Many kids dream of growing up to be a WWE Superstar. But that dream doesn’t include being a glorified jobber or a joke that WWE creative likes to beat on.
The sad truth is that in the squared circle (as in life), only a handful of people will be main eventers while everyone else will be filler. Wrestlers spend years training and learning the trade in hopes of making their passion a career. The pinnacle is to make it to the big leagues of WWE (sometimes via way of NXT). Dreams of grandeur come crashing down, however, once wrestlers get inside the machine. Even though they may have the talent or look required to be a star, there’s a thousand reasons why most won’t be used properly or get derailed from the path to success.
For those that couldn’t reach the proverbial “brass ring,” WWE may be handing out pink slips shortly as the company starts to restructure their rosters. Looking over the three major brands, we selected wrestlers that are on the verge of getting fired or those that should leave in hopes of resuscitating their careers.
Curtis Axel (Joseph Curtis Hennig)
This guy is the equivalent of a first-round draft pick that turns out being a bust. The once blue chip prospect with the wrestling lineage of his father, “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig and his grandad, Larry “The Axe” Hennig has been floundering for years. Not blessed with his father’s charisma or his grandad’s skills, Curtis Axel has tried several gimmicks and team-ups that have generated poor results. From Nexus, to AxelMania and The Social Outcasts, nothing has worked for this guy. Hell, even Paul Heyman couldn’t give him some shine as one of “his guys.”
He’s been with the company since 2010 and he’s barely on TV nowadays, as his WWE expiration date could be any day now. After WWE the best landing spot for him is TNA, where he’d be a recognizable face that might be able to luck into a gimmick that helps save his career.
Emma (Tenille Dashwood)
Poor Emma. WWE really mangled her career. The Australian beauty that opened the doors for women like Peyton Royce and Billie Kay has been in wrestling purgatory due to bad booking.
In NXT she proved that she can work, helping spark the women’s revolution with her battles against Paige and Sasha Banks. She’s got the talent and look to be a top star, she just hasn’t been used properly. She started her main roster career paired with Santino Marella, which tells you all you need to know. After that went nowhere, Emma went back down to NXT to change things up. She dropped the happy-go-lucky dancing gimmick and returned as a heel — Evil Emma — partnering up with Dana Brooke. That relaunch suited her better, gaining her a spot on the WrestleMania 32 card. Just as things were looking up, a back injury put her on the shelf.
The WWE brain-trust decided to have her return with the ridiculous gimmick of “Emmalina,” an angle that had countless promo videos that has led her to become a running joke with fans. With “Emmalina” being a bust, it’s time for Emma to break from WWE and find greener pastures elsewhere. Working for Ring of Honor (ROH) and returning to the Indy circuit are her best options. She needs to rebuild her name in other promotions to raise her stock and cement herself as one of the top women wrestlers in the world.
Sin Cara (Jorge Arias)
A constant resident in WWE’s doghouse, how this guy is still with the company is a mystery! Formerly known as Hunico, Sin Cara’s WWE’s stint has been a mess. Going back to the original Sin Cara, this character has been nothing but drama.
Hunico’s time as the masked man has been marred with botches in the ring and backstage altercations with other wrestlers. After a fight with Chris Jericho on a WWE tour bus last year, the company sent him to anger management. The big question here is why WWE would keep giving him rope when his on-air value has been non-existent? A good guess would be to use him to connect with WWE’s Spanish-speaking audience.
Even though he had a good short run with Kalisto as The Lucha Dragons, Sin Cara’s nothing more than a body currently. Chances are high that he’ll get cut this year, and when it happens Hunico should return working for AAA in Mexico or the Indy circuit, with or without a mask.
Darren Young (Frederick Douglas Rosser III)
He’s still with the company? Apparently so. We’ve got nothing against Darren. He’s a decent worker in the ring, and I’m sure he’s a good guy. There’s just nothing for him to do in WWE. Like Curtis Axel, he started with the company in 2010 as part of The Nexus. His best years in WWE were as part of the tag-team The Prime Time Players, with Titus O’Neil. Last year he was paired with Bob Backlund, who served as his life coach in the “Make Darren Young Great Again” gimmick. While that push gave him a brief pop with the fans, it quickly died down, pushing him back into the obsolete category.
Being the first openly gay wrestler on a WWE roster has placed Darren as the face of the company when it comes to LGBT events and press. He could step into a full-time corporate role doing that. If he still wants to wrestle, however, there’s always the indies or he might take a crack at Lucha Underground where his charismatic personality could fill a role for them.
Summer Rae (Danielle Moinet)
Five years ago, Summer Rae would have made a great Divas Champion. Her looks and ability are cut from the same cloth as that era of divas such as Eve Torres, Layla, Michelle McCool and Maryse. Unfortunately for Summer, she’s been left behind in this new era of women’s wrestling. She’s never been an amazing worker in the ring, so fans will never see her as a viable threat against the likes of Charlotte, Bayley or Sasha. They might have all come up together in NXT, but Summer was never included in that top tier women’s group.
Could she continue to be a valet/manager? Well, she’s done that already for the likes of Fandango, Rusev and Tyler Breeze, but none of those pairings clicked. Outside of being used in Total Divas or appearing in a WWE Film, Summer has been MIA. If the company parts ways with her, don’t expect her to stick around wrestling, as she’ll flip her WWE exposure for outside business opportunities.
Blake and Murphy (Cory Weston & Matthew Murphy Adams)
If the main roster is clearing up spots, the same goes for NXT. I’m bundling these two together because they had their best run as a tag-team. Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy have been NXT mainstays that enjoyed a run as Tag-Team Champions. Unfortunately for them, the coolest and most appealing thing about them was their manager Alexa Bliss. Now that she’s moved on to find success on Smackdown, Blake and Murphy are a mere afterthought.
As a tag-team, these two are something you’d find in WCW during the '90s like The American Males or High Voltage. Since they broke up, they’ve been used to enhance other talent, unable to create new gimmicks or generate fan interest. If they can’t make it in NXT, they’ll never see the light of day in WWE. It’s time for these boys to leave the company, repackage themselves in other promotions in hopes of coming back to NXT at some point down the line, once they’ve gotten over.
Zack Ryder (Matthew Cardona)
Last year at WrestleMania 32, Zack became the Intercontinental Champion and now we’re talking about him getting dumped by WWE. So is life.
That WrestleMania moment was nothing more than a personal high as the next night Zack lost the belt to The Miz. Those 24 hours perfectly capture the topsy-turvy career Ryder has had so far in WWE. Zack’s never going to be a WWE main-event guy, or a mid-carder for that matter, so why stick around to work dark-matches? Granted the money is good but beyond that, he’s been in that wrestling limbo.
Like Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, and Jack Swagger before him, there’s a point wrestlers hit where they can’t take the WWE crap anymore. Currently on the shelf nursing a knee injury, now’s the best time for Zack to reassess his career and come back working for a new promotion. At 31, he still has prime years left where he could be a popular babyface for another company.
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