10 Most Underused Wrestlers In WWE Right Now

Here’s a trivia question for you; how many times has a WWE wrestler received the Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for being deemed the Most Underrated star in the business?

The answer is an unfortunate 23 times—and the award’s only been active for 36 years. More notable still is the fact that 17 of those 23 have arrived in back-to-back years, with a WWE wrestler taking home the award in every year since 1999.

Admittedly, the demise of any real competition has made the WWE the likeliest recipient of these awards, but either way; it seems the WWE has pretty bad record when it comes to underusing its talent over the years.

But what about the current crop? Who on the main roster is currently being overlooked and underused?

The brand split may have alleviated the issue somewhat—case in point being the recent renaissance of Dolph Ziggler. But there still remains an array of talent on the company’s books who aren’t getting the recognition they may deserve, and this article counts down some of the most noteworthy.

Oh, and by the way, we’re not going include NXT talent; that could be a whole list in and of itself…

Okay, so I’m not necessarily saying that Alberto Del Rio is underrated, as such, but I do think he’s currently being underused.

As the winner of the 2011 Royal Rumble, a former two-time United States Champion and four-time WWE World Champion, that gives his name a ton of value. And with SmackDown’s roster as thin as it is, you’d have thought they’d be jumping at the chance to utilise someone of Del Rio’s pedigree.

But currently, he doesn’t even have a spot on the card.

Now, admittedly, it’s still very early days in the brand split. But even if we look back a little further, Del Rio’s been absent for a while now. Since the start of June, he’s only featured in three separate singles bouts on WWE television.

The rumour mill is suggesting that this could be due to his relationship with Paige, with Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer recently suggesting that his girlfriend’s social media activity had dropped him in hot water with management.

But still, potential off-screen misdemeanours aside, a motivated Del Rio is a valuable commodity to any brand, roster, or organisation. So rather than shunning him from their programming, maybe they should be looking to get the best out of him before he takes his talent elsewhere—again.