What Happened Next - 10 Wrestlers Who Were Cut In Epic 2014 Talent Releases

by Andrew Soucek

1. Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal
WWE.com

From a talent standpoint, Jinder Mahal is far from No. 1 on this list. Sure, he's ahead of Aksana, Teddy Long, and JTG. You could then debate if he’s more talented than Yoshi Tatsu but we’ll save that for another list. What makes Mahal take the top spot here is that he is the current WWE Champion. It still feels weird typing that.

Unlike Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Brodus Clay, and Evan Bourne, Mahal didn’t do much of note outside of the WWE. While he competed on some smaller shows, he wasn’t tearing it up on the indy scenes in places like ROH or PWG. In fact, him returning to WWE at all was surprising. There wasn’t much of a fan uprising to see him employed once again. It happened, though, and most of the WWE Universe greeted the news with a collective shrug.

However, after months of jobbing to everyone in plain sight, he moved to SmackDown, won a No. 1 contenders match and then became WWE Champion. That was the entire story. Now he’s one of the focal points of SmackDown and is getting extensive one-on-one time with Vince McMahon behind-the-scenes to help get his character over.

You can speculate why Mahal has gotten his big push but it’s happened, and so far, no one else from that epic release in 2014 even comes close to achieving his level of success in the WWE.

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Contributor

As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com