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WWE has made some of the biggest stars in the world today with the likes of Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and John Cena all reaching massive heights in the company.
However, as good as WWE has been at making stars, it also struggles massively to take many members of its talented roster and use those talents to create even more stars.
It can be argued that WWE has the biggest and best roster of professional wrestlers on the planet, many of whom do create some sort of connection with the WWE Universe but for some reason, they don't quite get there and capitalize on it.
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Here are five Superstars that should, or could, have been massive stars in the company but for one reason or another WWE never fully got behind them.
#5. Former WWE Superstar Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona)
Zack Ryder has made brief appearances for AEW and IMPACT Wrestling over the past year or so, wrestling as Matt Cardona. But you'd be forgiven for thinking that at one point he was one of the most popular wrestlers WWE had.
Ryder was distinctly ahead of his time, utilizing social media and YouTube in particular to create a weekly show dedicated to his character called 'Z! True Long Island Story.'
The YouTube videos were fairly simple and featured Ryder interacting with a limited cast of characters, including his own father and Big O. But they ultimately ended up to Zack Ryder becoming a popular figure in WWE, with the crowd getting fully behind Ryder and his goofy antics.
Ryder became a top merchandise seller despite being used sparingly or not at all on television and the crowd would chant 'We want Ryder' during other wrestlers' matches. However, WWE didn't really understand Ryder's use of social media and certainly didn't understand the appeal of 'Z! True Long Island Story'
In typical WWE fashion, and indeed most corporations, they did push Ryder, which resulted in a United States title run. This didn't last long however, as Ryder was soon pushed back into obscurity and they took control over Zack Ryder's YouTube show which ultimately, in his own words, ended up killing it.
#4. Former WWE Superstar Emma (Tenille Dashwood)
Emma was someone else who, like Zack Ryder, became inexplicably popular via what seemed like an accident whilst in WWE's developmental brand NXT. She was this quirky, bubbly and sometimes clumsy likeable character who could also wrestle really well.
Emma suffered somewhat of a setback when she was called up to WWE's main roster and was reduced to Santino Marella's dancing onscreen girlfriend. But against all odds, she managed to become extremely popular again!
But this period of time was short-lived, only lasting six months, because Santino Marella retired from in-ring competition, leading to yet another character change for Emma. The character change would be the now infamous Emmalina.
Emmalina was hyped up for weeks before the character would make her debut, turn around and re-debut back as Emma again. Emma went on to say that she didn't feel comfortable doing the Emmalina gimmick and WWE realized it wasn't going to work.
Still, even so, Emma did decently on the main roster as a heel following that. It's clear that WWE had no idea how to use her talent and how to set her up for stardom in WWE's women's division.
#3. Former WWE Superstar Rusev (Miro)
You only need to look at how the former Rusev, now Miro, is being booked in All Elite Wrestling as their reigning TNT North American Champion to know that WWE were doing something very wrong with him.
Rusev should've been a dominant force in WWE, but he spent his last few months in the company embroiled in a storyline where his real-life and on-screen wife Lana. The Raveshing Russian was having an affair with Bobby Lashley and for some reason, Rusev would lose every match he had against Lashley.
When you look at the work he's doing in AEW as a dominant, aggressive, unstoppable monster, you wonder why WWE had him get cheated on and then lose over and over again.
But, WWE also somehow managed to squander Rusev's comedy side as we saw with the unexpected advent and rise in popularity of "Rusev Day," which became the loudest chant from the audience for quite some time. However, instead of capitalizing on that popularity, Vince McMahon told Rusev he thought fans were 'f***ing with him' and that it was legitimate popularity.
#2. Former WWE Superstar Aleister Black (Malakai Black)
Former WWE Superstar Aleister Black has just debuted as a surprise for All Elite Wrestling, appearing in the ring after a blackout to hit the Black Mass on Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes. He looked like more of a star in that small segment for AEW than he has for his entire main roster run in WWE.
That wasn't always the case for Aleister Black. In NXT he was one of the best wrestlers around, he went on an extended undefeated streak, became NXT Champion and looked unstoppable. He was also presented as this brooding, slightly mystical character with an amazing entrance and a great theme song.
However, all of those things that made Black unique outside of the ring slowly started getting stripped away and all he was really left with was his in-ring work. Sadly, despite all his talent, Black wasn't able to string together enough momentum to really make an impact on the main roster.
WWE ended up releasing Black earlier this year and thanks to a mistake in his contract he was able to jump ship to AEW. Now as Malakai Black, he'll hopefully hit the heights fans were expecting him to during his time with WWE.
#1. Former WWE Superstar Braun Strowman
WWE is well known as the "Land of Giants." Giants have always been a cornerstone of wrestling, WWE or otherwise. Big Daddy Haystacks, Yokozuna, Andre the Giant and The Big Show were all being incredibly popular in their time.
But then along came Braun Strowman, a giant with an unnatural amount of agility and athleticism who could switch between being a believable, unstoppable force to a believable comedy act. In short, he could do anything that was asked of him.
WWE did definitely see some potential in Braun Strowman as he did eventually win a world title (albeit because Roman Reigns' absence caused plans to change) but every single time they seemed to finally be putting Strowman at the top where a man of his size and talent belonged, they somehow managed to take two steps back with him.
Strowman is the closest thing to a sure thing in professional wrestling, and yet somehow WWE managed to squander him and ultimately ended up releasing him.
