wrestling / Columns

The 8 Ball: Top 8 WWE Wrestlers Currently in Trouble

October 5, 2015 | Posted by Mike Hammerlock

Rejoice! The 411Mania Wrestling Zone Magic 8-Ball WWE Trouble Index is back for another installment. As we all know, trouble moves quickly in the fast-paced world of the WWE. You can reach the top of the world one day only to find Vince McMahon has constructed an elaborate set of chutes and ladders, leaving you nowhere to go but down.

Tough list to compile in that trouble abounds for the WWE. I’ve taken to putting the federation itself on the list, but how often can I write the same paragraph about the lack of creative direction and the thinning fanbase that’s slowly giving up hope the WWE can be better than it is? That’s actual trouble, the kind that make your broadcast partners look for alternative programming when your ratings get low enough. Yet we’re still a way off from the WWE’s presence on the airwaves being in jeopardy. Might as well save that for future trouble lists if the creative slide continues.

Meanwhile WWE Champion Seth Rollins finds himself on the trouble watch list. He’s about to lose his third straight televised match to John Cena, this time in a steel cage at a house show that’s being aired on the WWE Network. Seriously, when Vince pitches wrestlers an idea about feuding with Cena, they should run in the other direction. Just say no. Rollins’ reward for getting Cena’d? A feud with Kane, who is nigh invincible again – no doubt channeling his inner Tick, spoon!

Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt could be in trouble dependent on whether they can put some teeth into their Hell in a Cell match. The Prime Time Players were the WWE tag champs not long ago and they seem to be headed back to the cannon fodder pile. They’d definitely make the top 10, but this list goes to eight. For some reason I can never bring myself to list Miz. He seems capable of riding a wave of douchiness to forgettable matches, direct-to-Netflix movie roles and an ironclad position in the mid-card. He’s never up or down. He’s the Jerry Seinfeld of the WWE.

Sting’s in trouble in that we’re not sure he’s going to be able wrestle again. We’re also not sure if Daniel Bryan will be cleared to wrestle again. Damien Sandow and Adam Rose have put new spins on their characters, but so far are getting close to no exposure. Bo Dallas’ current role is to get the crap kicked out of him. No joke. Bo doesn’t just lose, Bo gets annihilated. Of course, Bo misses the Trouble Index because you can’t be in much trouble when you’ve got nothing to lose. Same reason Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger and Fandango don’t make the list. They’re hopelessly buried. Trouble is when you’ve got upside, but suddenly your downside is rising above it.

8. Neville

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The Man That Gravity Forgot is suffering from serious nomentum. It’s not from anything he’s done. He always puts on a good show in the ring. It’s not anything he’s not doing either. Crowds react well enough to him. Yet Creative has nothing for him. He’s feuding with Stardust and the Ascension in the witness relocation section of the card. He seems condemned to the pre-show for the WWE’s big Sunday events. He already didn’t get the push into Intercontinental or U.S. title contention. He lost King of the Ring to Bad News Barrett. At some point he needs to find direction and purpose. He’d make sense as a challenger against Kevin Owens, but he needs some rebuilding in order to feel like a true threat. Perhaps his salvation might lie in the tag ranks. Main point: Neville is languishing.

7. Ryback

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The Big Guy made the last edition of the Trouble Index after winning the Intercontinental title (aka the Cursed Belt). He didn’t spend his entire reign losing, but he did get injured and work a completely forgettable program against Big Show and the Miz. When Kevin Owens lifted the belt off him at Night of Champions, it was a bit of a mercy. Ryback has never been gifted in the ring, but many believed the crowd would unite around him if he got pushed. That didn’t happen. “Feed me more” remains a popular catchphrase. Problem is, the catchphrase seems more popular than the man. Ryback doesn’t generate massive arena buzz with his mere presence. Part of it, I suspect, is he’s not building on his act. When’s the last time Ryback performed a feat of strength that made you mark out? I don’t think he deserves to get buried, but in the WWE if you’re not moving up, you’re moving down. Ryback also might want to get himself into the tag ranks.

6. Paige

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I like Paige and think she’s got all kinds of potential, but she’s once again switching her face-heel alignment. No problem with her working the angrier, edgier side of the street. She fits there. To a degree she’s taking up AJ’s role of not being able to tolerate the other divas and calling them on their bullshit. Yet after starting as a humble ingenue, morphing into a shouty brat, realizing her mistakes and trying to ignite the divas revolution, and now growing tired of the movement she nominally started – all within 18 months – I wonder if fans will grow a little tired of the regular personality swings for a character they don’t know. She’s kind of Chuck Palumbo that way – throwing stuff up against the wall, hoping it sticks. The big difference between Paige berating the divas and when AJ informed them they couldn’t lace up her Chuck Taylors was AJ legitimately had grown bigger than the division. She had become one of the stars of the show via her Bryan/Punk/Kane/Dolph/Big E/Cena journey, with a stint as the Raw GM thrown in for good measure. Focusing on the Divas Championship was slumming it for AJ. If there’s not a major payoff for Paige in playing the gadfly, then I fear the audience won’t pay much attention to her next reinvention.

5. King Barrett

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The king is back, and I’m not sure anyone cares. Injuries and terrible booking have taken Barrett from main event potential to Main Event regular (six times in the past four months). He jobbed to Dean Ambrose on this week’s Main Event installment. Long live the king. Due to some bizarre flaw in the universe, every time Barrett wins something (like the IC belt or the KOTR title), he then goes on a losing jag. The KOTR win was particularly unfortunate for him since it undermined his Bad News persona, which he had gotten over despite its high crash potential. That’s the crazy thing about Barrett: he oozes talent. He’s got personality. He’s naturally big and real-life tough. Doesn’t matter. His well has been poisoned. I’m sure his career could be resuscitated if they tried, but we’ve see no evidence the E sees him as more than a plug-and-play mid-carder.

4. Cesaro

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If Barrett represents wasted potential, Cesaro represents criminally-overlooked awesomeness. Simply put, he’s one of the best professional wrestlers in the world. If the WWE booked him like what he is, a freak of nature, he’d be all kinds of over. Crowds react for him even with the spotty booking. I mean, you bought a ticket to see some action. Cesaro brings it. In fact, feel free to brand him the Action Man (if Hasbro or the Venture Bros. don’t hold some sort of copyright on the name). All they’ve got to do is turn him loose, but they never do. For whatever reason, Vince McMahon doesn’t see what seems glaringly obvious to many others, including Mick Foley and Steve Austin. Cesaro is a guy who could believably go toe-to-toe with Brock Lesnar. He could put on the match of the century with Seth Rollins. Unfortunately he has no creative direction. Imagine what New Japan or Lucha Underground or even ROH would do with this guy. There’s a lot of Bret Hart in Cesaro. He elevates the art form. Took Vince a long time to recognize what he had in Bret. Sadly, he’s showing no signs of recognizing it in Cesaro.

3. Big Show

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Paul Wight may be one of the most underappreciated professional wrestlers ever. He is enormous, dwarfing other supposedly big guys. His athleticism remains off-the-charts for his size and, increasingly, his age. Biomechanically speaking, it’s remarkable he can walk. Yet he’s still doing the occasional top rope elbow. That’s like having a sequoia fall over on you. If wrestling were real, Show would have been the WWE champ for most of the past 17 years. Instead of being booked like the indomitable force that he is, he’s been the man-maker, the gatekeeper to the upper regions of the card. His job has been to make others look legendary. He’ll be doing it again for Brock Lesnar this weekend, apparently forgetting the hellacious beating Lesnar handed him at the 2014 Royal Rumble. Earier this year, Show tried slingshotting Ryback and Roman Reigns. It didn’t really work. Not directly Show’s fault, some of the matches (particularly the Last Man Standing battle against Reigns at Extreme Rules) were pretty good, but the Big Show Bump seems played out. If so, then what’s Show’s purpose? Doubtful the WWE will reinvent him. That could translate to less Show or comedy act Show, neither of which bodes well for Show.

2. Rusev

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What do you do after you stop being invincible? The WWE rarely has an answer for that question. It just lets you slide into oblivion. That’s the brutal reality facing Rusev. Braun Strowman is the new monster on the block. Rusev now loses matches by pinfall. Submissions can’t be far away. Some people are speculating he and Lana will pull a Macho Man-Miss Elizabeth type of reunion, warming all our hearts. Only problem is that Rusev and Lana never behaved like a couple when they were together. She was a political mouthpiece and he was a belligerent Bulgarian bent to her will. Their romantic connection only got established after they’d split. We never got invested in it while it supposedly was happening. On top of that, they’ve only been apart for a few months. Savage and Elizabeth were kayfabe split for two years. Their sexual rectangle with Dolph Ziggler and Summer Rae is going over like a lead balloon. When this storyline ends, Rusev will move on to more losing, perhaps finding solace down the line as part of a tag team.

1. Randy Orton

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Love him or hate him, Randy Orton has been one of the signature performers in the modern WWE. He has done great and terrible things along the way. His resume alone can crush anyone not named John Cena. So how did he become an afterthought? Well, not being named John Cena has been a consistent problem for him. Vince McMahon has pushed Cena as the unwavering, unbreakable do-gooder. Orton has been the more ruthless, more talented, yet more flawed yin to Cena’s yang. Orton’s been waging a war with himself. Unfortunately it seems both sides have stopped fighting. The Viper has gone vanilla. He goes to the ring. He has matches. No one, least of all Orton, knows why he’s there. The most obvious explanation is Randy Orton exists in the WWE universe, therefore he does things. The WWE plows enormous creative energy into what Cena’s doing when he’s not chasing the WWE Championship. With Orton, Creative has lapsed into sleep mode. He’s going nowhere fast. If Orton stopped showing up tomorrow, would fans take notice? Probably not, and that spells major trouble.

I take requests.. The purpose of this column is to look forward. What could be? What should be? What is and what should never be? What would make more sense? 411 has plenty of columns that count down and rank things that happened in the past. This is not one of those columns. The Magic 8-Ball is here to gaze into the future. If there’s someone or something you think should be given the 8-Ball treatment, mention it in the comments section. I might pick it up for future weeks.