5. Kofi Kingston
A mere two years after his debut, Kofi Kingston was already working high-profile matches in the WWE. He won the Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions, defeating Chris Jericho. Since then, he has become a 4-time Intercontinental Champion, a 3-time United States Champion and former Tag Team Champion with CM Punk. He was seemingly the top rising star in the company, and was massively over with the WWE Universe. He has an explosive, fun style in the ring. The crowd was lit up when Kofi came to the ring. Starting in 2009, Kofi began a fued with the then white hot Randy Orton. While it should have been designed as a program to elevate Kofi, it was clear that we were very wrong. Kofi had excellent chemistry with Orton, and it seemed clear that he would get a very nice boost from Orton and be on his way to a world title run. Five years later, and Kofi is a mainstay on Superstars and Main Event. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for someone like Kofi, who is still early enough in his career that he can still be built to a main event star at a later date. But the problem is that 2009 was the best time to do it. The WWE is constantly in fear that they won't have a top star to replace John Cena as the face of the company. I would be more sympathetic to this if they didn't squander numerous opportunities to make a new star. The WWE has no issue with packaging a star in the right way, and putting them over the right people to get the crowd to start supporting them. The issue is that they never pull the trigger, fearing that they won't captivate the same way Cena, or any other past top star did. But while it's still questionable whether Kofi would have been the next guy or not, what isn't questionable is how the fans believed in Kofi during this time. They wanted him. We may never know if that would have worked, but we may get the chance to know in the near future. And that part is exciting.