Does the WWE have too many main eventers and upper mid card wrestlers?

[Ubermensch]

In large part due to the unification of both belts, I would say the WWE roster is a too top heavy with upper mid card guys, and main eventers. Without an extra title to compete for you have a lot of guys with reputations, numerous title holdings, and that have been in the main event story lines as of let on the card.

Lesnar and Batista both returned at roughly the same time as the belt was unified.

No one on wants Batista out of the title hunt. While Alberto Del Rio is the former World Champion, most are uninterested in him as a main event storyline so Batista will roll through him.

Lesnar can never be a mid card wrestler. Between his past collegiate wrestling success, instant push in the WWE when he arrived, and UFC heavyweight Championship it simply isn't feasible. When the WWF had Shamrock, the UFC was in relative obscurity (same with Tank Abbott). Many also still believed wrestling was real to a certain degree. This let them keep Shamrock on the upper mid card level for quite some time. However, nowadays most everyone knows wrestling is fake, and the WWE keeps some sort of competitive legitimacy with Lesnar in the chase. Lesnar's mic skills are lackluster and he will still need a mouthpiece like Paul Heyman.

With that, you still have your faces with Cena, CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan.

Orton, and Bray Wyatt as heels. If Roman Reigns get pushed this will further muddy up the water.

Then there's the Big Show, and Kane. Along with The Shield and Wyatt Family coming in and out of the main event scene.

Watching Raw last Monday, there were very few guys that you could say are legit mid card wrestlers.

 

[ASKane]

The problem is not too many the problem is the heel/face balance of singles wrestlers

Faces: Cena, Punk, Bryan, Big Show, Mysterio and Batista (I think)
Heels: Orton, Del Rio and Lesnar

The other top heels are factions in the form of the Shield and Wyatts and that's why Batista needs to be a heel to make it 5 faces to 4 heels and then have Shield and Wyatts feud with the US title changing hands, have Big E feud with a Heel Henry and have the Rhodes feud with the Uso's leading to a Goldust heel turn for a Mania match.

Which would mean that the rivalries could be
Orton (c) vs Bryan
Cena vs Batista
Lesnar vs Punk
ADR vs Mysterio
Shield vs Wyatt's
Uso's vs Rhodes
Big E vs Mark Henry
AJ vs Emma or Paige

As the list above shows if booked right this could be a fun Road to Wrestlemania

 

[RicSpade]

I tend to disagree with the card is too top heavy and here is why, if you scraped all the upper mid carders trying to become main eventers your ppvs would once again be getting headlined by the same 6 people. In 2012 to 2013 something awesome happened whether or not anyone agrees with me it's your choice, but we saw something different, and that was the WWE had been getting main evented or giving the chance to shine to other superstars. Now here me out but, Ryback whether you like him or not brought a fresh face to the main event scene to challenge guys like CM Punk and John Cena. Daniel Bryan was a main event player. CM Punk headlined shows, Dolph had a short opportunity as champion, Santino Marella was in a main event whether a jobber or not. Miz was a headliner, Alberto Del Rio, Jericho, Orton, Cena, Big Show, Lesnar, will have Batista; Do you see the point being made?

The WWE knows its top stars won't be here forever this is going to be the transition period to see who can and will stay over in the WWE. Daniel Bryan whether the WWE likes it or not is this era's RVD no matter how many times you tried to bury RVD he got more popular in WWE because of his ECW days, Daniel Bryan no matter how many times you bury him he is more over than Cena and I think a lot of it is from his days as Bryan Danielson.

Having the World title was a stepping stone to the WWE title and yeah it may make things look top heavy because not everyone can main event each month, but look at it this way too, isn't now more of a challenge and saying step up to those wanting to be at the top? Yes, it makes the championship more prestigious too and it shows you can fight tooth and nail to get to the top in these matches.

So no I don't agree its top heavy, this is the best way to keep the cards fresh and see who will be main eventing for the next several months to come other than the "faces" of wwe.

 

[Softcore Holly]

The returning legends makes it feels that way but it'll decrease with time as guys like Lesnar/Batista takes their break. If anything I would say their top is going to be a little light post WM or whenever Batista leaves to promote his movie.

Faces - Cena, DB, Punk
Heels - Orton

Bray isn't a top heel, the Wyatts themselves has been looking pretty bad lately with DB turning so quick along with losing a bunch of matches in a row. And atm people don't really take Bray seriously in the ring. He'll sink further down the card once his feud with DB is done.

Show is probably going nowhere near the top anymore
Same for Kane, that guy's probably going to retire decently soon
Reigns would be pushed as a face, not a heel

And Raw wasn't the best example since a lot of the roster seemed missing(not surprising since it was the last show before RR) but...
Mid-carders
Rey
ADR (His time on the top is done)
Sandow
Kofi
Rollins/Ambrose(I just don't see them getting pushed once they split)
Big E
Ziggler(whenever he comes back)
Fandango
Barrett
Show

etc etc etc

 

[thebarber]

take Lesnar, HHH,Undertaker and Batista out of the main event equation, as they wont be around much week to week after Mania, and CM Punk's contract coming up in July and every report Ive read states he may well not re-sign this time around, the main event picture is very light on.
JOHN CENA, DANIEL BRYAN and RANDY ORTON have feuded enough,we dont need to see them go at it further. The Shield are upper mid card, not main event week to week talent, ditto Bray Wyatt. Kane hardly wrestles, Del Rio is a joke, Mysterio nobody older than 9 cares about anymore. This is why I see Bryan winning the WWE Title from Cena at Mania, and then feuding over Spring, whilst Orton and Batista feud after Mania, The upper mid card of a returning Sheamus, the breaking out of Roman Reigns and NXT guys coming up, 2014 will be a rebuilding phase post Mania

 

[kadroan]

I think they got enough, not too many. If anything they need to have storylines more around the IC and US titles, always have somebody competing for a title shot and somebody feuding with the champion. So many variations you could do with that, 1 on 1's, triple threat's, fatal four way's.

 

[kumarjtk]

the main event guys in wwe are

Alberto del rio
Batista
Big show
Brock lesnar
Cm punk
Daniel bryan
John cena
Kane
Randy orton
Sheamus
Undertaker
Triple h
Out of this del rio, bIg show, kane are played has a upper midcarders.

Brock, undertaker,hhh are part timers.

It leaves only six main eventers for full time

Batista
Punk
Bryan
John
Randy
Sheamus

If some one got injured then we have only five. So its doesnt mean so many main eventers.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

WWE has a very big roster and it isn't only the uppercards to main eventers that are full. In a way it's very cool that WWE has this part-time guys coming in and filling a spot in the 3-hour show, because there is little room for non sense and it makes up for quality television much of the time. However when everyone is pretty much established as high as they can go, it seems that it takes all the fun watching a guy evolving. Take that as an example - I'm a big fan of Wade Barrett and I kinda think this new gimmick is funny and different but I don't see it going anywhere for him because he has to live in the shadow of pretty much everyone bigger than him, that are in fact in the major storylines of the show.

This just comes to prove that the WWE knew that they were out of major stars, by 2010 you had Edge, Undertaker, Batista, Randy Orton and Cena as the main event stars. But as you all know, by 2011 pretty much only Cena was left as a full time member of the roster main eventer (Orton got demoted on SmackDown). But three years have passed and now WWE turned the tables by having at least four major guys that need television time because they are full time main eventers and I'm talking about CM Punk, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and John Cena - now add Batista and the part-timers like Brock Lesnar, Undertaker and Triple H. I mean, it's an helluva of a stars and it isn't a coincidence that company is just getting bigger and bigger.

The next logical step is re-creating the exclusive brand superstars and divide the main eventers towards Raw and SmackDown to get people to have a reason to tune in - at least that's what I think they should do. Mostly because, I highly doubt that people in general can just pay 100% attention to a three hour long show, someone will end up being the reason to lose viewers and thus pretty much ruining the time they spent on creating them.

As for the uppercards you have to see that many of them are putting out their last fumes, people like Kane, The Big Show, Mark Henry, Christian and Rey Mysterio are not going to be there for long and WWE is creating others while they can in The Wyatts, Big E. Langston, The Shield, Kofi Kingston (according to reports) and Cody Rhodes (long run) for instance. It's a process and you can't just tell Big Show to get the hell out of the company, he still has a value and can be used to push other stars. Beating any on the veterans is still a good victory to gain momentum for main eventers (that are not going for the title) and for uppercards that are getting pushed.

I'm expecting to see either - releases very soon from both WWE's main roster and NXT or a brand split. I'm in favor for the split, even though there is only one main title - that's how SmackDown worked in it's early beginnings.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Uh, another "look at how many talents Cena has helped to get over" thread.

Ask TNA if they would have a problem with too many main eventers. WWE put on over 100 live televised events each year. Some of you actually watch all of them. They need to have the title defendede every now and again. Too many main eventers is a great problem to have. Parity is good, popularity is great.

Although I would argue WWE is down in main event talent with The Rock not working this WM season. It leaves a serious void from what they had the past three years. Maybe Lesnar can get pushed a little harder and maybe Hogan, Flair, and HBK can be used to get some of that interest back.

But overall I don't understand the problem with a top heavy roster.

P.S. - I don't want Batista anywhere near the title hunt.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It wasn't much more than a year, maybe a year & a half ago that a lot of people felt that WWE didn't have enough main event and upper mid-card level talent.

In the grand scheme of things, however, if one of your problems is that you've got too much top level talent on your roster, then it's a pretty damn good problem to have. People like the notion of seeing guys like Punk, Bryan, a Shield member, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, etc. being in position to main event. Why? Because fans are into them. There's a lot of strong talent in NXT that have potential. There are still some long time main eventers on the roster and guys who're generally in the upper mid-card region who can seamlessly float in & out of the main event position as needed.

I dunno...it just seems to me that the more people you have that people are really behind and are interested in, then having a top heavy roster doesn't seem so much of a problem as it is a blessing.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

It wasn't much more than a year, maybe a year & a half ago that a lot of people felt that WWE didn't have enough main event and upper mid-card level talent.

In the grand scheme of things, however, if one of your problems is that you've got too much top level talent on your roster, then it's a pretty damn good problem to have. People like the notion of seeing guys like Punk, Bryan, a Shield member, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, etc. being in position to main event. Why? Because fans are into them. There's a lot of strong talent in NXT that have potential. There are still some long time main eventers on the roster and guys who're generally in the upper mid-card region who can seamlessly float in & out of the main event position as needed.

I dunno...it just seems to me that the more people you have that people are really behind and are interested in, then having a top heavy roster doesn't seem so much of a problem as it is a blessing.

I think the issue with that is perceptions of who is getting pushed in the main event, and who is not. Again, that's kind of a nice problem to have, and is also part of wrestling fans' overly high expectations at times, but it's still an issue. I think what's worse is this time of year...the trend has been that the roster takes a back seat to guys like Rock, Lesnar, Undertaker, and now Batista.

I think it's understandable from a big payday perspective for the WWE, but I imagine it's gotta be frustrating for guys on the regular roster to NOT get a chance at a main event slot due to some returning "uber" superstar. It's also unsustainable in the end.

 

[supaman5279]

Main Eventers??? Upper Mid Carders?? Too Many??? NOT ENOUGH!!! The only wrestlers I would consider on the Main Event level are John Cena and CM Punk. Nobody else on the roster has been consistent enough be on that level. Daniel Bryan is not far behind but it's barely been a year since this whole YES! phenomenon has broken out. Bryan and Randy Orton are at the top of what I would consider the Upper Mid card. I would also put Sheamus on that level but unfortunately he is currently injured. The Shield are quite possibly the best heels in the company and have put over a lot of talent while still remaining dominant. Now to what I would consider mid carders. Ziggler, Kofi, Del Rio, Swagger, Sandow, Barrett, and Miz have all received considerable pushes but in one way or another they have all failed to breakout. The Usos, The Brotherhood, and the Wyatts are now in the driver seat and could be next in line to be able to get to that next level. Hopefully they can make the most of it before they end up stuck in the shuffle. Same goes for Fandango, Big E, and Cesaro. They all have a considerable amount of popularity, but so do guys like Santino, Khali, and Zack Ryder, who unfortunately occupy the lower card. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Everybody knows you're here to job, and you're damn good at it. 3MB is fairly charismatic and get people, even old people, over. Ryback, Axel, Truth, Tensai, Brodus, we salute you. Like I said at the beginning of my post the only people I see as MAIN EVENT STARS are John Cena and CM Punk. People who complain about full-time wrestlers taking a backseat to the part-timers are missing the point. If any of full-time wrestlers could draw the amount of popularity, merchandise, buzz etc. then they wouldn't have to call on the part time guys to bring in the big draws. The Rock does movies, Lesnar did well for himself in the UFC, Jericho keeps himself occupied in all types of media, as did The Bellas while they were gone. Batista has been also doing well for himself and RVD has been doing a good job keeping himself relevant. The point is, anything that's good for them, is good for WWE. Cena had done, ahem, movies, does radio interviews and Punk is all over the sports world which is good since pro athletes are always spotted at WWE events. I feel there is barely any effort shown by the rest of the roster which is why the company is in the state it is in now. Sorry for rambling..