Has WWE forgotten how to make a superstar?

Is the current roster good enough?

The summer of 2011, the Summer of Punk, was by far the most exciting period of the WWE in the current decade. It all started with the famous CM Punk promo in which he takes a dig at John Cena, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and almost at Vince McMahon too(his microphone gets cut off) and lights up the stage at Sin City, Nevada. Well, this article isn’t about CM Punk, although every article should be about CM Punk or the ice cream bars or the collector cups, or even CM Punk the movie (ok maybe not about CM Punk the movie), but you catch my drift.

Having established myself as a CM Punk fan, let’s get back to the point. The last Raw before the epic Money in the Bank pay-per-view in 2011, witnessed the first ever live contract negotiation and yes it involved none other than CM Punk. During the negotiation, CM Punk asks Vince about his friends who had been fired from the WWE that whether they deserved or Vince just didn’t know how to make a superstar in 2011. That got me thinking and yes the WWE had lost the art of making a superstar.

Other than Cena (boring, I know) there was just no one else who could match the likes of the superstars the WWE made during the attitude era. No superstar was anywhere near the likes of Austin, Rock, Triple H, Michaels, Angle etc. Yes these superstars had their charisma, their ability to connect with the audience but they also needed the initial push or the ‘Stunning Steve’ would have made it big in WCW itself. The bottom-line is the Monday Night wars brought the best out of WWE when they had to make new superstars in the midst of their established superstars defecting to the rival WCW.

Owing to the lack of competition in the PG era, there were not a lot of superstars other than Cena, (Batista/Edge sometimes) who were given a real push. There were also many talented wrestlers such as Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, Chris Masters etc. who either left because nothing was happening for them or were wished best of luck for their future endeavors. And there are many who might have the same fate, guys who the WWE just doesn’t know what to do with.

Look at the pre-show superstar of every pay-per-view Jack Swagger. He has been with the company for a long time now and nobody seems to know what to do with him. Also, look at Kofi Kingston, who comes in the spotlight, only for a few seconds though, in the Royal Rumble matches (he seems to have picked it up after John Morrison left). Who knows what some of these superstars could have been had they been given a real push.

But maybe that’s changing now. Superstars like Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bad News Barrett (I love this guy), Big E and many others are being given some push and are showing a lot of promise, but they still need to do a lot of work. I sincerely hope that at least some of them make it really big in the company and actually entertain us all.

P.S. Luke Harper should be promoted way more than what he is being promoted now and moves he does in the ring, please don’t try them at home.