The 'Future Stars' of Yesterday Today.

[keezy]

What happened to the guys from around 2010-2012 who were supposed to be the next generation of stars? The guys they were giving titles to left and right and really pushing are barely relevant anymore.

Guys like Del Rio, Miz, Sheamus, Ziggler and Swagger are just filler now and even upper midcard guys who were popular like R-Truth and Kofi are being treated like local unknown jobbers, if any of these guys left or got released would it change the product at all?

So what happened? Was it the rise of the NXT stars and three man factions? Were they getting stale? Were they any good in the first place? Do any of them have a future? Was the 2010-2012 class of new stars just a lineup of people who just weren't good enough?

[FinalGwen]

There was too much focus on the old Attitude Era names, and by the time WWE were willing to move forward and push new guys, most of these wrestlers' stock had been devalued. Now the roster's bloated and they don't seem to want to bother building people back up.

(Not sure if R-Truth fits in this group. He's a future star of like... A decade and a half ago.)

[RIHT]

WWE can get some use out of Sheamus if he turned heel, but that's about it. Miz and Ziggler kind of screwed themselves over. Personally, I'm kind of glad Del Rio and Sheamus aren't the future.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Apr 26, 2014 19:15:05 GMT -5 RIHT said:

WWE can get some use out of Sheamus if he turned heel, but that's about it. Miz and Ziggler kind of screwed themselves over. Personally, I'm kind of glad Del Rio and Sheamus aren't the future.

I saw nothing wrong with either Miz or Ziggler's work. They were never given all that much to work with.

[RIHT]

Apr 26, 2014 19:20:12 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Apr 26, 2014 19:15:05 GMT -5 RIHT said:

WWE can get some use out of Sheamus if he turned heel, but that's about it. Miz and Ziggler kind of screwed themselves over. Personally, I'm kind of glad Del Rio and Sheamus aren't the future.

I saw nothing wrong with either Miz or Ziggler's work. They were never given all that much to work with.

Miz dropped the ball and got lazy after the WM feud with Cena and the end of Awesome Truth. Ziggler said a lot but never acted on it, and as someone put it, "you don't make it being famous for looking cool while getting beat up". They could have been given better, but they also could have tried to take better than what they were given.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Apr 26, 2014 19:25:21 GMT -5 RIHT said:

Apr 26, 2014 19:20:12 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

I saw nothing wrong with either Miz or Ziggler's work. They were never given all that much to work with.

Miz dropped the ball and got lazy after the WM feud with Cena and the end of Awesome Truth. Ziggler said a lot but never acted on it, and as someone put it, "you don't make it being famous for looking cool while getting beat up". They could have been given better, but they also could have tried to take better than what they were given.

If Ziggler DIDN'T look cool getting beaten up he probably would've never gotten as high up the card as he did. Ziggler is the only guy I can remember who moved up the ranks by jobbing. He made everyone look good so WWE wanted him to make higher profile wrestlers look good.

[RIHT]

Apr 26, 2014 19:28:46 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Apr 26, 2014 19:25:21 GMT -5 RIHT said:

Miz dropped the ball and got lazy after the WM feud with Cena and the end of Awesome Truth. Ziggler said a lot but never acted on it, and as someone put it, "you don't make it being famous for looking cool while getting beat up". They could have been given better, but they also could have tried to take better than what they were given.

If Ziggler DIDN'T look cool getting beaten up he probably would've never gotten as high up the card as he did. Ziggler is the only guy I can remember who moved up the ranks by jobbing. He made everyone look good so WWE wanted him to make higher profile wrestlers look good.

True, but I think he should have toned it down a bit. Daniel Bryan got over for being a crazy obnoxious character, but he wouldn't have made it to the main event if he still played off of that big time now a days.

[Amazing Kitsune]

It's a mixture of mismanagement and the simple fact that everybody can't be a star.

[keezy]

Apr 26, 2014 18:52:21 GMT -5 FinalGwen said:

There was too much focus on the old Attitude Era names, and by the time WWE were willing to move forward and push new guys, most of these wrestlers' stock had been devalued. Now the roster's bloated and they don't seem to want to bother building people back up.

(Not sure if R-Truth fits in this group. He's a future star of like... A decade and a half ago.)

He was closer to the main event in 2011 than he was as K-Kwik in 2000, I'd consider his return to WWE to be his prime.

[psychokiller]

I'm biased since I'm a fan of Del Rio, but I still think Del Rio would be good in the upper mid-card. He just needs some character changes though & more people would possibly get behind him.

The Miz is a mid-carder for life. He'll never be a main eventer again, especially with there only being one world title now.

Sheamus could get something going again when he turns heel. He was much better as a heel, than as a face & he could also start some fresh feuds as a heel. He's pretty much just hanging around at the moment until he makes the inevitable heel turn.

The problem with Ziggler I think is that his mic skills aren't the best. He just doesn't have that connection with the crowd that other guys do. Great in the ring though, but that could only get you so far.

Swagger I think is pretty underrated. He could be a good upper mid-card guy on the roster. With only 1 World Title I don't see him ever being a main eventer again.

R-Truth is already 42 years old, so he's probably near the end of his WWE career. He's pretty much just there to put guys over now, until he finally leaves.

Kofi really needs to turn heel asap. That's his only chance of getting anything going at this point. But if a heel turn fails, than he's a mid-carder for life.

[sidneyvicious]

To put in bluntly - they were not up to the job. Nobody really cared to the extent you should when watching supposed "main eventers". You could argue maybe its becuase guys are so constricted these days with every word and move written for them, unable to bring out their real character, or it could be just most new stars dont have the talent in the first place to bring out.

[keezy]

Apr 26, 2014 20:10:32 GMT -5 sidneyvicious said:

To put in bluntly - they were not up to the job. Nobody really cared to the extent you should when watching supposed "main eventers". You could argue maybe its becuase guys are so constricted these days with every word and move written for them, unable to bring out their real character, or it could be just most new stars dont have the talent in the first place to bring out.

Out of all of the guys I've mentioned I didn't mention Barrett because he's come up with a gimmick for himself that works and he's getting pushed, I think they have the opportunity to show their charisma but they either already are and it's not working or they themselves aren't confident enough.

["Cane Dewey" Johnson]

Apr 26, 2014 19:25:21 GMT -5 RIHT said:

Ziggler said a lot but never acted on it, and as someone put it, "you don't make it being famous for looking cool while getting beat up".

I know I've been a fan of Ric Flair squash matches since Flair's Mid-South days.

[psychokiller]

Apr 26, 2014 21:40:58 GMT -5 keezy said:

Apr 26, 2014 20:10:32 GMT -5 sidneyvicious said:

To put in bluntly - they were not up to the job. Nobody really cared to the extent you should when watching supposed "main eventers". You could argue maybe its becuase guys are so constricted these days with every word and move written for them, unable to bring out their real character, or it could be just most new stars dont have the talent in the first place to bring out.

Out of all of the guys I've mentioned I didn't mention Barrett because he's come up with a gimmick for himself that works and he's getting pushed, I think they have the opportunity to show their charisma but they either already are and it's not working or they themselves aren't confident enough.

I always knew Barrett had it in him to get over. I've been a big fan of his since he debuted in 2010. I still don't understand why they basically stopped using him for basically 2 years.

[bigfatpaulie]

I think it has a lot to do with the talent level of the newer faces to the roster, and the talent currently in NXT. Guys like Cesaro, Bryan, The Shield, and The Wyatts are just all-around more talented and more charismatic than the likes of Kofi, Swagger, etc. There's a reason why John Cena was the face of the company for so long: nobody had the talent to mount a serious challenge.

[Bub (BLM)]

Apr 26, 2014 22:16:07 GMT -5 bigfatpaulie said:

I think it has a lot to do with the talent level of the newer faces to the roster, and the talent currently in NXT. Guys like Cesaro, Bryan, The Shield, and The Wyatts are just all-around more talented and more charismatic than the likes of Kofi, Swagger, etc. There's a reason why John Cena was the face of the company for so long: nobody had the talent to mount a serious challenge.

Not only that, but these guys were being touted as "the future" when guys like Cena and Orton still hadn't hit their full potential. You start calling guys "the future of WWE" in 2009, thinking that in a couple of years you can really do something with them. Then 2011 comes around, and Cena and Orton are better wrestlers than they've ever been. Why push them aside when they're tearing up the ring every week? Bryan, The Wyatts, The Shield, and Cesaro couldn't have come around at a better time, because Cena and Orton had peaked and in Orton's case, begun to decline. The time is right for a new generation.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Apr 26, 2014 22:16:07 GMT -5 bigfatpaulie said:

I think it has a lot to do with the talent level of the newer faces to the roster, and the talent currently in NXT. Guys like Cesaro, Bryan, The Shield, and The Wyatts are just all-around more talented and more charismatic than the likes of Kofi, Swagger, etc. There's a reason why John Cena was the face of the company for so long: nobody had the talent to mount a serious challenge.

The thing is that pushing those guys shouldn't necessarily mean the other guys have to be completely marginalized. Just because Cesaro's an awesome talent doesn't mean Miz (and others) have to be shunted into irrelevance. They kinda went overboard with it.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

I think that the reliance on "dream matches" in the last few years - Undertaker's Streak matches, the Rock's matches, Lesnar's return, etc. - derailed a lot of pushes. This meant that the only guys getting attention on the main roster were the guys already established enough to be credible for those dream matches. Sure, somebody could rise up to Cena's level, but he'd still not be the most important wrestler Cena had to worry about, not with the Rock looming over the product all year.

What WWE needs right now is to be able to take two guys - two fresh guys - and make both of them important enough for their next confrontation to be a big deal. Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt might be there. The Shield and the Wyatt Family, as groups, are just about there.

Basically, what WWE needs right now is to have wrestlers who can break out of the Triple H/Batista/Orton/Cena cycle. They need a match like Bryan vs. Cesaro to be a Wrestlemania main event match. They need Sheamus vs. Bray Wyatt to be a major Summerslam feud. In sum, they need to be able to imagine a landscape where the freshest main eventers are the most important wrestlers on the roster, or else they'll suffer the same fate as Ziggler and Sheamus.

[Deleted]

I think there's still some steam in Sheamus, he's just not been the same since they turned him into Lucky Charms Cena and the whole 18 seconds debacle. Guy's a good hand, works "snug" as Steve Austin would put it, and can flip the switch to be a nasty bastard heel at any moment.

[Crappler El 0 M]

There's a number of factors. For one, it's been very hard for wrestlers at that level to get a good spot on Mania due to part-time special attractions (Rock, Brock, Taker, Triple H, Jericho, Batista) having big matches there. Another factor is that they were out-performed and out-hustled, first by CM Punk and then by Daniel Bryan. These two could easily have been in that same group of seven you mentioned in the first post. Also, it would be pretty hard for ALL (or even most) of those to remain top-level stars, simply because it's hard to sustain that many top guys. Only so many people can be going after the main titles (now just one title). While they aren't going for the main title, they have to fight each other.