Drew McIntyre - A little surprised because I thought maybe after 3MB was played out they'd re-package him but I think 3MB did too much damage. When you lose to basically the entire roster including a small person in a bull costume you know it will be a LONG, HARD road ahead to get any credibility back.
On a side note, they kept Heath Slater. And I get it. He's an great wrestler, especially in terms of selling and that's great for a jobber. However, I'm kinda bummed because I'd like to see him win a little. The only chance for him is he becomes like Santino who has very exaggerated, clearly comical mannerisms and a slew of squashed losses under his belt yet has still SOMEHOW in recent years won the Tag Team Title and US Title. Maybe possible for Slater.
Jinder Mahal - Same boat as Drew except way less potential form the start. Sorry to say but I was bored by his presence since day one. Only ever enjoyed him getting squashed by Great Khali (and that's saying something!). The 'evil East Indian' gimmick doesn't have much legs in WWE and for their fans.
Aksana - Surprised it took this long. She basically was just a valet for the first while, then with basically no push at all she started wrestling. Puzzling to say the least. My theory is she was kept around because she was happy to sleep around and kept the single guys happy on the road which was good for morale. Just my theory!
Curt Hawkins - I honestly don't care. The last time I vividly remember anything from Hawkins was during his days as one of Edge's clones, and that's it.
Evan Bourne - This one is a little disappointing but can't say it is surprising. Basically the writing was on the wall for this one once he was riding high (oops, pun!) with the Tag Team titles and go the wellness policy violation and got stripped of the titles at a house show, never a good sign. Then he hurt his foot badly and was out for a long time. I think he was only not released during that time because probably a contract clause where they can't be released while injured.
Anyway, while he WAS an active Superstar he was awesome. Great work with Kofi and Air Boom but it wasn't meant to be long term for him, obviously. And because he was gone so long it would be pretty hard for him to come back when there are plenty of other, younger, just-as-good-if-not-better Superstars like him to take that spot.
I think he'll do great on the indies though! I'd probably go to a show if he was there. You know you're gonna get to see a sweet shooting star press!
Camacho - He was kinda doomed to this fate once Hunico took over the role of Sin Cara. I liked Hunico and Camacho as a tag team and wished WWE would have done more with them. Camacho was good in NXT when he finally was able to show of some of his moves and ability. But, again, doomed with his gimmick and without Hunico.
Yoshi Tatsu - Saw this coming a mile away considering how off-TV he has been. I'm surprised they never gave Yoshi a half-decent push considering he is the only Japanese wrestler and he had a good look and move-set. He should have got at least a few US or IC title SHOTS (not saying he should have won).
He has some GREAT matches with Tyson Kidd a few years ago on NXT/Superstars sadly unnoticed by too many but I guess he just wasn't seen highly by WWE officials.
Anyway, hopefully KENTA coming in will be a good replacement. For his sake, hopefully he speaks English better or he'll really just be replacing Yoshi's spot on the card (I.E. no spot).
JTG - Haha. Wow, it finally happened. He was good as the go-to joke for a guy who was shockingly, absolutely shockingly still employed for years well past his usefulness.
I thought a lot about his position in life. For a good 2 or 3 years getting paid probably at least 80 thousand a year (could be way under-estimating this), a wage most of us would love to at least have, wrestling a match very, very rarely. I mean, this year, I'm sure he wasn't even touring/traveling, just sitting on his couch. What a weird place to be. Imagine your boss at a regular job says to you, "Hey, let me continue to pay you a good salary but I don't want to come in to work very often at all. Just come in here and there and eventually don't even come in at all. Just do whatever you want to do with your time as long as it isn't working a job like this anywhere else." And you would say, sounds pretty good! Yet, could be pretty boring and certainly not great in terms of exciting moments.
Anyway, so I can't blame HIM for sticking around as long as WWE was willing to pay him but I can't understand why WWE kept him around this long with basically no gimmick change since Day 1.
Brodus Clay - A little surprised about this one because I was thinking big guys like Big Show, Mark Henry and Kane (oh wow, just realized Great Khali is still employed!) will be retiring soon and usually WWE always likes to have at least one clearly big, tall 'monster' guy kicking around. I thought that would be Brodus.
I guess the whole Funkasaurus thing, while it worked as a face tag team for a while, made it too hard for him to turn full monster heel. I think Tensai should have become the Funkasaurus as a singles wrestler or maybe find a different partner. Brodus should have stayed with Alberto for longer as his bodyguard and then got heat with Alberto (although not much), then turn on Alberto for a decent pop, probably, go into a 2 or 3 month feud with Alberto, win that feud, then win a bunch of matches to make it to a IC or World Title (when the World Heavyweight Title was around) match against a ruthless, cheating heel and LOSE and then get bitter and do the whole "I cared about the fans and did this all for the fans but it never got me anywhere, I'm going to do things for me, my way" speech to turn back heel. Sure, it's been done before but it does usually work. Then when he turned back heel he would have had some credibility behind him and, if pushed right, would get a monster heel push.
HOWEVER, that said, I don't know that Brodus was good enough really to be a "Main Event Playa". I don't think he is as good as a young Big Show or Mark Henry.
I think WWE does need to find a new big, big guy that can be a monster heel (then eventually face, and flip flop, like Big Show and Henry) but they have about 2 or 3 years to find one since I think both Show and Henry have 2 or 3 years left on their contracts.
