TNA guy's are traditionally to small for Vince? Um, The Miz is a small dude and he's WWE Champion. And, how about Jericho, Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Michael's, Punk? Del Rio won the Royal Rumble.
And you state Vince doesn't respect guy's with indie credibility. Um, who's current US Champion? Daniel Bryan AKA Bryan Danielson. CM Punk is a 3 time World Champion and is one of the top heel's of the company.
The Miz is billed at 6'1", 231 lbs.
AJ Styles is billed at 5'11", 215 lbs.
Now, we all know these numbers tend to be fudged somewhat, but that's still a three inch height difference and a fifteen pound weight difference. You admit yourself that Miz is a smaller guy, but AJ is billed not even at 6'0". Not to mention, Miz is a little bulkier than AJ, and that's probably due to a little more muscle. Punk is probably a better example, who's billed at 6'1", 211 lbs. Sure, AJ is more agile and athletic than Punk tends to be, at least these days, but he also looks smaller, because he has some room to add weight. Jericho is probably your best example as someone built like AJ, but Jericho had a lot of other things that made up for his size difference like his legendary amount of charisma and showmanship. AJ gets by a lot on his athleticism, but so does John Morrison and JoMo is having to scratch and claw his way to get attention. Not to mention, JoMo is pretty much a home-bred guy for Vince, which leads me to the next point...
Going on WWE.com right now and checking out the official show rosters, I see three guys with some serious indie cred: Evan Bourne, CM Punk, and DBD. Now, I admit it's hard to say as to just how far these guys will go, but I think these guys have hit their walls, in WWE, or are at least edging it. Evan Bourne will almost certainly never be a World Champion for Vince; he'd be lucky to win an IC or US Championship in WWE, which leads me to DBD. DBD was getting buried as the US Champ for a while, being tied up in a Diva's feud and just not appearing on TV, and he's only emerging now to possibly face Sheamus at Wrestlemania because they need matches to fill out the card. It wouldn't even be absurd to suggest that Sheamus will take the US Championship off of DBD at Mania, given the facts that Sheamus needs to be legitimized again and that DBD is already being under-booked. I'm afraid DBD has hit his wall, for the time being, and I can't foresee a way that Vince and creative will push him, hard. I'm not saying it's impossible; it certainly isn't that. But, it's still very unlikely.
This leaves CM Punk, who's already a multi-time World Champion, though he's never been WWE Champion, but he's still a proven success and it seems as though he's getting his biggest push, so far. I do have to admit that Vincent McMahon is a very, very intelligent businessman; it's what's kept him in business through wrestling's ups and downs. CM Punk is one of those rare cases where I think Vince just couldn't get past the dollar signs. Punk is a highly talented and gifted performer, and VKM isn't stupid enough to let that go unnoticed...for at least most of the time. lol. Seriously, though, Punk may become WWE Champion after Mania (because Cena will have to have someone to feud with once he's Champion, again), and that would be a great success story.
However, as for other legends who made it in the indies before coming to work for Vince:
Benoit: sure, he won at WM22, but his first night on Raw, he was buried in a loss to Triple H. He could have instantly been a Main Event contender, but Vince had that shot in the foot, almost immediately.
Eddie: Again, Eddie was WWE Champion after being put over the man that was arguably the hottest wrestler on the market at the time, Brock Lesnar, but they had to give the belt to somebody so that Lesnar could have his Mania match with Goldberg, and EG was a guy who really deserved it. I hate to put it this way, but both Benoit's and Eddie's title wins were basically just feel good wins for guys who'd busted their asses off in the industry, only for Vince to make them pay their dues all over again in his promotion. The same can be said for Rey, who probably wouldn't have gotten his first championship had it not been for Eddie's death and Vince doing everything he possibly could to cash in on it, as horrible as that is to say.
Dean Malenko: Never got anywhere, despite being one of the best wrestlers in his day.
Tazz: See: Dean Malenko.
Perry Saturn: Not quite Malenko's caliber, but see: Dean Malenko.
Shane Douglas: Also not quite the same caliber as some of these other wrestlers, but he was still butchered quite badly with that horrible, "Dean Douglas," gimmick.
He never used various Japanese wrestlers like Taka Michinoku, who could have at least garnered some screen time with his wrestling ability, either. About the only guys I can think of that made it pretty big in WWE, despite the fact that they were straight indie guys, were the Dudleys. Vince used them right, and that's something he probably deserves credit for.
Look: I could go on and on with this, but even a guy like Benoit, who came to WWE as the WCW Champion as he never dropped the belt in a match, was buried his first night in WWE. Sure, he got a match with Triple H on his first day there, but he still lost and was sent to the back of the line.
Vince doesn't respect AJ for his time in PWG or any other great indie promotion, nor does he respect Christopher Daniels or Samoa Joe for it, either. The only reason Vince uses guys like DBD and Bourne is because he knows it appeals to a demographic, and VKM likes money and ratings just as much as you'd probably expect him to.
It's pretty certain, at this point, that VKM doesn't like Cruiserweights and he doesn't respect indie guys, otherwise he'd hire them and push them. The only time he does use them is because he knows the crowd likes them, that's all.
Sorry for the novel, and I'm sure I'll make some enemies for some of the things I've said, but that's how I feel.