10 Wrestlers Struggling To Prove Their Worth To WWE
9. Baron Corbin
WWE likes their own guys, and as much as it doesn't make sense - why not push the talent the public demonstrably gets behind? - it also does. If WWE does not position these pet projects at the forefront, there is no true separation between the stars plucked from the Independent circuit from those who still operate on it. WWE needs to massage the perception that they are the biggest game in town; conflating their roster with the so-called minor leagues is a self-defeating exercise.
Which is why top brass cannot be thrilled at the Lone Wolf's lack of progress, and why he exists on the SmackDown margins mere months after the world was effectively promised to him. A backstage transgression evidently didn't help his cause, nor an alleged, withering appraisal from SummerSlam opponent John Cena, who helpfully - or rather unhelpfully - publicised it during said match.
As a tall in-house product, Baron Corbin very much meets the remit of what WWE perceives as a "star" - but in virtually every other department, Corbin fails to register. He can't deliver a dynamic match, his trademark obnoxiousness is repellent because we know there is no catharsis gained from those tedious matches, and he does not project that intangible star essence.
Whether or not a performer struggles to prove their worth to the audience is all too often irrelevant - but in the case of Corbin, the fans and management are increasingly in tune.