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In WWE, getting pushed is often cyclical. While some superstars get consistent pushes through most of their careers, a large chunk of stars have a fixed role and only enjoy occasional success.
Then there are instances in WWE where superstars rise to the top in an incredible way. However, once their title run ended, so did their push. For whatever reason, WWE decided to stop pushing these superstars as soon as they lost their titles:
#5. Bray Wyatt - Lost his push after losing the WWE title in 2017
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When Bray Wyatt's WWE career is all said and done, he will most likely be remembered as the biggest missed opportunity of his generation. A superstar who was born into the business, Windham Rotunda had to experience quite a few setbacks.
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He finally found his footing in WWE when he became Bray Wyatt. Known as The Eater Of Worlds, he led The Wyatt Family on and off between 2013 and 2016. An underrated run of Wyatt's was during the SmackDown Live era in 2016.
After the brand split was re-introduced, he was drafted to SmackDown, where he first lost to Dolph Ziggler before getting the biggest push of his career at that point.
In a stacked roster with the likes of John Cena, AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, etc. Bray Wyatt was quietly picking up a winning streak and was among the most protected superstars on the WWE roster.
His storyline alliance with Orton proved to be a great storyline, picking up fan interest by the end of 2016. This would, of course, eventually lead to Randy Orton's Royal Rumble win in 2017 as well as Bray Wyatt's first WWE title two weeks later.
Wyatt's WWE title win was well-deserved, and the fans made it known. It felt like the company was finally done misusing him and that it would be the start of a great run. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
He only got to hold the WWE title until WrestleMania 33, where he lost to Orton in a controversial decision and poorly-received match. It was a shame because the Randy Orton-Bray Wyatt storyline had been nearly perfect up until The Viper turned on the WWE Champion at the time.
Many felt that Wyatt should have retained the WWE Championship and looking back, it was a decision that should have been made. Instead, he lost the title and would face Randy Orton in a non-title half cinematic match known as The House of Horrors. To nobody's surprise, the match was met with poor reception and Bray Wyatt defeated the WWE Champion.
By that point, Wyatt was drafted to RAW when WWE decided to move some of SmackDown's best stars over to the Red brand. He began a feud with Finn Balor, came close to Universal title contention, and had a brief rivalry with Seth Rollins as well.
All in all, the push he received between the summer of 2016 and February 2017 had subsided. He became just another superstar on the RAW roster and would have a somewhat forgettable run-up until he re-debuted with a new character in 2019.
#4. Jinder Mahal - Became the WWE Champion in 2017
Jinder Mahal had an unexpected rise to the top of WWE in 2017. He was released along with fellow-3MB member Drew McIntyre in 2014 and would only return two-and-a-half years later.
He slotted back into his old role of being an enhancement talent on RAW, but things changed the following year. Not only did Mahal get into the best shape of his career, but WWE also decided that they wanted to expand into the Indian market more.
To do this, they needed a top Indian star, and Jinder Mahal apparently fit the bill. Rather than taking the approach of building him over the course of a year or two, the company decided that he could go from enhancement talent to WWE title contender in just one week.
This resulted in a WWE title program with Randy Orton, who he shockingly defeated at Backlash 2017 to become the World Champion. Mahal would enjoy a surprisingly long run with the WWE title, holding it for half a year.
While Jinder Mahal had the look of a legitimate heel WWE Champion and even carried himself like one, the experiment simply didn't work. It certainly wasn't his fault, since WWE decided to thrust him into the spotlight before he was even ready.
Eventually, in November of 2017 in Manchester, AJ Styles defeated him to kickstart his year-long reign as the WWE Champion. Immediately after, Jinder Mahal would lose his push.
While it seemed like winning the United States title at WrestleMania 34 was going to be another stepping stone for him, he lost it to Jeff Hardy in just eight days and his push was subsequently over for good. He had bad luck between 2019 to 2021 as he suffered back-to-back injuries that kept him out for almost all of two years.
#3. Alexa Bliss - Lost her spot in the WWE Women's division in 2018
Alexa Bliss dominated the WWE RAW Women's division for a year-and-a-half. Looking back on it, there was a lot of heat on Bliss, who seemed to win Championship after Championship in WWE. At first, she was drafted to SmackDown and Becky Lynch was used to establish her.
She would enjoy two reigns as the SmackDown Women's Champion before being moved over to RAW, where her dominance began. It's easy to forget how bad her feud with Bayley was, because of how the latter was used and humiliated over and over against Bliss.
In the span of just 13-15 months, Alexa Bliss held the RAW Women's Championship three times - first for 111 days, second for 222 days, and the third for 63 days. In between the first and second reign, she only lost the title to Sasha Banks before regaining it after eight days.
WWE fans got a bit tired of Alexa Bliss' dominance, but luckily for them, Ronda Rousey was in the promotion by 2018. By the summer of that year, she challenged Bliss for the RAW Women's Championship at SummerSlam, and the match was set.
It was unfortunate for Alexa Bliss, not because of her defeat, but her subsequent concussions. Rousey dethroned Bliss with ease to become the face of the WWE women's division at SummerSlam. But in their rematch at Hell in a Cell, the latter suffered a concussion.
For some reason, she was still booked to compete at the Evolution pay-per-view, but WWE removed her after another concussion when facing Rousey.
That was Alexa Bliss' last singles Championship in WWE. She would find success with Nikki Cross in the women's tag team division, but the back-to-back concussions made her fear that her career would be over.
#2. Bayley - Slid down the WWE Women's division in 2017
Bayley was expected to be the biggest babyface in the WWE Women's division when she debuted. There was a lot of hype around her and it increased exponentially in the summer of 2015 when she had an all-time classic against Sasha Banks at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn.
With Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch all called up to the main roster, it would take a while for Bayley to get her move. In the meantime, she had established herself as a strong NXT Women's Champion.
While she had an appearance at Battleground 2016 in a tag team match with Sasha Banks, she only officially joined RAW the night after SummerSlam when introduced by then-General Manager Mick Foley.
Bayley's ascent to the top of the RAW women's division was quick. By February 2017, less than six months after her debut, she won the RAW Women's Championship. She even retained the title in a Fatal-Four-Way match at WrestleMania, seemingly cementing her place in the WWE Women's division.
What should have been a reasonably lengthy reign was cut short by WWE as they chose to use her as a stepping stone for Alexa Bliss. Becky Lynch was used similarly on SmackDown half a year earlier. After Bayley lost to Bliss, the rivalry only got worse.
She was constantly subjected to humiliation by Bliss and received zero comeuppance as a babyface. It ruined her quickly and it was no surprise that she lost momentum for a long time after that. While she had a brief run as the inaugural Women's Tag Team Champion alongside Sasha Banks, it truly took her two years to recover from the damage of that one feud against Alexa Bliss.
Interestingly enough, her redemption would happen in one night at Money in the Bank 2019, where she won the briefcase and cashed in on the same night to become the SmackDown Women's Champion. Her first run was a good one, but after she turned heel, things changed for good.
She regained the title from Charlotte Flair, who held it for a short period in between. Her second SmackDown Women's title reign was her best run in WWE and she established herself as the longest-reigning women's Champion in the Blue brand's history.
Currently, Bayley is one of the most decorated women in WWE history. She's one Royal Rumble victory away from achieving a perfect career.
#1. Kofi Kingston - A brief drop down post-WWE title reign
Kofi Kingston made history in 2019 by becoming the first African-born WWE Champion in history. It was an incredible story that culminated at WrestleMania 35. KofiMania became a phenomenon in 2019, especially when fans began to understand that the decade-long veteran in WWE was truly capable of holding the World Championship.
The storyline was executed perfectly and Daniel Bryan presented the best heel Champion for Kofi Kingston to overcome. Looking back, the storyline wasn't just made by Kingston, but also by masterful heel work by Bryan.
In an unforgettable moment, Kofi Kingston overcame Daniel Bryan to a roar of approval. He would enjoy a surprisingly long reign. Many fans felt that Vince McMahon "reluctantly" made him the WWE Champion, similar to Rey Mysterio in 2006.
However, that wasn't the case at all. Kingston enjoyed a good run and was presented as a strong WWE Champion. While his pay-per-view match quality wasn't the best for a WWE Champion, the biggest problem fans had was how he lost the title.
Brock Lesnar appeared on SmackDown, and in the debut episode on FOX in October 2019, he was set to wrestle on free TV for the first time in nearly 16 years. Lesnar defeated Kingston in ten seconds to win the WWE title and that was what killed KofiMania.
Given how he lost, Kofi Kingston didn't feel like he could go back for a rematch and subsequently dropped out of the main event scene. He enjoyed tag team success on SmackDown and RAW, but it would only be in 2021 when he re-emerged as a WWE title contender.
