10 Wrestlers WWE Gave Up On In 2016
8. Darren Young
How do you make Darren Young “great again?” Not by giving up halfway through, that’s for sure.
Young’s reinvention began quietly on SmackDown before eventually spreading to Raw. Months passed between his first motivational vignette and him and Bob Backlund making their first live appearance together, and by that point, the campaign had all but ran out of steam. The Backlund/Young partnership produced a handful of fun moments, but that’s the extent of it, and their goodwill had long expired by the time they hit live television.
Young attempted to wrest the Intercontinental Title from The Miz’s clutches in the summer, but he failed. The dreadful Titus O’Neil feud followed, and when the story finished without a real conclusion, Young vanished into the abyss. He’s barely been used since, and while it’s unlikely that WWE were ever going to push him to the moon, Young’s revival has been thrown to the scrapheap.
WWE wouldn’t have invested time and effort into “making Darren Young great again” if they didn’t have plans for the guy, but their interest has died. Young himself is a solid all-round performer who probably should have been awarded a few bigger opportunities throughout his career, but this campaign has left him dead in the water. His future? Who knows, but his life coach’s work clearly isn’t working.