10 WWE Superstars Without Direction Following WrestleMania & Greatest Royal Rumble
Empty At The End
Fused together as they were with the creative adhesive of the Superstar Shake-up, WrestleMania and Greatest Royal Rumble's proximity to one another allowed the Saudi Arabia supercard to serve as a post-script to this year's 'Show Of Shows'. Both events had identical WWE and Universal Title matches, both featured in-ring cameos from part-time patrolmen The Undertaker, John Cena, Triple H and Shane McMahon and each night made liberal use of the company's greatly reduced pyro budget.
The shows had virtually all of the staff on shift too, not least in the case of the Greatest Royal Rumble's eponymous main event. The problematic parade of promotional puff pieces aside, the card was at very least an opportunity for some of the roster's rank-and-file to get enormous exposure. Yet, with just days to go before the company relaunches dual brand pay-per-views, there are a host of sizeable stars without an obvious trajectory for the wrestling year ahead.
Sunday's Backlash presents at least a small window of opportunity for some, but what of the huge crew now frozen out of the monthly churn? The company still haven't established a new way of paying off television feuds within the body of the broadcasts, nor are they particularly deft with talent going unused for longer than a week at a time. After a January-to-April period featuring such enormous change, how have several major stars found themselves back in stasis?
10. Rusev
Because Rusev, obviously.
The poor b*stard can't buy a win at the moment, stuffed into a coffin with sidekick Aiden English in Saudi Arabia just weeks removed from being installed as the token jobber to kick off Jinder Mahal's punctuated United States title reign. Not a lot to get excited about, is there?
Thing is, the man himself knows it. The rumour mill exploded with Eastern European aggro ahead of the WrestleMania when Rusev's mere insertion into the fatal four-way was apparently down to his threat to walk away from WWE outright. The company had significantly diminished his 'Rusev Day' movement by insisting that he remain a heel, and that was before Daniel Bryan came back and the fans no longer needed such an output.
'The Bulgarian Brute' perhaps should have jumped before he wasn't pushed. He's yet to do anything that warrants such malpractice other than galvanise an out-of-hours behind his cause, but WWE have become more affable to such a thing in comparison to the way Zack Ryder was treated for doing the same years earlier. Something altogether more sinister seems afoot with Rusev, but only when he inevitably f*cks off will the full truth finally comes out.