WWE WrestleMania 33: 8 Stars That May Not Get the Spot They Deserve

Adam O'Brien

WrestleMania 33, WWE.com

As we barrel down the Road to WrestleMania 33, we take a look at which stars are likely to be overlooked on the grandest stage of them all.

With Elimination Chamber in the books and Fastlane approaching, the Road to WrestleMania 33 rages on as we count the days until the Showcase of the Immortals.

Given the excitement in the air every spring, it’s no secret that WWE likes to go all out and fill the line-up with big names – some of whom you don’t have the privilege of seeing each week, like Triple H, Goldberg, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar.

As an unfortunate side effect of that, many of the names you may be used to seeing regularly on Raw and SmackDown Live are bumped slightly down the card in favor of these marquis matches, which can make it quite difficult to gauge where your favorite full-time WWE Superstars are likely to end up at the Show of Shows.

Sure, there’s always the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal to appease anybody that’s been left out, but by and large, most people would prefer the bigger workhorses of the company to receive more high-profile matches, mostly so they have much more to work in the weeks with leading up to the event.

A couple of weeks back, we covered a list of matches that WWE may be planning to run at WrestleMania 33, and given how most of them were singles bouts, it means that a lot of relatively big names run the risk of either not receiving the opportunity to shine this year that they deserve, or they’ll be lucky to get featured at all.

In some cases, you can justify in terms of booking why some stars will take a dive in favor of other, more prominent ones, but nevertheless, the following is a list of WWE Superstars that may not get their rightful opportunity at this year’s WrestleMania.

WWE.com

8. Neville

Early last year, it was believed that “The Man That Gravity Forgot” had been in line to participate in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania 32.

A slight mishap against Chris Jericho last March would sadly squander those plans, as the man was placed on the shelf for four months with a fractured ankle.

What makes his absence even more tragic, however, is that his spot in the match was said to have been filled by the eventual winner that night; Zack Ryder.

7. Rusev

There’s a reason you’re going to see a good bit of reference to the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in this piece, and it’s simply because the annual slugfest has become WWE’s way of showcasing each star on the roster at WrestleMania, whom otherwise wouldn’t have even been considered for a spot on the line-up.

At the top of that match are the upper mid-carders that would’ve hoped for something more, but unfortunately come up short in pursuit of a decent program. This year, Rusev is looking likely to take one of those spots.

It’s not the end of the world, make no mistake about that, but given how his career took off with Rusev facing John Cena at WrestleMania 31, it’s difficult not to yearn for something a little more for “The Bulgarian Brute”.

The lackluster feud with Enzo and Cass has sullied whatever dignity Rusev had left, after losing the US Championship to Roman Reigns last fall. His poorly-explained alliance with Jinder Mahal is so forgettable that it’s sure to end with about as much buzz as it began with – zero – and his broken nose suffered prior to the Royal Rumble is just another unfortunate chapter in the story of Rusev’s degradation.

At this stage, the best he could hope for at WrestleMania 33 is to be one of the final remaining competitors in the Battle Royal, which is certainly plausible as he’s one of the most physically dominant stars in the WWE.

Still, given how promising the man was starting to look again just last summer before Roman Reigns completely derailed his US Championship push, you can’t help but feel for Rusev as he attempts to pick up the scraps that currently make up his career.

Credit: WWE.com

6. Dolph Ziggler

It’s been long said that despite his immense wrestling abilities, Dolph Ziggler just doesn’t have any luck when it comes to booking, and his recent heel turn proves that.

Ziggler was one of the most talked-about stars in WWE last fall, when he put up valiant efforts against Dean Ambrose and The Miz respectively – to the point where his deeply passionate promo work was said to be the turning point of his career.

In typical Dolph Ziggler fashion, however, the buzz quickly faded away, and in a vain effort to give “The Show-Off” some direction on the blue brand, he soon turned heel. The only thing is, he’s been put up against two of the least significant athletes on Tuesday nights in Kalisto and Apollo Crews, and at one point had to rely on the popularity of WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry “The King” Lawler to get over as a heel.

Needless to say given his absence from Sunday’s Elimination Chamber match, Dolph Ziggler has fallen quite far down the ladder on SmackDown Live.

His segments each week, though hopefully building Ziggler up as a future legitimate threat to the title picture, just don’t seem to be clicking with the audience.

We covered Ziggler’s need to make a change all the way back in December, and although the seeds have long been planted for a shift in Ziggler’s character, the WWE is failing to capitalize on that ahead of the final stretch to WrestleMania.

At this rate, Ziggler will be seriously lucky if he finds himself in a legitimate program heading into April, because as good as he is, there are far too many characters outshining him on SmackDown Live as it stands.

5. The New Day

The New Day has been stagnant since losing the WWE Tag Team Championship.

They spent months building up to the fact that they were going to be the longest-reigning champions in history, a distinction earned as a result of the infectious energy and undeniable chemistry shared between Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods.

Their popularity soared throughout their 483-day run, and although it felt as though they were only hanging onto the titles at the end for the sake of ousting Demolition’s record, it very rarely disappointed from an entertainment standpoint.

Since dropping the titles, however, The New Day has had very little to do. They were the first full-time WWE stars announced for the Royal Rumble match, which many thought was foreshadowing for an implosion that night, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The question now is this: aside from some witty catchphrases, what does The New Day offer an already stacked WrestleMania line-up?

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Last year, the trio made a huge impact by emerging from a massive box of Booty-O’s and mixing it up with WWE Hall of Famers, albeit after a loss to The League of Nations. Without the championships, that energy is almost nowhere to be found.

Of course, they could compete for the Raw Tag Team Titles, perhaps in a Fatal Four-Way match in the pre-show, but that billing is about as good as they could hope for this year. That’s unfortunate, because The New Day should really be going up in the world given how they dominated the WWE tag-team division for well over a year.

They will go down in history as one of the best tag-teams in WWE history, from a statistician’s outlook at the very least, and so surely they deserve a little bit of recognition at WrestleMania for their accomplishments.

Some fans were clamoring to see a triple threat match between all three members at WrestleMania, but the moment may have passed for that to start brewing. They’re still a serious cash cow for the WWE in terms of merchandise sales, but too long without making much of an impact might negatively impact that.

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4. Cesaro and Sheamus

Make no mistake, just because Sheamus and Cesaro are a tag-team, it should take nothing away from the fact that these are two of the finest singles stars in WWE.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Sheamus and Cesaro going into WrestleMania as a tandem, they bulk up the tag-team division for sure, but there is definitely a lot more they can do in Orlando than compete for the Raw Tag-Team Titles in another losing effort. Namely, having one turn on the other to reignite their rivalry.

It might feel a little overdone, considering Jeri-KO have ended their friendship in favor of a WrestleMania rivalry, and how The Wyatt Family will surely be looking to do the same, but as far as matches go, Cesaro and Sheamus have proven beyond doubt that they can pull out a top quality draw when the pressure is on.

Their final match in a best-of-seven series at Clash of Champions was spectacular, and made the same people that used to roll their eyes at the thought of Sheamus vs. Cesaro, chant “let them fight” when the bout finished in a draw.

Cesaro had to sit WrestleMania 32 out, and although Sheamus picked up a tag-team victory, it was overshadowed by how over The New Day was and the fact that Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Steve Austin were making a surprise appearance.

Surely both men are at a stage in their career where they can put silly games to the side and do what they do best – fight – on the biggest platform in all of wrestling.

When these two do inevitably split up, both are going to be serious threats to whoever they lock up with in singles competition, and a perfect starting point for that would be against one another at WrestleMania 33.

Photo courtesy of WWE.com

3. The SmackDown Live Women’s Division

There’s really no way to anticipate what WWE has planned for the SmackDown Live women’s division at WrestleMania, with the news breaking on the latest SmackDown Live that Alexa Bliss will be invoking her rematch clause against Naomi next week.

That said, given how heavily favored Raw’s female locker room seems to be, and how “The Queen of Pay-Per-View”, Charlotte Flair is said to be taking on Sasha Banks, Nia Jax and the current WWE Raw Women’s Champion Bayley, it’s not going to be difficult for the blue brand’s equivalent to fall behind in terms of promotion.

Naomi is the titleholder right now, and they’ve made a big deal out of her desires to walk into her hometown of Orlando and let WrestleMania “feel the glow” with the championship – but the women’s roster on Tuesday nights has been so well booked for the most part that it would be a shame for anyone to be left out.

Alexa Bliss has stepped forward over the last half-year as a spectacular heel, Becky Lynch continues to impress as the brand’s top female babyface, Mickie James adds a sense of class to the division that raises it to a whole new level, and even Nikki Bella and Natalya deserve credit for the level of animosity they’ve brought to their feud.

There’s really nobody in the division, save for Eva Marie if she even counts anymore, that doesn’t deserve a little recognition at WrestleMania 33.

Not everyone can be appeased, however, unless of course there are two multi-women championship matches at WrestleMania – and why shouldn’t there be?

Still, regardless of what does get booked for the Showcase of the Immortals, the real tragedy at WrestleMania will come if Raw’s women’s division is made to look far superior to that of SmackDown Live – because it’s simply not the case.

It’ll be a travesty to see the ladies of Tuesday night forced to compete on the pre-show while Sasha, Nia, Bayley and Charlotte live it up on the actual WrestleMania card. It happened at the Rumble, and there’s a possibility of it happening again.

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2. AJ Styles

The self-professed “face that runs the place” has been a blessing to the WWE – from the moment he burst onto the scene at the 2016 Royal Rumble, up until he almost went the distance against five of SmackDown Live’s best at Elimination Chamber.

His immense abilities both in and out of the ring have swayed many to name him as the WWE’s most valuable player of the last calendar year, and coming off of a thrilling WWE Championship reign, “The Phenomenal One” is one of few full-time stars on the roster virtually guaranteed to be in a high stakes match at WrestleMania.

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AJ Styles’ prevalence in Orlando, however, isn’t the issue. What strikes many as disheartening with regards to his second ‘Mania appearance is the suggested opponent he may find himself standing across the ring from; Shane McMahon.

We can’t stress enough that Shane McMahon is a class act – the man’s role in the WWE since his return last spring has seen some extraordinary moments for sure, and the commissioner of SmackDown Live would undoubtedly give it his all at WrestleMania regardless of the circumstances or the opponent.

But a match-up against an authority figure doesn’t sound like the emotionally-driven, passion-filled match that we would hope to expect from one of the company’s best overall performers at the biggest event in professional wrestling.

The story is going to be a serious reach – after all, if anyone should have management gripes on SmackDown Live, it’s The Miz – and AJ Styles doesn’t stand to gain a whole lot from the inevitable victory over the chairman’s son.

We know that with Bray Wyatt standing firmly as WWE Champion, and Randy Orton as the #1 contender to that very title, the blue brand’s main event scene may be a little too crowded for the inclusion of AJ Styles, unless of course, he wins next week’s No. 1 Contenders Battle Royal to determine Orton’s WrestleMania “replacement”.

If not, surely there are better options, with regards to both the story and the actual match – even if they have Styles take on a part-timer like The Undertaker – for AJ Styles to go head-to-head with at the 33^rd annual extravaganza.

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1. Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn has been the recipient of some terrific booking lately, with pivotal pinfall victories over both Rusev and United States Champion, Chris Jericho under his belt.

It looked as though Zayn might be in line to capture the title from Y2J at Fastlane and carry it into WrestleMania – a distinction that would surely redefine his career, given that it’s been a rocky road for “The Underdog from the Underground” since the draft.

But with Seth Rollins’ injury forcing WWE to improvise, Sami Zayn seems to have taken his place as Samoa Joe’s very first pay-per-view opponent on the main roster.

That means the window for Zayn to go into WrestleMania with a huge momentum boost in his first singles championship is slowly closing, and the strong likelihood of him losing against Joe in March isn’t going to help things one bit.

Had Zayn captured the US Title at Fastlane, it could have nicely set up for a feud with Samoa Joe culminating in a huge match in April, but Seth Rollins’ unfortunate knee injury now prevents Zayn from finding an organic route to WrestleMania.

As one of the most talented athletes on Raw, with a proven track record when it comes to spectacular matches against WWE’s top stars and an unparalleled sense of underdog popularity, Sami Zayn should be near the top of the list with regards to which full-time WWE stars should make it into WrestleMania.

He’s had his ups and downs in the form of Mick Foley doubting his abilities against a behemoth like Braun Strowman, but for the most part, Zayn proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he belongs in the WWE whenever he steps through the curtain.

As a future WWE Universal Champion – perhaps with Daniel Bryan-esque booking – these are the moments that Sami Zayn can ill-afford to fly under the radar for.

The options may be slim, but it’s certainly not impossible to find a way to extend the rivalry with Samoa Joe an additional month, potentially sourcing another way to bring the United States Championship into the fray, with Samoa Joe even winning it from a recently-turned babyface Chris Jericho over the coming month.

Sami Zayn is the pinnacle of Monday Night Raw’s mid-card right now, and he needs to be given a worthy chance to shine with the lights on bright in Florida.

Adam O'Brien

Adam is a writer based out of Dublin, Ireland, and ever since he was six years old, he has been a fan of professional wrestling. He’s put that passion to use, having written for a number of reputable networks including WhatCulture, The Sportster and Fan Rag Sports. He can also be found at SLTD Wrestling, where he takes serious pride in his work as an editor and site administrator.