10 Ways WWE Are Holding Their Own Wrestlers Back
2. Cooling Them Off When They Catch Fire
WWE hate it when wrestlers get over without their say so. Vince McMahon might call for them to reach for the proverbial brass ring, but provides little incentive for performers to do so, as those who catch fire on their own are regularly punished for their audacity, particularly if it wasn't planned beforehand.
Damien Sandow was one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster when he finally split from The Miz in 2015, and while WWE could've used this surge to mint him as an upper-midcard babyface, they decided to bury him as Macho Mandow instead. Similarly, Zack Ryder's Z! True Long Island Story made him a massive fan favourite a few years prior, but WWE deliberately killed his popularity by making him a whipping boy in the John Cena vs. Kane feud.
The only people that the company want to get over are those they've hand-picked as potential stars. It's an oft-repeated criticism, but that doesn't make it any less true. They'll continually book performers to lose overness if their popularity wasn't in the script, which not only diminishes said wrestlers' value as pushable commodities, but prevents the performers from truly peaking.