WWE’s 10 Worst Moments of 2016

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6. Several High-Profile WWE Releases

WWE’s inability to create new stars has been profiled on this site any many others across the internet for years. Aside from John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and to a lesser extent the Undertaker, no one else on the roster has risen to that top level where they’ve reached true cross-cultural appeal. If you were to rank WWE’s roster, it would look like this: The Undertaker, John Cena & Brock Lesnar > Vince & the Authority > everyone else.

These problems have frustrated many people, including four in particular that decided they’d had enough of WWE’s nonsense. Cody Rhodes left WWE after being doomed to play Stardust forever, in a gimmick that had long since passed its expiry date. The fact that WWE nixed the planned Goldust/Stardust WrestleMania match again demonstrated just how little faith they had in this talented wrestler.

Damien Sandow was likewise released, despite one of the most organically-popular wrestlers on the card. He had gotten ridiculously over as Miz’s stunt double, and people laughed at everything he did. But instead of taking the ball with him, WWE seemed to punish him by having languished in the mid-card without any direction. It’s almost as if they thought, ‘how dare he get over without us doing everything for him?’

Then there was Ryback, who had gotten tired of the ‘start-stop’ booking that had been a victim of. He was at one point pegged to be a big star in WWE, yet he ended up working the WrestleMania pre-show. Ryback was a solid worker and had a good thing going for him for quite some time, yet WWE didn’t let him grow as a performer.

Then there’s Wade Barrett, who might be the most abused performer in recent WWE history. He had a great thing going as Bad News Barrett, then they had him lose match after match after match, even while he held the Intercontinental Championship. They simply had nothing for him, despite being one of the most talented people on the roster for a time.

All four of these departures highlighted the serious problems WWE has right now. Sure, they have a deep roster, but the overwhelming majority of their top guys are all ‘outsiders’ having adapted to WWE’s style to an extent. The only pure WWE guys right now are Cena, Orton, and Reigns. Two of these men are on the downside of their respective careers, and the other is one of the most hated wrestlers in the past 25 years.

2017’s going to be a rough year for WWE, to be sure.