10 Worst WWE Gimmicks Of 2017
5. "The Greatest [At Being...In Love?]" Mike Kanellis
There's a decent act on paper here. Or was.
There's something sickening about a sap in love - and while Mike Kanellis' googly-eyed admiration of wife Maria wasn't quite the stomach-churning stuff of a sofa-jumping Tom Cruise, there was much scope for a suitably irritating midcard heel in the summer months. Their entrance theme was a cloying, overblown ear worm, and the choice decision to have Mike take his wife's surname was sure to trigger the anti-SJW pocket of the fandom.
That trigger was never pulled; Kanellis was removed from television almost as soon as he debuted, which confirmed to the audience that he was not worth the investment. The heat generated from Maria's interference was also doused; Mike went full 50/50 booking via pointless, almost parodic win-trading with Sami Zayn in his debut programme. It was astonishing, even by WWE standards: this act was chosen to bypass NXT?
It later emerged that Mike was struggling with a painkiller addiction, which might explain his free fall - but Maria's decision to fall pregnant so soon into the run indicted her faith in WWE's ability to restore the act.