If I had to point the finger as to why so many wrestlers have such a hard time, I'd point it at the match between Kane and Finn Balor on Raw this past Monday. Something that we have seen frequently over the course of the last several 4 or 5 years has been Vince McMahon doing something to kill the momentum of young stars, that something is usually having those stars turn around and job out to the older wrestlers on the roster instead of using those older wrestlers to build them up. We've seen it done with Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Rusev, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bayley, Sasha Banks and just about anyone else who's debuted on the main roster in the last 5 years at one time or another. Of the current crop talent that's come up in that time span, the only one that's really gotten a consistent build has been Roman Reigns.
On Raw this past Monday, after just coming off a big win over AJ Styles, universally hailed as one of the best in-ring talents in the world for the past 15 years, in a great match, Balor is turned around and squashed by Kane in a 7 minute match. Kane has been around for 20 years, he's already over and is as over as he's going to be; the best years of his career are behind him and squashing Finn Balor just so he can look like a monster against Braun Strowman accomplished nothing except stall Balor's momentum. If they wanted to have Kane squash someone, there's a locker room full of guys who aren't doing anything; I mean, were Curt Hawkins or Apollo Crews busy?
If you're an older fan, like me, and you hear younger fans in their teens and 20s saying something about how modern stars just don't really compare to those of 20-25 years ago, what happened on Monday is one of the primary reasons why they feel that way. Stone Cold Steve Austin didn't win KOTR in 1996 and then job to Jake Roberts a week later on Raw, the Rock didn't beat Austin to win the Intercontinental Championship in December 1997 and embark on the longest IC title run of the past 20 years only to job out in his nontitle matches, Triple H didn't job out to the Big Boss Man to look like a weak heel champion the night after beating Cactus Jack inside Hell in a Cell. Vince goes out of his way, whenever he can, for whatever reason, to make the modern crop of stars look vulnerable unless they have a certain look that appeals to him.
Why does he do this? This is just a shot in the dark but I'm of the opinion that Vince believes that WWE's future is beyond secure, that it's such an established brand and force that he doesn't have to worry about making modern stars look as prominent as AE era stars. I think he feels that fans are going to tune in regardless and he's probably right because he knows that there's no other wrestling promotion on Earth that can even remotely touch WWE in terms of being a competitor. He'd deny it of course, just like he said on the infamous Stone Cold podcast interview that it was never about what he wanted and that it was all about the fans.