10 Ways WWE Are Destroying Their Own Roster
3. Burying Popular Stars
Not capitalising on popular stars is one thing, and if you want to be charitable, you can at least write it off as negligence. But deliberately burying beloved fan favourites? That's another matter entirely.
When WWE omitted Daniel Bryan from the 2014 Royal Rumble, had Alexa Bliss assassinate Bayley's character throughout their horrendous feud, and let Kane push a wheelchair-bound Zack Ryder off the stage after John Cena had stolen his girlfriend, it felt like it was done out of spite.
"How dare these wrestlers get over without my say so?!" Vince McMahon said as he carefully concocted their demise.
Bryan recovered, but each of the aforementioned stars was deliberately cooled off in the end. Their sabotage was as intentional as it was effective, and born entirely of poisonous, unfathomable spite. That the company would derail potential assets in such a way seems incomprehensible, but it happens far too often for it to be a coincidence, and while we shouldn't lose faith in the likes of Bayley recovering later down the line, her employers have done a tremendous job of stacking the odds against her.