10 Stars WWE Should Never Have Let Go

9. Ethan Carter III

Speaking of ex-WWE stars who found more success in TNA, they don't come much more glaring than Ethan Carter III. As the lazily-named Derrick Bateman on the old NXT show, EC3 failed to impress WWE officials enough to break out from that rotten moniker and last beyond 2013 in the promotion. Lord only knows why.

Looking like a million bucks, Carter has also shown just how effective he can be as a smug heel since leaving WWE. Their loss was TNA's gain, as the silver spoon character he played proved just what a waste the humdrum Derrick Bateman idea had been. WWE's creative team really needed to follow up, but they just handed the guy a name and little else.

Quite how he was supposed to get over is mind-boggling. Had WWE kept EC3 around, he would have been perfect for the emerging Daniel Bryan vs. The Authority storyline in 2013, for example. There, Bateman could have played a similarly entitled character to the one he eventually used in TNA.