The Worst WWE Roster Ever?

[TheTruNoLimit]

Ok, here is my question that can be up for legitimate debate. The last few years we've seen the retirement of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair and most recently, Edge. We've also seen Batista, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy all depart. We've seen solid mid-card talents like MVP and Matt Hardy go elsewhere. HHH and the Undertaker never "officially" retired, but they are retired for all intensive purposes. The star power is LOW and now CM Punk is taking time off, one of the supposed new "stars" Sin Cara is essentially being forgotten and WWE is giving Kane and Big Show time off and John Morrison is out of action.

Let's look at the key players currently on the roster here, taking everything into consideration:

Raw:
Cena, Miz, Mysterio, Del Rio, Alex Riley, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, R-Truth

Smackdown!:
Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, Mark Henry, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Ezekiel Jackson, Ted DiBiase

These are essentially the key pieces to each show. They are basically the only guys who have been appearing on their respective show on a regular basis taking into account the new storyline injuries, legit injuries, retirements and all the guys who have left.

I know it's a huge opportunity for others like Drew McIntyre to FINALLY get pushed back to TV on a regular basis, but for the time being, right now... is this the WORST list of top guys we've seen in YEARS?

 

[ralphie9181]

I don't think its the worst roster I ever have seen. Remember when Nash, and Mabel were main eventing Summerslam? Those were some thin times. I think the current roster seems weak because wrestling is not super popular right now and they don't get a lot of attention. Technically you have many guys on the roster who can wrestle circles around guys from the past. Danielson, Punk (he is on the roster, its an angle), and hell even Cena can work his butt off when given the right opponent. Del Rio is very technically sound, Ziggler is a wonderful performer. Like I said, they just aren't as well known as guys in the past, so it seems that the roster is weak.

Duke The Dumpster Drose, Adam Bomb, Jacob and Eli Blu, Damian Demento, Aldo Montoya, Mantaur, The Godwinns, Smokin Gunns.........This was the card for pretty much every episode of Raw until about 1997. You think you have it bad now? You have to shitting me. You kids don't know what you are talking about.

 

[TheLoneCharles]

I agree with Ralphie. The fansin this era are spoiled compared to the then WWF of the early to especially mid 90s. As a teen then I remember the pain of watching Skip the BodyDonnas teaching Rad Radford how to be a star.

On the current roster even the guys on Superstars have WWE Champion potential. I can list about a dozen guys off the top of my head in this era, you could pick maybe half of that back in that era.

 

[Dubbs312]

I will agree that this is all weak right now. Lets just think back to a time when HHH wasn't a main event kind of guy. He started to get his push to that during the stable with Undertaker and Shane. Then when he became a top guy he got hurt and was out a year and guys like Kurt, Booker T, and many other stepped up. I think this is that transition time again. They are pushing Dolph, Shameus, Kofi (I don't know why), Miz, Punk, Bryan. I think in about another 6 months your going to see maybe 3 or 4 guys really step out of the pack and become the new Cena, Orton, HHH, and Austin.

 

[TheLoneCharles]

Duke The Dumpster Drose, Adam Bomb, Jacob and Eli Blu, Damian Demento, Aldo Montoya, Mantaur, The Godwinns, Smokin Gunns.........This was the card for pretty much every episode of Raw until about 1997. You think you have it bad now? You have to shitting me. You kids don't know what you are talking about.

I actually thought Adam Bomb was going to be a somebody back then when I was a kid, just had a cool look to him. But yeah, don't forget about the regular hogpen matches, Barry Horowitz, and of course the stupid billionaire Ted skits--which simply reminded viewers to flip over to WCW to see their old favorites.

 

[Ripley]

i think it is weak....i have been watching wrestling since 1997...i was in love with wrestling, then this new age came out, and summer 2009 i stopped watching because it got boring...i just started watching again about 2 months ago, and its a VERY weak roster to what im use to (DX, Taker & Kane, Coperate Ministry etc.) but this new CM Punk deal is what has kept me watching...now HHH is back as "CEO" and Punk comming back tonight, im hooked again.

But im very upset, Kane is my favorite wrestler, and has been since '97, and they misuse him on smackdown, which is why i only watch RAW...i watched smackdown last week, and that was the first time in about a year and a half...and i was disappointed due to Kane getting his ass whooped...so im only gunna watch RAW.

But In my opinion the roster is weak.

 

[MMK]

TheTruNoLimit is not suggesting this is the worst roster ever, he's simply asking if this is the worst the roster has been in years. And it is. This is the weakest the wwe roster has been since 1995. And at least back then you could flip the channel to a red hot WCW or ECW. Not to mention the fact that, although the roster was dominated by duds like Diesel and Mabel, you still had Shawn, Bret and a little guy called Steve Austin who was on the rise.

90% of the roster back then may have been filled with terrible gimmicky wrestlers, but the 10% that was good was DAMN good. As in hall of fame greatest of all time good. A roster that's only 10% good, is still much better than 100% bland. Which is what we've got. Well, make that 99% bland. CM Punk is the 1% of interest in the other wise bland landscape that is WWE's current roster.

 

[Slyfox696]

Outside of the top guys, the WWE roster now is better than the Attitude Era. Obviously Austin and Rock are head and shoulders above anyone now, but after that, this era has a better roster, both in quality and credibility.

 

[ralphie9181]

The roster can be considered weak, but like the title of the topic says, worst in years? Not a chance. Remember the dark period of Smackdown when they had Mortecai and Kenzo Suzuki running around feuding with like Bob Holly, and Billy Gunn? I wanna say that was a JBL title run, and it was god awful. I think the Booker T and Undertaker voodoo fued was going on then too. The show was terrible, the roster was terrible, and it resulted in a few of the worst WWE PPVs of all time. Let us not forget Heidenreich and Animal as the new LOD, just terrible terrible workers and horrible angles.

 

[drobs85]

Ok, here is my question that can be up for legitimate debate. The last few years we've seen the retirement of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair and most recently, Edge. We've also seen Batista, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy all depart. We've seen solid mid-card talents like MVP and Matt Hardy go elsewhere. HHH and the Undertaker never "officially" retired, but they are retired for all intensive purposes. The star power is LOW and now CM Punk is taking time off, one of the supposed new "stars" Sin Cara is essentially being forgotten and WWE is giving Kane and Big Show time off and John Morrison is out of action.

Let's look at the key players currently on the roster here, taking everything into consideration:

Raw:
Cena, Miz, Mysterio, Del Rio, Alex Riley, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, R-Truth

Smackdown!:
Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, Mark Henry, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Ezekiel Jackson, Ted DiBiase

These are essentially the key pieces to each show. They are basically the only guys who have been appearing on their respective show on a regular basis taking into account the new storyline injuries, legit injuries, retirements and all the guys who have left.

I know it's a huge opportunity for others like Drew McIntyre to FINALLY get pushed back to TV on a regular basis, but for the time being, right now... is this the WORST list of top guys we've seen in YEARS?

I agree. Back then you could plug anyone at will into the main event slots at anytime, wrestling was that popular. But these days, WWE has two main problems: Wrestling has lost a-lot of it's prestige, popularity and common sense. Two it does not help when you have a thin roster as currently constructed and you bury the names that you do have left. Sheamus, Barrett, Kingston, Daniel Bryan until recently, Drew Mcintyre, Swagger, Evan Bourne, and R-truth are all being buried. Swagger's been completely in the pit since his pathetically booked title reign over a year ago, Bourne & Kingston lose on a regular basis, Mcintyre isn't hardly anywhere to be seen, DB just barely won a big match, Barrett is getting torture racked all day, Sheamus is constantly just getting RKO'd, Hell R-truth was on fire all the month of June and then lost the title match because a kid threw some damn drink in his face wtf! And ever since Truth has been on a losing streak. B.S. just don't make sense.

 

[Yesiamaduck]

I think people have it a bit confused here, the Main Event is STALE but their entire roster just looking at it has a lot more depth and skill then the 'Attitude' era roster for example.

The Attitude Era would of killed for an undercard this strong, sure they had better characters but the matches on the undercard during the attitude era were utter toss, with the exception of 2000/2001 maybe.

1994 - 1996 the WWF roster was TERRIBLE from top to bottom

 

[ratedrdestiny]

Duke The Dumpster Drose, Adam Bomb, Jacob and Eli Blu, Damian Demento, Aldo Montoya, Mantaur, The Godwinns, Smokin Gunns.........This was the card for pretty much every episode of Raw until about 1997. You think you have it bad now? You have to shitting me. You kids don't know what you are talking about.

Exactly! Talk about hard times! Thats when watching wwf was tough. Sure there aren't many "big name" stars in wwe right now, but the roster as far as the talent may be one of the best in a long time.

 

[Tripleb2k1]

Outside of the top guys, the WWE roster now is better than the Attitude Era. Obviously Austin and Rock are head and shoulders above anyone now, but after that, this era has a better roster, both in quality and credibility.

I am inclined to agree with that. Between the usual stand-outs that appear on Raw & SD each week plus all the extra talent that work superstars, dark matches and house shows, and unused talent, the main rosters are pretty stacked

 

[TheTruNoLimit]

Furthermore, I know Punk's thing was an angle and I'm pleasantly surprised he's back so soon! I guess he might be delaying taking time off. John Morrison is back too, so that helps out the picture on Raw. And I'm not talking about worst ever or worst in terms of "talent." I think a handful of you misunderstood. In terms of "talent" I think that the actual in ring talent is pretty top notch. As long as they're allowed to work a good match, this is by SUPERIOR as a whole to just about any WWE roster ever. Just to clarify.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

It's not a weak roster. It just seems that way because a lot of these guys are new and/or were midcarders earlier in their career. I remember my uncle going "why the hell is Jericho main eventing?" because he remembered him as a whiny midcard cruiser heel in WCW. It's perspective. People buy most of these guys.

WWE is a very healthy company right now, you're a ****** if you don't think so. Go to any finance site and look up WWE's balance sheet. They make a shitload of money every year and have made more money each of the past 3 years.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Its not a weak roster per se, just a very green one. Outside of about 5 guys, they lack true star power, and have elevated a lot of guys far, FAR beyond what their skill level could support. IE they had to throw a lot of kids into the deep end when they were barely able to doggie paddle.

That said, I dont know if I have ever seen the roster with more POTENTIAL stars and loaded with so many young guys with so much ability, overall top to bottom quality, and room to move.


While it may be low on star power and guys who have the skills to carry a brand on their backs right this moment, its never been better set for the future, or able to provide a better top to bottom card, and will be stacked once these guys get some seasoning and experience under their belts.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Its not a weak roster per se, just a very green one. Outside of about 5 guys, they lack true star power, and have elevated a lot of guys far, FAR beyond what their skill level could support. IE they had to throw a lot of kids into the deep end when they were barely able to doggie paddle.

That said, I dont know if I have ever seen the roster with more POTENTIAL stars and loaded with so many young guys with so much ability, overall top to bottom quality, and room to move.


While it may be low on star power and guys who have the skills to carry a brand on their backs right this moment, its never been better set for the future, or able to provide a better top to bottom card, and will be stacked once these guys get some seasoning and experience under their belts.

Exactly. The roster is exciting. I'd rather have this and watch these kids grow than watch Angle do the same match a million times and kill himself. Or watch Jeff Hardy violate the wellness policy and get over by jumping off tall shit.

Think about the roster in like 1995-1996. You basically had Shawn and Bret, plus Sid, Diesel, and Vader. Otherwise it was pretty thin. The undercard had some promising guys like austin, rock, and hhh. That undercard wasn't anywhere near as talented as this one from a depth perspective.

 

[Hazardous]

The biggest difference, as Norcal pointed out, is a lot of these guys are still fairly new. Looking back at the Golden Era, and Attitude days, a lot of these guys had been doing it for years and years before they even got INTO the WWF. So yeah, they may have had a bit more skill then the ones today, but as for potential? That has to go to this roster now. Looking back a few years ago, would you have picked Miz as a future WWE champ? Or Orton, when he first joined? There is a lot of great potential right now.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I want someone who has more free time than me to make a chart of the average age of the WWE roster every year since like 1990. The Hogan/Cena thread made me think about age more and this has really got me going.

Most guys used to not really even get put in main programs until they had 8-10 years of experience. Hogan was born in 1953, which means he was 32 for Wrestlemania 1, Cena won the title at Mania 21 in what? 2005? Cena was just about to turn 28 at that time. Austin was 33 at Mania 14 (born in december so even though if you subtract the years it'd be 34, he wouldn't turn 34 until much later in the year). Orton is the youngest champ ever. There really aren't too many guys on the roster over 35. It's pretty ridiculous.

Typically the WWE was ran like the Yankees. Take as many established veterans as you can and put them out there. If a guy still has it, he'll be mega over, if not, well at least it's a name to sell tickets. Now the WWE is being ran like the Tampa Bay Rays. You have a roster of a few really good guys in their prime and a TON who haven't even touched their's.

 

[poppycock]

As far as top guys go I agree..It is pretty poor but saying that I do think the roster has potential to become one of the best WWE rosters in a long time. A lot of the mid card talent and other young wrestlers making their way up the ladder have promising careers ahead if handled in the right way I feel. So yeah on one hand I agree with you but on the other hand I think it could all turn out to be something very exciting..especially seeing as the WWE seems to be moving in the right direction at the moment.

 

[RicoLen]

I completely disagree. I think this is the best roster in years (about 7-8 to be exact). CM Punk is back, not taking time off. I will say, I think it's time to get rid of Smackdown all together and just make Raw a 3 hour show with the combined roster. You do that and you've got a tremendous group of YOUNG talent, the PG-Era is over and we are starting the "Post-McMahon Era" of wrestling. Not exactly sure what that means, except that perhaps Vince doesn't want to be on TV anymore. The guy is getting older and he's certainly earned his retirement from TV if that's what he wants, but I'm not sure if you guys heard it or not, but last night on Raw they themselves dubbed this the start of the "Post-McMahon Era" of wrestling.

Back in 1996 the established names in the WWF were slim, Shawn Michaels was a newly elevated superstar, Bret Hart was the big name, Perfect was sidelined with injuries again, The Undertaker was still there, but aside from that... there was nobody. Granted you had "Flyin' Brian Pillman" & "Stunning Steve Austin" newly broken up from their WCW tag team The Hollywood Blondes, but BFD they were both kinda nobodies then, this happy-smiley-goofy-haired first ever 3rd generation superstar debuted that looked like a complete ****** by the name of Rocky Miavia, Mankind's gimmick was getting stale, HHH was still a relative nobody. There was really very little reason to watch back then.

However, that exact same roster of relative nobodies, holdovers and have-nots became the icons of the Attitude Era. And that group was a lot more pathetic looking then than this roster now. CM Punk is already becoming a legend, The Miz, R-Truth, & John Morrison all look to me like superstars on the verge of greatness. You've got Joe Hennig, which at times shows all the talent of his father, at others, green as grass. Ted DiBiase, is looking like he's going to get a good push, which is much needed, Cody Rhodes is certainly the best Rhodes family member I've seen, Dustin & Dusty drive(d) me insane, I can't stand those two despite all their talent. Sheamus, with a little more time to mature too or a breakthrough performance at some PPV, could be huge. These guys just need to push to the next level, and I think it's happening right now with HHH becoming the new Vinny Mac.

The mid-card wrestlers on the WWE roster right now really look damned solid, and every one of them are guys I could see become true legends, starting their prime right away and lasting for the next 5-7 years as headliners.

 

[KRKO KING OF KINGS]

i dont think its the worst roster. they just dont seem like a strong roster but given the right storyline (which i doubt cuz wwe writers suck ) they could shine. its alot of young talent but that means the future is looking bright. to be perfectly honest i believe this is an above average roster that could really bring some excitement back to pro wrestling (of course that is all up to creative and how they do things)

 

[drobs85]

Exactly! Talk about hard times! Thats when watching wwf was tough. Sure there aren't many "big name" stars in wwe right now, but the roster as far as the talent may be one of the best in a long time.

Doesn't matter how good you feel this current roster is, fact of the matter is that your opinion is irrelevant because WWE doesn't use hardly any of them worth remembering. It's the same 5 people for the last 7+years. SO THEY MAY AS WELL CUT THE REST OF THIS SO CALLED DEEP ROSTER.

 

[Jeff]

I actually love the current roster because their are no main event stars to hog up the spotlight. Even guys like Jericho (who I love), without him on the roster, it allows for more time for the WWE to give TV time to other guys. The problem with WWE in the past is they would start to build someone but the TV numbers wouldn't improve right away so they would de push the guy and go back to the same main event guys they always do. At least now, regardless of the numbers, they are forced to air these guys cause they have nobody else. Do you honestly think WWE would have given CM Punk the chance they did if guys like Batista, Jericho, HBK, Hardy, Edge, etc. were still around? Although most of those guys I loved to watch, I would take a fresh angle like CM Punk over watching the same main event guys battle for their 8th WWE Title any day.

 

[drobs85]

I actually love the current roster because their are no main event stars to hog up the spotlight. Even guys like Jericho (who I love), without him on the roster, it allows for more time for the WWE to give TV time to other guys. The problem with WWE in the past is they would start to build someone but the TV numbers wouldn't improve right away so they would de push the guy and go back to the same main event guys they always do. At least now, regardless of the numbers, they are forced to air these guys cause they have nobody else. Do you honestly think WWE would have given CM Punk the chance they did if guys like Batista, Jericho, HBK, Hardy, Edge, etc. were still around? Although most of those guys I loved to watch, I would take a fresh angle like CM Punk over watching the same main event guys battle for their 8th WWE Title any day.

You're right there aren't hardly any main event stars. But that's because wwe constant failures at producing them. You're also right about your comments about the jericho's etc. hogging the spotlight. But the only issue with that statement is that even with all those other guys gone, wwe still has 3-5 guys still hogging the spotlight, so your comment is moot.