Pushing Future Stars: Should WWE Slow Down In The Future?

[Mitch Henessey]

WWE has a nice stock of potential stars for the future. These wrestlers are needed, because the big name veterans in WWE won't be around forever. We've already seen Edge and Shawn Micahels retire after the past two Wrestlemanias, and The Undertaker and Triple H are taking it easy, when it comes to their schedules. They aren't around on a regular basis, and I don't think is going to change. Cena and Orton are both holding their own as the top men on their respective brands, but new blood is always needed in the main event scene. But is WWE moving too fast, when it comes to pushing the future guys? Let's take a look at some examples of these monster pushes:

Drew McIntyre: McIntyre was labeled "The Chosen One." He was McMahon's personal pick to become a future World Champion. He had his time as Intercontinental Champion, and he bullied Teddy Long during his reign of terror on the blue brand.

Jack Swagger: Swagger managed to win the ECW World Title in the early stages of his WWE career, and as time went on, he would go on to win the MITB briefcase at Wrestlemania 26. Swagger would later cash in the briefcase on Chris Jericho to become the World Heavyweight Champion.

Wade Barrett: He was the winner of NXT season one, and Barrett would later lead the Nexus in one the most shocking stable debuts in wrestling history, as the Nexus destroyed John Cena on Monday Night Raw. Barrett would go on to feud with Cena and Orton, and he would headline two pay per views, as he faced both of these men.

Alberto Del Rio: Feuding with Rey Mysterio is a big deal, and Del Rio's momentum swing didn't slow down. Del Rio would go on to win the Royal Rumble, and he did see some time in the World Heavyweight Championship picture.

I know some of these guys have to be ready to step into the main event scene on regular basis someday, but did all of these big time accolades come too soon? Main event pay per view matches, World Championships, and Royal Rumble wins are huge accomplishments, so would waiting a little while longer really hurt that much? These men were on fire, as the enjoyed some nice momentum swings in 2010, but they have cooled off since then, and some of them don't seem to have that same spark.

There is one man, who hasn't shot to the top of the mountain, when it comes to gold and other accolades, and that man is Cody Rhodes. Sure, Rhodes was at Orton's side, when the evil Viper decided to terrorize Triple H and the McMahons, and Rhodes was in the Mania 26 triple threat, but Rhodes hasn't skyrocketed to the top just yet. He's on a nice steady path. He has done a marvelous job with his new and darker character, and he still has plenty of time left to break into the main event scene.

Taking things slow might not be such a bad idea. Having more time to develop and grow can only make everything better. These super pushes can set the bar so high, and the expectation levels will go through the roof early on.

What are your thoughts?

Should WWE take things easy from now on?

 

[Truly Phenomenonal]

In a way yes, they should start going slower, but they should pick out one guy from RAW, and maybe one or two from Smackdown, and start pushing them to the Main Event, god knows how much they really need it.

From RAW- RAW has a thin midcard in my opinion, but could easily do it with Ziggler, or McIntyre, the WWE can build up one of them or both if they wanted, they can build them up strong over the next 6 months, and by the time WrestleMania rolls around, we have more threats on a brand, more scenarios for the WWE Title at Mania (considering the match between Rock and Cena isn't for the title). It would be something fresh for RAW without having all the legendary starpower.

Smackdown- Sheamus and Cody Rhodes, the potential on Smackdown is immense with names like Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Sin Cara and Ted DiBiase, all within a few years could be Main Eventers. Single Out Cody and Sheamus because they in my opinion have the best potential, Sheamus has already been a 2 time WWE Champion, but after that has kinda fallen into the midcard, where he can't really seem to get out of. Cody Rhodes, has an enormous amount of talent, and is good on the mic, but with Cody you have to keep him at the right gimmick, because one bad gimmick can ruin him, the one he has now is good, because he is good in the ring, but is also good on the mic. Pushing these two to the Main Event would be great for Smackdown already very thin roster.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I think if they aren't going to be consistent with the pushes, then yes. They should slow down. Each guy who has had a big push in past past year has gotten the rug swept from underneath him in favor of someone else:

- Sheamus became yesterday's news when Barrett got pushed.

- Barrett's push has been as equal to watching someone climb the ladder and get knocked the fuck off of it right before he grabbed what the ladder match was for in favor of The Miz.

- The Miz's momentum came to a crashing thud when the Rock came back (and they still tried to make him as big of a deal as Cena and the Rock)

I understand that all of these guys have worked with Cena and Orton, and you can't go any higher than that on the card. However, how do they expect to make a number 3 or 4 guy when they keep shuffling the decks, sans Cena and Orton?

 

[brochester8]

If Wwe slows down it would be moving Backwards & not Forward, imo.

I couldin't had said it better. A few years ago everyone was upset that new people weren't getting pushed and we were getting the same thing over and over again.

I feel this is the right way to go in order to guarantee a good future for WWE. NXT may be kind of dumb but it showcases what some of the younger talent can do so they can decide if there ready for "promotion".

Therefore, I believe what WWE is doing know with all the newer talent is good for the future of the business. Just think Orton and Cena are the top guys now but they won't be there forever.

Who's Next?

 

[Mustang Sally]

Since tomorrow's stars are being built today, WWE can't slow down in the effort to push them. But experiments like Jack Swagger and Drew McIntyre illustrate they can't get it right 100% of the time. The thing is, how will the company ever know they've got a winner until they try?

It's a paradox, isn't it? When the company features only proven stars, a lot of folks in the ICW complain that young guys aren't given a chance. But when they're given a chance, we say it's unfair to push new guys at the expense of the old ones. WWE is "damned if they do & damned if they don't" in many ways with wrestling fans, but the issue of promoting young stars leads the pack.

I think the company is right to keep doing what they're doing. A lot of performers can become big with the right program, even if it seemed they would never hit the mark with their previous efforts.

Remember, even Shawn Michaels was once a partner on a mid-card level tag team.....yet, look how he turned out.

 

[Pedigree1]

Are the young stars being pushed too fast?? Some instances yes some no!! New blood is always needed i always liked Drew Mcintyre his career has seemed to come to a screeching halt!! Barrett i feel is finally coming up to where he belongs as the future WHC!!! Swagger what happened to that guy?? Hes stuck in mid card hell but his run as champion wasnt successful the universe just didnt believe in him i guess. Orton and Cena will get old one day hell there getting broke down as it is. Its a cycle no one guy is ever ever bigger than the company!!

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

The problem is this: Batista, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Edge and even smaller stars like Chavo and MVP have either retired or left. There isn't a huge amount of main event talent around. The WWE did a solid job building a lot of guys in 2010 like Sheamus, John Morrison, Miz, Barrett and ADR. The majority of the people that were built up in 2010 were doing okay, but they were cast aside so that older stars could guarantee a strong WrestleMania buyrate. The WWE simply doesn't have the confidence in these guys like they have confidence in a Cena, a Triple H, an Undertaker or even a Rock. Guys like Barrett, Sheamus and Del Rio were pushed aside come WrestleMania so that the older generation could take centre stage. That's caused a derailment of several pushes in my opinion. Guys like Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and Wade Barrett have all suffered for the sake of safety. Speed isn't the issue, it's having a lack of confidence that needs to be addressed.

 

[Da Solo]

I don't necessarily think they should slow down, but I think they should be more selective with who and how they push. For example: The Swagger and Koslov main event pushes were tragic.

As for "how": Two good examples are Kofi and Sin Cara. Although they couldn't have seen it coming, WWE lost a lot of stars since 2009 either due to retirement (HBK and maybe soon to be Taker and HHH) or unhappiness (MVP, CM Punk, Hardy, the list goes on), so they need as many new main eventers as they can get. Kofi could have been one of them and a bigger draw from the younger audience had they not caved into Orton and killed his push.

As for Cara, you may wonder why I picked him when he seems to be doing so well. The problem is Cara is should have had more time to adjust. I understand that he's not used to wrestling WWE style, but in that case they could have at least let him dabble in developmental. They've gone the extra mile to cover his botches, even moving him to SD and hiring Averno. Idk about you, but i'm not sure this is gonna work out as great as they hoped. Why push a guy so hard if he's obviously having issues? But I guess being HHH's 1st ever hire, they can't make the Game look bad...

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

A slow push is the best way to push any guy to the top. It makes the crowd feel that a guy has earned his place whereas a quick push and a subsequent fall makes the guy look like a flash in the pan. A slow push also allows a second chance. If one midcard feud fails there is always the option of putting that guy in another midcard feud. But a fast push does not allow that option. The superstar and the booking team have to get it right on the first occasion or else the superstar can kiss the push goodbye.

That is what has happened to a lot of WWE superstars in recent times with the most notable examples being Barrett and McIntyre. McIntyre never flourished while Barrett has been made to look like a flash in the pan. Even Sheamus is being truly accepted by the fans only now. Even he was hated when he was pushed initially.

That does prove that WWE needs to slow down on the pushes for these guys. They need to invest in the characters of the superstars and try to figure out their strengths and weaknesses over a long period of time rather than just stamp a gimmick on a guy and push him to the main event and hope that he succeeds. They are pushing Cody slowly and that is surely a good sign.

 

[darbare]

Its not really anyones decision at this point on how fast they push someone. The old vets are gone. The only vets left are Big Show, Mark Henry, Christian, and maybe Rey. The roster is so thin, at this point every guy currently on the roster has a chance at becoming a world champion.

 

[Dagger Dias]

They are pushing guys pretty fast but a lot of top guys and veterans have been leaving or considering leaving. WWE is at a point right now where they HAVE to push guys who are the future because there are noticeable voids left behind by big names that leave. Normally I would agree with waiting for fan reactions to develop more before pushing new guys harder, but they relied on older talent for too long and with every guy who leaves they must find someone to fill those gaps. They could ease up on how hard they are pushing some guys, but they still need to be thinking about who can replace all of the people who have left as well as those who are thinking about it. They are in a complicated situation at the moment. Otherwise I would agree that some guys should not be so high up on the card this quickly.

 

[H33LTurn]

Yes, they definitely need to slow down. The thing is that WWE is so quick to give these guys their title reigns that the reigns quickly become obsolete and they have to take the title from them. They then have to disassociate the person from the title and therefore guys like The Miz or Jack Swagger get pushed back down. Other guys like Del Rio and McIntyre are victims of misuse. Del Rio should've continued his program with Christian after Mania and Extreme Rules but instead WWE's lack of confidence in Christian caused the draft and that rivalry was left in the air. They should've worked Del Rio into the US title picture as soon as he got to RAW, believe me the title fits him. McIntyre has been pushed to the sky since his debut. If they really wanted him to be Vince's idea of the perfect superstar then they needed to do something more impactful with him like have Triple H be his manager.

 

[VinnieSunshine]

Everyone bitches when WWE doesn't or takes too long to push someone...but when they pull the trigger you all bitch because it was too soon! Make up your damn minds. I think its fine the way its going.

 

[Shawn]

i've thought about this topic a lot. I am a big fan of barrett and i was watching his match ealier today with Cena at HIAC on DVD. That was a great match and watching the video before the match solidified in my mind the fact that Barrett in Main event material. I agree with the people who say lack of confididence is the problem. I mean Wrestlemania really messed things up for people like Barrett, Sheamus, Swagger, Morrison, or Ziggler. Because WWE was trying to get a millions buys so they bring in guys like Rock, Swagger, HHH, and of course the Undertaker. The only guy that still got attention was Miz and he was overlooked a little with the Rock.

So what i'm trying to say is that WWE needs to get people just as excited to see Barrett or one of the other guys as they do when they see HHH or Cena or someone like that. Now that of course easier said than done. But when you build up great, creative storylines with it, people get excited. For Example, the Nexus. When Nexus was big, Barrett was just as popular as any other maineventer. How did HHH become so big, well he was a part of the power hungry McMahon family. Stone Cold became so big because he was the first to give the boss a middle finger and a stunner. See creative things like that can make stars.

The WWE has been in this position before. Sure Wrestlemania's buyrates may be down for a year or 2 but eventually everyone will get use to it and the new stars. So should the WWE slow down. yes but no. They just need to solidly push the ones they have already, and then worry about pushing others. But they do not need to slow down on the ones that have suffered from this past Wrestlemania season.

 

[Derekscheapseat]

McIntyre: A minor push to start and then forgotten about.

Swagger: Pushed very quickly (not necessarily bad) but terrible on the mic. They knew that and still put him out there week after week. Then they are shocked when he's not as over as they want him to be.

Barrett: An awesome prospect from the start. The whole wrestling world was into Nexus from the start as well. The fact that he was immediately put into a can't-win feud with Cena it was in trouble. Then, Nexus never seemed to get anywhere in actual matches which, is incredibly necessary.

Del Rio: the guys push is going fine. I think he would have had way more credibility if he had a World Title by now (especially considering he won the Rumble) but with Edge retiring, his time got pushed back. Why he would have gone to RAW, when he could've had a memorable feud with Orton, is beyond me. He's lost on RAW (at least for now).

With all of these cases it has nothing to do with how fast they are pushed. It is simply what WWE does with them in the following chapters that has resulted in failure.

 

[El Rev sXe]

I think that WWE is doing it backwards. The E is in someway a crisis where they need to find and push new talents. However in some way they are doing it the wrong way.

With most of the examples that the Op gave we can resume to this: X wrestler debuts on SD! or RAW gets mega push where he is even a maint eventer that has world title matches. Then his feud/storyline ends and fades into the obscurity of the mid card.

I know I'm just a fan but that doesn't look like it makes sense at all. If a wrestler debut he should climb a little bit right? Not debut in the top of the food chain and then by dropped to start from zero. In fact that makes you say why the hell did they even give him the push in the first place?

They shouldn't slow down, what if tommorow Cena andor Orton gets injured? Then what? Who will step up? Taker, HHH, Jericho? I highly doub it.

Thing is that they shouldn't slow down if they are going to just throw some people to the maint event without building them and then throwing them back to the the start. Yes they should push many starts at the same time but not rushing for them to become maint eventers. But become solid mid-upper carders.

 

[vthokie8]

I think it is fine the way things are right now. If you really think about it wrestling goes through these cycles. New stars are a must and like any product, they have to go through a testing phase. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't. Wrestling will always go through a small drought while they build new stars and once they catch on will be right back on it's feet. Look at WWE's history Vince based his entire concept off of the theory of building new stars. He took the young guns from every territory and built a company off them (Hogan, Savage, Piper, Henning and DiBiase just to name a few). If you look further into it it look at the cycle between eras.

Early 90's
Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, British Bulldog, Razor Ramon, Diesel, The Undertaker, Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett and even 1-2-3 Kid were all pushed as the younger generation and all of them went on to achieve some level of success. On the other side some of those guys who got pushed during this time didn't pan out quite as well. Marty Janettey, Tatanka, Crush and Ludvig Borga all recieved considerable pushes and never really amounted to much more than mid-carders or less.

Attitude Era
Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Edge, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, The Hardys and Kane all made themselves huge stars during the transition into this era while guys like Billy Gunn, Test, Rikishi, Val Venis and D Lo Brown all recieved considerable pushes and all eventually washed out of the company and never held more than an IC title.

Post Attitude
With the Attitude Era coming to a close John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrerro, Chris Benoit and JBL made big names for themselves while Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, MVP, Sean O'Haire, Gene Snitsky and Maven just to name a few all recieved considerable pushes and never really amounted to much.

The same will happen with this era some of these young guys are going to turn into mega stars while others will stick in the same gear or fall off the face of the Earth. I honestly think The Miz, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler and Sin Cara will be mega stars eventually I threw Sin Cara in basically because he is Triple H's project and the other guys I think talent and look speaks for itself. I think Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) could be a huge star, but I have yet to see him work a WWE match so we will see how they book him. I think Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre and John Morrison won't be with the company for the long haul and I think Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston will stick around on the mid- cards and may step in as transitional main eventers. Before I get jumped over my Swagger, McIntyre and Morrison comments here is my logic. Swagger is still a young guy with a hell of a wrestling base, for some reason I could see him willing to try his hand at MMA if the right money was thrown his way. McIntyre has had chance after chance I think if the Tiffany issue didn't help and he has went from "Chosen One" to jobbing to Chris Masters on Superstars. I think McIntyre is good and I think he could go somewhere, build a name for himself and come back possibly. Morrison is exciting, he has a great look, he has made the most of his gimmick yet I have heard "the next Shawn Michaels" for the past four years and yet he gets a finger on the main event and gets jerked right back down. I think Melina doesn't help matters for him, and I think the two of them would be a good fit in TNA. John would get a nice push I'm sure and Melina I think would fit in better as a Knockout as opposed to a Diva, she could do her split entrance and be that character she was when she first came to WWE and John can let loose with guys like A.J. Styles and Daniels just my opinion.

 

[TheKingHustla]

I think that the main problem with the E right now is that it's too focused on the A story and not on any other story. I mean, take Smackdown recently, Cody Rhodes turned and he came out and had some rightous dark promos. He would then go on to have his current fued with D-Bryan and got Ted DiBiase strapped onto him and has fizzled out. His promo time got shrunk big time, and now he only has enough time to rant the smae crap during his entrance. Even tonight, when Henry and Show got their moment in the light, they stood there for a couple minutes, really got nothing interesting across and essentially was just a recap. While Christian and Orton with Kane took up most of the promo time. Christian had what 3 or 4 promos. more than half of them was irrelevant and unneeded when they could have given that time to someone else's fued.

On Raw, you have Cena being pushed down our throats constantly, and even though I've truly enjoyed his recent two fueds with Punk and Truth, it seems like no one else really get a chance to shine. On a weekly basis, Miz's time has been getting cut shorter and shorter, Truth hasnt had promo time since his title shot. They don't have time to push youngsters because they focus too much on main events.

Add to that the fact that they've been showing Raw promos on SD, and SD promos on Raw, like WWE fans only watch one show a week, that also takes away time from other younger guys. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel just broke up and they got one sentence of mic time total.

Which brings me to the next point, tag team. Plenty of stars in the past started as tag team stars. These days, the tag team division is a joke. Tag team is the easiest way to push multiple superstars at once. You get to push Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel and they only take up one storyline with two other guys. They share ring time, and tag matches are usually entertaining when done right. The E has steered away from the tag team division. It's hard to make a Shawn Michaels out of a tag team that doesn't exist.


If the WWE would do better managing promo time, they could push more stars for the future. that's my opinion anyway.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

As the old saying goes, "slow and steady wins the race."

In other words, yes, every push should be done at a more steady pace; rather than be an acceleration in which said superstar will lose control of their race car and just crash and burn due to no control of the steering wheel. A fine example of the "crash and burn"? Jack Swagger. Jack Swagger winning MitB was a shocker to us all. No one thought he'd win; no one believed in him. Sure enough, as a champion-- a main eventer--he failed to meet expectations. His current status?... Michael Cole's tag-team partner?

It's blatantly obvious. Pushes that have a slow build are the ones that create the better stars. Stars like John Cena and Randy Orton grew slowly, and look at where they are now? Granted, they had huge powers around them to help take them there; but still, the fact remains nonetheless, the more steady a push, the better the result.

I think what happened that resulted into so many pre-mature pushes was the fact that all of a sudden you had so many stars retiring and/or quitting. In just the past year, big powers such as Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Batista, Edge and Undertaker have ceased to play big roles in the WWE. Now, with them gone, that leaves a big gap in the main-event scene. So the only possible solution? Push as many superstars to the top for they need to fill in the void. Unfortunately, some of these haven't turned out as good.

So yeah, "slow and steady" will always be the best kind of push; but at this point in time, the WWE needs more main-eventers. Too many holes that need to be filled in; yet, so little time.

 

[RATED-RKOFRANKLIN]

I disagree with nearly every person who members believe have potential. The WWE has a very small stock of potential stars. Shall we take a look?

The WWE is trying to rush people into stars when they are not. Look at ADR, the biggest bust in WWE history. Guys like ADR, Morrison, and Swagger should be in the mid card and tag team divisions. Not everyone is made to be a star. Trying to make everyone into a star hurts the entire program.

1. Sheamus- This guy has future star power. He easily draws heat. His problem was the WWE booked him as a weak champion. That was a big mistake given Sheamus was originally booked to be very unstoppable.

2. Alberto Del Rio- This guy has NO star power. He is a bust. If you can't draw heat after beating Rey and later taking out Edge and Christian then you have major problems. He also has a very bad and boring moveset. His finisher looks weak. He can't get any fan reactions. How can someone who has been given everything needed to be a heated heel and fail? Raw ratings will drop big time with him as champion.

3. Wade Barrent-This guy also has NO star power. He was able to draw heat as the Nexus leader. However, he has no gimmick nor personality. He is very boring on the mic.

4. John Morrison- This guy should be a heel. If he had good mic skills then he would already be in the main event. Instead he is a spot monkey with no star power.

5. Ziggler- This guy can't draw heat without Vicki. He is another bust.

6. Jack Swagger- This guy's gimmick and poor booking killed his chances of being a star. I thought he had potential. However, the WWE made him into a goof ball. He won money in the bank too early.

Another reason why the WWE lacks future stars is because the tag team division and stables are very weak. Past and recent stars like The Rock, Edge, Christian, Austin, Jericho, Orton, The Undertaker, Kane, Triple H, Mankind, etc were in a tag team, stable, or both before they became stars. Tag teams and stables built people up.

 

[SteelRevenge]

I disagree with nearly every person who members believe have potential. The WWE has a very small stock of potential stars. Shall we take a look?

The WWE is trying to rush people into stars when they are not. Look at ADR, the biggest bust in WWE history. Guys like ADR, Morrison, and Swagger should be in the mid card and tag team divisions. Not everyone is made to be a star. Trying to make everyone into a star hurts the entire program.

1. Sheamus- This guy has future star power. He easily draws heat. His problem was the WWE booked him as a weak champion. That was a big mistake given Sheamus was originally booked to be very unstoppable.

2. Alberto Del Rio- This guy has NO star power. He is a bust. If you can't draw heat after beating Rey and later taking out Edge and Christian then you have major problems. He also has a very bad and boring moveset. His finisher looks weak. He can't get any fan reactions. How can someone who has been given everything needed to be a heated heel and fail? Raw ratings will drop big time with him as champion.

3. Wade Barrent-This guy also has NO star power. He was able to draw heat as the Nexus leader. However, he has no gimmick nor personality. He is very boring on the mic.

4. John Morrison- This guy should be a heel. If he had good mic skills then he would already be in the main event. Instead he is a spot monkey with no star power.

5. Ziggler- This guy can't draw heat without Vicki. He is another bust.

6. Jack Swagger- This guy's gimmick and poor booking killed his chances of being a star. I thought he had potential. However, the WWE made him into a goof ball. He won money in the bank too early.

Another reason why the WWE lacks future stars is because the tag team division and stables are very weak. Past and recent stars like The Rock, Edge, Christian, Austin, Jericho, Orton, The Undertaker, Kane, Triple H, Mankind, etc were in a tag team, stable, or both before they became stars. Tag teams and stables built people up.

I agree with almost all of this. the one thing I take exception to is Ziggler. The guys hasn`t really been pushed as a ME except his brief stunt with edge which seemed to be more about Edge getting an 11th champ reign. like you say some aren`t made to be stars and so far Dolph is doing very well with making the US title look creditable as he did the Ic title and puts on god matches. I DO see him as a ME one day, but thats in the future and shouldn`t be harshed on for lack of heat just yet.

I`ll also add that slow pushes are generally better, like dolph and cody and even Miz.

i think there has to be a balance between bitching that new guys dont get a chance and new guys getting shoved down our throats. for example instead of a new guy being literally new on his first day on the show, how about pushing a ``new guy`` that has been around a few years. that I think would get over better than this mix of 10 year dudes against first years in the ME like it was with nexus. I literally stopped tuning in after a while it was so bad.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In most cases, I think the answer is yes. I agree that the WWE has a nicely stocked roster with some real potential stars and they don't seem to be hurting for main eventers at the moment. For instance Cena, Orton, Punk, Christian & Sheamus are all main event level guys and I expect Alberto Del Rio to be there very soon.

However, I do look at guys like Cena & Orton and see that the WWE made something of a mistake when them. Both of them were quite young when they started in WWE and were heavily pushed as well. Orton is only 31 and I think Cena is 34 but both these guys were multiple time World Champions before they were 30. And even though they're both still young and in good health, there's not really much of anything left for them to accomplish. They're still money makers and they have to keep coming up with interesting ways to make money from them. It's just so much more difficult when you've done it all and are so young at the same time.

Guys like McIntyre & Swagger were heavily pushed before they were ready for it. In the case of McIntyre, they put him in a high profile spot before the fans had gotten a chance to really get into him. He's improved by leaps and bounds since losing the IC title. Again, McIntyre is a guy that's only 26 and was 25 when he came to WWE. He can have a bright future ahead of him. Swagger was pushed to the WHC via shock value but he wasn't ready, nor was it time. He did the best he could but he was in over his head.

Pushing guys so heavily while they're so young is one thing that Triple H has repeatedly said that he's not overly fond of. He's also said that one reason why WWE development has had some problems. They're going after guys that've only been in the business for a few years rather than getting ones that have had a lot of experience out there on the road in the indy circuit. Aside from his drawing ability among hispanic fans, that's one reason why Sin Cara has been pushed steadily, or had been before his suspension. It's also why the Kings of Wrestling are said to be moving straight to the main roster: they're both young men at only about 30 years old each but they've both been wrestling for over a decade and have the experience of veterans who've really been out there.