the way of intangible star quality, Axel has mastered the kick and punch-based WWE style of old, but is so endemic to Stamford that he's incapable of transcending his cookie cutter template.

Here though, assisted by the Triple Threat stipulation and the subplot of his not entering the match until advised to do so by manager Paul Heyman, Axel hints at the storytelling potential which saw him thrust prematurely into the spotlight in the first place.

The smart and inventive finish, which saw Axel pin Barrett as he was locked in Miz's figure four, also goes some way towards colouring Axel's character as a cerebral opportunist.

WWE never followed up on this in their impatient quest to push every shiny new toy at their disposal at the expense of those who failed to get over within a matter of months.