Talent stepping in up.

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

Last year, Cena got that elbow injury that seemed pretty severe at that time. During his absence, Vince and Co basically told the talent to step it up, in order to fill Cena's slot and also try and make a name for themselves.

During that time, one guy that really sticks out to me as stepping up is Cody Rhodes. Him hitting the cross-roads for the win to keep his and his brother jobs recieved a big pop and that whole storyline had people interested. Cody stepped up.

Bryan was getting big reactions before that, but he was getting even more and bigger ones during Cena's absence. He put on great performances, and even with that lame, in my opinion, Authority storyline that was dragged out for so long, Bryan found a way to make it at least bearable. Bryan stepped up.

The Shield kept being impressive every week. Bryan started picking up some steam after his feud with Kane. Ziggler and Sandow were kept on the bottom of the card along with other talent.

My basic question is how much can the talent step it up? Back in the day, people had the freedom to do more things in the ring to impress the audience and show their skills, they were given more freedom on the mic to be able to do the same thing. It seems that now everything is turning into a state of over-control-freakness. Everything, from the smallest thing as a tweet, to interviews, to promos, even the moves they pull in the ring are always being given so much criticism, to the point that a certain talent doesn't know what's good to do and what will get him in trouble. For that reason, many times the talent can't do many things to shine for fear of getting in a troublesome situation.

Take Ziggler for example. Like him or hate him, he is amazing in the ring, decent on the mic. In some interview, he apparently spoke bad about the WWE which pretty much got him into trouble and pushed him down the jobbing card. I don't know if he tried to create controversy, kayfabe wise, or was legit about his statements, but no matter what, he tried to be different and shine. There was also a report some time ago about someone using a move that wasn't planned backstage, that got said someone in trouble. Control-freaks. How can someone shine over those obstacles?

Even if the talent stepped up, let's say in Cody's situation, when Cena came back, they ALL lost their steam. Cody had a great thing going for him along with his brother against the Shield. Instead of capitalising on it and create something big, once Cena came back, they took all the attention off them, as if they didn't care if they step it up or not anymore, which quite frankly also shows WWE's inability to book more than 2 storylines at a time.

All those guys do have talent. They are just not being given opportunities to show it. Even if they somehow break through the glass ceiling and show what they are worth , there will always be a "Cena" right there to take all the attention off them.

 

[TheICChampion]

I am going to assume that by 'back in the day', you mean 2011? Because talent does get a chance to shine and prove what they're made of. I mean, look at CM Punk. Now, maybe it's because the bad outweighs the good, as in most superstars who are given the opportunity to break through usually end up failing miserably. Either that or they get hot for a while and then eventually cool off. There are usually maybe 3-4 superstars during each "generation" that are popular enough or good enough at what they do to be at a top level for many years. They also need to have "the look". As far as what Ziggler did, I'd have to say it wasn't pre-planned, and for some reason he must have pissed someone off. Maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with what he said then, but someone in the back doesn't like him or buried him or who knows? Then again, look at what happened to Triple H back when he was starting out and he joined the Kliq in the Curtain Call. Got buried for about 6 months or so because someone in the back didn't like it. WWE is a cutthroat business and if you make one misstep then you'll probably have at least 10 guys politicking to bury you and/or try to take your spot if you're high enough on the card. It doesn't matter how popular you are with the fans or how good you are in the ring, if Vinnie Mac doesn't like you, you're never going to get very far in the E. That is ultimately what it comes down to in regards to talent stepping it up. You could have the best match of the night, every night, but good luck getting anywhere if your boss doesn't like you or think you're capable of moving up.