WWE is considered to be the grandest stage of pro wrestling where the entertainment value of a performer is on an equal footing with their in-ring abilities. While making it to the top comes at an immoderate price, ensuring one’s stay involves satisfying several criteria that the company as a product demands.
These transcend the performer’s ability to wrestle by often focusing around his marketability as a potential investment in the mean world of “sports entertainment”. Such relentlessness affords its participants little ground to slip, irrespective of their experience inside a ring. However, circumstances have begun to change for the better.
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With the advent of the New Era, there has been an influx of talent onto the main roster. Negotiations with a technologically advanced and ceaselessly critical audience have introduced a transparency in the industry, whereby superstars’ histories are as important as their run inside the company. Due to this shift in interest, wrestlers from the independent scenes are flooding WWE’s developmental brand, while experienced superstars are getting their deserved title pushes.
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The emphasis on talent and opportunity has come as a result of a massive change in the product’s antiquarian hiring policies. Needless to say, crowd favorites are taking center stage, making their stimulating stories all the more reassuring of their current glory.
The following are ten WWE Superstars who have had to stake a claim on nothing but their mettle and talent while eking a way up the ladder:
Zack Ryder
From his one match appearance on SmackDown! as a jobber against Matt Morgan in 2005 to achieving his Wrestlemania moment in 2015, Ryder has come a long way. He had been repackaged numerous times by the WWE, sometimes along with a tag team partner and sometimes beside a superstar like Edge. Yet none of them could ensure the recognition that he deserved within the company.
Feeling underutilized, Ryder took to the internet with a YouTube series called “Z! True Long Island Story” and won himself a strong following, thus initiating the Ryder Revolution.
Although a one-time Intercontinental Champion, a one-time United States Champion, and a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion, Ryder had seen a trough in his career until successfully plucking the IC Title at Wrestlemania 32.
Despite that, his push was short lived. For an industry veteran who is so over, Ryder has been seeing the worse end of the stick for some time. It is unlikely that his recent tag team venture with Mojo Rawley in mid card matches will sail him out of the doldrums.
Neville
The high-flyer has remained one of the most captivating performers inside a WWE ring, ever since making his mark on its developmental brand, NXT. Neville started his run in his native United Kingdom under the ring name PAC. Having conquered the local scene, he traveled around the world, leaving behind a trail of jaw dropped supporters in Italy, Japan, and the United States.
Bearing decorations from places as diverse as Dragon Gate, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and NXT, the 2015 Slammy Award Winner has been restricted to comic book inspired storylines and tepid feuds that do nothing to bolster his character within the promotion.
Currently billed as “The Man that gravity forgot”, Neville’s singular potential is contained within his high-flying identity. He has put up a multitude of mid card matches that conclude with his extraordinary display of athleticism and are quickly forgotten. His regular spate of injuries could not be the sole reason for the lack of title runs. For a man of his experience and determination, WWE Creative has been lethargic in accommodating him inside the slew of storylines that it usually yarns out.
Karl Anderson
An experienced performer, Anderson is most famous for his stint as one of the founding members of the NJPW stable “The Bullet Club”. Karl Anderson coming over to Japan, though, it is a different story altogether.
Starting from scratch after a concussion put him out of training, Anderson went on to lose his professional wrestling debut at the Northern Wrestling Federation, Cincinnati. However, he had secured the NWF Championship by the summer of 2005. Moving on to the New Wrestling Alliance, Anderson was noticed by Dave Marquez of NJPW Dojo, culminating in a talent exchange between the NWA and NJPW. In between this, “Machine Gun” Anderson, as he came to be packaged had prevailed upon promotions such as the Professional Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor, despite not winning any significant championships. By the time he boarded his flight to Japan, he was broke and looking for a fresh chapter in his wrestling career.
In NJPW, Anderson eventually rose past mid card ranks by winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Giant Bernard as the team Bad Intentions and reigning for a record setting 564 days. An established heel, Karl had been floundering between stables before forming the tag team. However, with Bernard leaving NJPW for WWE, the team was disbanded and Anderson embarked upon a singles career with mediocre results. Respite came when he joined Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale in attacking his opponent after losing a match, thus instituting the Bullet Club. Another tag team venture with Bullet Club member Doc Gallows would see them secure the championship and hold it for one full year.
Cesaro
Cesaro had been wrestling in several promotions around the world when he was contacted by WWE in 2011. Prior to this, he had been employed as backstage talent in a segment in 2006. For a man of his experience, the offer was inevitable and he hasn’t disappointed since. Despite a move to NXT from the main roster in 2014, the Swiss Superman had made a mile of an inch by putting up a set of incredible matches, culminating in title pushes and a win at Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Claudio Castagnoli, having conquered European promotions through tag team titles, moved to the United States in a bid to cement his singles career. Picking up a slew of victories, both as a singles competitor as well as a tag team, at Chikara, Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerilla and the Ring of Honor, he had attracted enough attention from industry regulars.
One of the agilest and strongest performers to pass between WWE ropes, Cesaro had to go through numerous gimmick changes and untimely heel turns, in order to find favor with fans, but he was already over. In fact, poor booking decisions had made him face the wrong kind of heat. He mostly seems to fall short of winning a title at the last stage, despite having uppercut his way through the competition.
Sami Zayn
Sami Zayn is arguably the greatest indie heartthrob in the current WWE roster. Having started with backyard matches, wrestling quickly grew into an obsession for this Canadian native. Debuting with the International Wrestling Syndicate in 2002, Rami Sabei came to the United States in 2004 after getting noticed by the Pro Wrestling Guerilla. He adopted the persona of a luchador, El Generico, and with a catchphrase “Ole!”, started winning titles in both singles as well as tag team matches.
His run in the independent scene would see him go up against several future WWE Superstars such as Cesaro, Neville, and Daniel Bryan. But it is his relationship with Kevin Owens, then Kevin Steen, that is the most remarkable.
El Generico wrestled in PWG till 2013, while simultaneously performing in Chikara and Ring of Honor. Setting up memorable feuds and displaying incredible ring performances, Generico rose through the ranks, securing numerous titles till he moved to Japan’s Dragon Gate Promotion. Adopting a more lethal fighting technique, he returned to the USA expansion of the promotion to finally debut for Evolve in 2012. Zayn entered WWE NXT as in a non-wrestling role on February 13, 2013, before making his in-ring debut at a live event some days later. This time, though, he wrestled without his mask and under his present ring name.
Zayn’s history of pro wrestling is evident in the dexterity he displays during his matches on WWE. His remarkable chemistry with any competitor and understanding of the craft resulted in some of the best matches in recent WWE pay per view history. A beloved member of the WWE community, Zayn’s popularity can be gauged by the multitude of “Ole!” chants when his music hits, connecting his indie past with his present glory.
Kevin Owens
This man is the most entertaining heel in the entire roster today. He is matchless on the mic, plays off his opponents in the most succinct manner and brings a spark of energy to even the most tedious segments on the show. Besides, he is an established wrestler with a prolific career inside the ring. Moderately agile for a heavyweight, Owens can put up five-star matches irrespective of a crowd of fifty or fifty thousand.
Born Kevin Steen, Owens began to consider professional wrestling as a career after watching a VHS tape of the Wrestlemania XI match between HBK and Diesel. Despite English not being his first language, the French-Canadian taught himself to talk in it by mimicking promos and commentary heard on Monday Night Raw. Training from out of a barn, Owens moved between trainers before having his first match at the age of 16.
He met El Generico at the International Wrestling Syndicate in Canada, thus beginning a friendship that lasts to this day. Debuting at Combat Zone Wrestling in 2004, Owens went on to win the CZW Iron Man Championship, his first, which he held for almost a year. Pro Wrestling Guerilla is where he attained even greater success, by defeating AJ Styles for the PWG Championship and later, winning the PWG Tag Team Championship with El Generico.
However, his greatest spell was during his time at Ring of Honor. He had managed to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship with Generico and later, the ROH World Championship. After his infamous heel turn on El Generico, Owens wrote himself into a storyline addressing the rivalry and feuds between them. A sour association with Commissioner Jim Cornette, who had also derided him for not looking the part of a wrestler, led to him leaving the company as the storyline consequence of a stipulated match against El Generico which he had lost.
After some sporadic appearances on PWG and ROH, Steen was signed to WWE in 2014 as Kevin Owens. His promos highlighted his extensive history in the indies. Making his debut at NXT Takeover: R Evolution, Owens won the match and went to establish his heel persona by attacking long time acquaintance and erstwhile NXT Champion, Sami Zayn (El Generico).
Owens would go on to win the NXT Championship further down the line, and after debuting on the main roster would be crowned Intercontinental Champion twice.
Finn Balor
Balor’s debut had been one of the most anticipated events post the brand split. Immensely charismatic in his personas, Finn Balor has awed all and sundry with his abilities inside the ring, be it NXT or NJPW. Yet WWE’s booking of him seems strange, considering his unintimidating stature and physicality which could only point to the immense following he has amassed over the years.
Born in Ireland, Fergal Devitt made his debut at Hammerlock UK in 2000, where he won the NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship. Having toured for a while, Balor opened his own wrestling promotion in Ireland called NWA Ireland as a sister promotion, where he trained, among others, future WWE Superstar Becky Lynch.
His quick strikes on the ring can be traced to his training in the style of the New Japan Dojo, for which he left the NWA UK in 2006. Besides debuting as Prince Devitt, Balor also adopted the persona of the masked Pegasus Kid, the first of which was won by Chris Benoit. Yet in 2007, he began touring under his Irish identity and had attached himself to the stable Counter Terrorism Unit, having earned the respect of, among its other members, the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger.
Devitt’s brilliance took form as he started winning titles at NJPW, chiefly the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship thrice and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship six times. After a stretch of matches in Mexico, Devitt returned to Japan where he formed the sensational “Bullet Club” stable.
He made his NXT debut in September of 2014, under the ring name Finn Balor. In fact, several of his acts are rooted in Irish symbolism. From his ring name to his move set, each bore a signification of Irish mythology and history. An exhilarating gimmick further facilitated his perfect booking and he grew to become an invaluable asset to WWE NXT, with some claiming him to be the reason for its success.
The icing on the cake came with his NXT Championship win and given his talent and popularity, it would not be unreasonable seeing him become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion.
Becky Lynch
Becky had almost given up wrestling as a career after suffering a head injury during a match in 2008. Reprising her role on the mat in 2013, she moved on to the main roster from NXT as part of the ambitious “Divas Revolution”. While her matches barely yielded any titles, Becky quickly became a fan favorite because of her captivating steampunk gimmick, superior wrestling skills, and ring temperament.
Born Rebecca Quinn, her first brush with pro wrestling came in 2002, through a school opened by Fergal Devitt (Finn Balor) and Paul Tracey in Ireland . She eventually made her debut some months later as a mixed tag team competitor with her brother. Though success was limited, Rebecca Knox, as she was known, kept wrestling throughout Europe in promotions such as NWA UK Hammerlock, Fighting Spirit Federation, and One Pro Wrestling. Moving to the United States in 2005, she joined SuperGirls Wrestling where she eventually became the inaugural SuperGirls Champion.
During the same year, she won an 18-person battle royal in the International Women’s Grand Prix held in Japan, along with a slew of other tag team matches. This was followed by a stint at Shimmer Women Athletes, most memorably her acclaimed match with Daizee Haze following as feud. However, her career abruptly ended due to a sustained injury and she would stay out of the ring till 2011 when she returned to Shimmer in a non-performing capacity.
Becky’s NXT debut came at a live event in November. Her run in the WWE developmental was lukewarm at best and she even turned heel in order to achieve depth in her character. Despite being one of its consistent performers, Becky won little. Her star-making moment came during NXT Takeover: Unstoppable where she put up a brilliant match against Sasha Banks. This was also when she underwent an image revamp and debuted her steam punk look.
However, her role in the main roster consisted of mostly defeats and dull promos where she would invoke stories of struggle from her past. Becky’s experience inside a ring is unmatched but capitalizing upon it for the sake of selling a character is bound to go awry.
Seth Rollins
Considered by many to be one of the most talented wrestlers to step inside the squared circle, Seth Rollins’s path to wrestling glory started in backyard matches which he would put up with his brother every month. He made his professional debut in 2005 for Scott County Wrestling, Iowa under the ring name ‘Tyler Black’. Having soon won the SCW Heavyweight Championship, he had the belt spray painted black, claiming to have begun ‘The Black Era’ in SCW.
Initially a tag performer, Black secured titles in National Wrestling Alliance Midwest and Pro Wrestling Guerilla before embarking on a singles career as a result of an injury which his ring partner had sustained. Moving on to Ring of Honor, he formed the stable ‘The Age of the Fall’, leading to a controversial angle where their opponent Jay Briscoe was hung from a used rigging. In 2007, Black had secured the ROH World Tag Team Championship along with Jimmy Jacobs, only to lose it the following month.
He began competing for the ROH World Championship and in 2010, pinned Austin Aries for the belt . This reign would last for 210 days till his final match at ROH following the signing of a developmental contract with the WWE. Turning heel, Black derided the ROH fans for calling him a sell-out but could not defend his title from Roderick Strong.
Tyler Black’s explosiveness inside the ring would attract several offers post-ROH. Deciding to remain with the WWE, he debuted for Florida Championship Wrestling under the name Seth Rollins. Though he lost his debut match, Rollins would go on to win the FCW Championship as well as the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. While there, he would have memorable feuds with Dean Ambrose, Damien Sandow, and Leo Kruger.
With FCW getting branded to NXT, there was space for a new championship. Rollins became the inaugural NXT Champion by winning the deciding tournament.
Rollins’s made an impactful debut in the main roster as a part of the notorious stable ‘The Shield’. From then to his return from injury at Extreme Rules, 2016, he has carved out a trail for himself in the business. He has been involved in some of the most jaw-dropping moments in recent WWE history, including a stupefying Money in the Bank cash-in at Wrestlemania 31.
With unparalleled ring psychology, experienced skill set and brilliant mic skills, Rollins’s presence in any WWE program elevates its entertainment quotient, often to stratospheric levels.
Dean Ambrose
Hailing from the mean streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, Jonathan Good spent his early days in public housing, riddled with crime and violence. An avid fan of pro wrestling, which he saw as an escape, Good started his training at Heartland Wrestling Association in 2004. He was employed by his trainer Les Thatcher as a popcorn seller and cleaner of the HWA arena on account of being underage.
Once he turned 18, Good took to learning the ropes of this sport before making his debut in June 2004 and winning the HWA Tag Team Championship in 2005. From here, Good would flit between singles and tag team wrestling, eventually becoming the HWA Heavyweight Champion some time later.
Wrestling under the name Jon Moxley, he had moved to Insanity Pro Wrestling in 2007, becoming their World Heavyweight Champion in the process. However, Moxley’s most definitive fights were performed at the Combat Zone Wrestling. Perhaps his time spent in this ultra-violent promotion contributed in some degree to the formation of an unconquerable character, which was to be one of the mainstays of the Dean Ambrose persona in WWE.
From CZW, Moxley proceeded to Dragon Gate USA with moderate success. Meanwhile, he intermittently wrestled for Ring of Honor, Evolve, Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Full Impact Pro, winning the vacant FIP World Heavyweight Championship.
WWE’s developmental brand FCW was not Moxley’s first brush with the company. Earlier in his career, he had fought MNM in a tag team match on SmackDown! to disappointing results. Failing to secure any considerable titles in the developmental, Ambrose broke onto the main roster as a member of the Shield. This faction’s path of destruction sent waves around the WWE, making its members stand out in their title pursuits.
Whether in a team or as a singles wrestler, Ambrose became a spirited competitor whose cool outside the ring was only matched by his unorthodox offense inside it. He would go on to win the IC Title and the US Title during this time. Yet, booked to lose against top tier WWE superstars, Ambrose cut a figure of inadequacy until Money in the Bank, 2016 where he won both the contract as well as the title.
Ambrose has often incorporated his turbulent past into his gimmick. Having put his grisly history and personal traumas behind him, Dean’s rise to glory despite these circumstances is the foil that makes every fan root for his fallible human element in this flamboyant world of WWE.
