Debut PWMania.com Column – Cut From The Team

We are now a week past Wrestlemania, the dust is beginning to settle and even though we don’t know exactly where everything is going, its getting clearer and clearer. We have the returns of Brock Lesnar, Lord Tensai, Ryback and with the rumours of more talent making the jump from FCW to the main shows it is inevitable that we are going to go through with the yearly future endeavours. As unfortunate as it is people will lose their jobs and a lot of the time its not due to them not putting in enough efforts, in the past some hard working wrestlers have lost their jobs at this point. It is usually down to WWE not knowing what to do with them or purely because WWE made a wrong decision and they now realise that they don’t have a star on their hands.

What I’m going to look at today is the potential candidates from this years cut and give an opinion on whether I think they will be with the company any longer or not. I’m going to run through the Superstars and NXT regulars and just give an overall opinion of them and why I think they should stay or why I think they may not be quite up to scratch as of yet. So each superstar with either getting a decision of cut or made the team. If the superstar has made the team I’m going to give a little suggestion to what I think their next career step should be within the WWE.

I’m not going to include anyone who is regularly on Raw or Smackdown in a active role. I’m also not going to look at the Diva’s division because I don’t care about it enough to judge it!

Alex Riley

Some would say that WWE missed their chance with Alex Riley, I don’t think they have. He did get a huge crowd backing with his feud with The Miz, but he was still a little green. He seems to be improving on a regular basis though and he has the right look. He is also pretty good on the mic which he proved with his alignment with The Miz.

Decision – Made the team

I think they should keep him on board and maybe in the next year or so try and give him another push towards the IC or US titles.

Camacho

This guy hasn’t had a chance to do much of anything so far in his WWE career apart from ride about in a bike and have very few televised matches. He hasn’t been around long enough to make a decision on how good or bad he is.

Decision – Made the team

Put him and Hunico in the tag team division and let them develop with a feud.

Curt Hawkins

Curt Hawkins seems to be slowly but surely getting a bit more airtime on Raw (even if it is squash matches) and on Superstars and NXT he has a prominent role. I don’t know if it is down to getting a little run from Ryder or not, but Hawkins has been on the roster for quite sometime and he isn’t bad in the ring. With his recent praise from The Rock and Chris Jericho, I can’t imagine he is going anywhere soon.

Decision – Made the team

Again the tag team division needs teams. Put him and Tyler Reks in the mix to beef it up a little and maybe give him a singles push down the line.

Darren Young

I though he was really going to do something when he got kicked out the Nexus. But all it resulted in was an AA from Cena for his troubles. With his recent drug failures and his floundering on NXT Redemption over the last year I can’t see much on the horizon for this guy.

Decision – Cut

Derrick Bateman

One of the few guys who has been involved in a storyline on NXT for the majority of it, but I really don’t understand why. I’ve been been very impressed with his ring work or his mic work. Him and Johnny Curtis have had possibly the most boring feud ever and that is saying something. I really can’t ever see him amounting to much in the WWE.

Decision – Cut

Ezekiel Jackson

Big Zeke is a guy who WWE keep trying to push but it just doesn’t happen for him. I guess everyone can understand when they see his ring work. The three bodyslams he does is painful to watch as its possibly one of the most boring signature moves a guy could have. I don’t think theres much WWE can do that they already haven’t tried with Zeke.

Decision – Cut

Heath Slater

Heath Slater is one of my favourite midcard jobbers. He is good in the ring and is easily dislikeable, makes a good heel. I though him being in a team with Justin Gabriel was ended extremely prematurely as the two of them worked really well together. However we can’t change the past and can only work on the future.

Decision – Made the team

I don’t think his career is ever going to take off in any major sense, but he is a good solid worker that will be good for putting new stars over.

Hunico

Hunico I feel is one of the most underutilised talents on the WWE roster. When he came in as Sin Cara Negro he showed a high flying style that was great to watch, then when he branched out and got his own alias he showed a completely different style to watch we had seen him do prior to that, working a bit more technical than before which I feel just shows he is very adaptable to whatever needs to be done of him.

Decision – Made the team

As I said with Camacho, put them in the tag team division to develop their characters and then down the line give Hunico a singles push. Though I can’t ever see him as world champion material, he would definitely be an asset to the roster.

The Uso’s

Solid tag team, quite well established in the division where very few teams are. Good team in the ring and seem to always get a decent enough response from the NXT or Superstars crowds.

Decision – Made the team

Give them a tag title run and a proper feud with Primo and Epico.

Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal is damned to a WWE career of being the evil guy from India. I can’t see him ever having a boom career with the WWE as the evil Indian gimmicks don’t have much history of having any luck. He is very easy to hate though and isn’t to bad on the mic and in the ring.

Decision – Made the team

I wasn’t to sure whether to keep him or not but I think he gets heat easily just because of his gimmick. I don’t think he’ll do to much any time soon, but WWE will use him for face squash matches.

Johnny Curtis

This guy really grinds my gears. Much like Derrick Bateman, he hasn’t really done much to impress me and coincidently they had an extremely boring and strung out feud. He isn’t bad as such in the ring and his mic work isn’t the worst, but he is just annoying. I could never see large crowds getting behind him or giving him a heel reaction in the right sense. Plus those Smackdown vignettes he was doing last year were horrendus.

Decision – Cut

JTG

JTG hasn’t done much notable since Crime Tyme split. I don’t understand why because he was always a decent enough fan favourite. WWE always needs veteran midcarders to help the new guys progress and I think that is exactly his role. I mean he has been with WWE since 2006 (well apart from a year absence from getting released) and is good in the ring and on the mic.

Decision – Made the team

Keep him in his role. There always needs to be solid guys working at the bottom to help up and comers progress in the right way.

Justin Gabriel

Out of every wrestler on the WWE roster I don’t think any of them ever impresses me more than Justin Gabriel. Its a shame the recent injury that has hindered him for a few months, but hopefully he’ll be back soon. This guy is great in the ring, his mic work isn’t great but he makes up for that with his in ring ability. Plus with him being South African that instantly taps that market for the WWE, I don’t think they will be getting short of him any time soon.

Decisions – Made the team

When he comes back from injury keep him with Tyson Kidd. This could definitely be the way to help these two guys progress in the correct way. Another tag team title run in the future I hope is on the cards for him.

Mason Ryan

This guy will never be one of the best wrestlers around. But he certainly looks like one of the most intimidating. He has the exact look that WWE tends to look for and he will get better over time.

Decision – Made the team

I think a heel turn and perhaps stick him in a bodyguard role for a smaller wrestler/tag team so we can just see him intimidating and imposing he can be.

Michael McGillicutty

I always get the feeling that we haven’t quite seen all of what this guy could do. It may just be purely down to the family he comes from but I feel there is something more to this guy. He has floundered recently since he lost his tag team parter David Otunga, but I don’t think we have seen the last of the guy.

Decision – Made the team

I think a repackaging may be in order. If they actually marketed him as Mr Perfect’s son, then that is instantly something people can latch on to. Only the die hard fans know who his family is, WWE really needs to milk this and perhaps it will give this guy a push in the right direction.

Percy Watson

This guy isn’t to bad, he has a good look about him and I feel is one of the stars of NXT. Decent solid matches and not half bad on the mic. I think one thing they need to do if he gets promoted to the main roster is change his name. Percy doesn’t sound like the name of someone who will kick your ass.

Decision – Made the team

A slight repackaging again may be in order as like I said the name Percy isn’t to intimidating. A few singles matches with solid midcarders like Justin Gabriel or Heath Slater could work well for him.

Titus O’Neil

I thought this guy would have been promoted to the main roster by now as when NXT Redemption started he was the only guy who seemed to get much of a reaction from the crowd. But here we are and he is still stuck in NXT. The guy is good in the ring and good on the mic but WWE really needs to find something to do with him over and above NXT to help him progress and I don’t think they will find this anytime soon.

Decision – Cut

Trent Barreta

To be honest I haven’t seen a lot of his matches, but from what I have seen he seems like he would fit in with the Cruiserweight things they are planning for the WWE Network. He is quite a likeable guy and I think a few more years of having steady matches then he may get his break.

Decision – Made the team

Again he is a guy I don’t think will do anything any time soon but if he keeps impressing then maybe sometime down the line his time will come.

Tyler Reks

Good big strong guy who is good on the mic. I think WWE will utilise him a bit more in the future but for now him a Hawkins seem to have an okay thing going on and with Hawkins recent praise from wrestling royalty I think that we will see Tyler Reks stick about also.

Decision – Made the team

Like I said with Hawkins, stick them in the tag team division and utilise them until the eventual break up and have Hawkins go over and then book Reks as a monster going forward.

Tyson Kidd

Definitely arguably the best pure wrestler on the roster. His ring work is great and he seems to be the go to guy for WWE when they need a good match, much like Shelton Benjamin was a few years back. I don’t think they are using him as much as he deserves to be used though but with the recent tag team of him and Gabriel being formed, if they stick with that they both could definitely get their careers going the right way.

Decision – Made the team

I would put the tag titles on him and Gabriel over the next year or so and when they break up eventually the two of them could have some classic matches if they manage to get over as a team.

Yoshi Tatsu

We’ve got here a guy who is pretty good in the ring, but as they don’t have him speak to often its pretty hard for him to get over. They also had him find a dark side, yet they still had him have his stupid Japanese-Hello Kitty-Pokemon music, which made absolutely no sense. This guy as unfortunate as it sounds won’t reach any form of heights in the WWE but due to him being one of the only Japanese guys on the roster…

Decision – Made the team

He has the Japanese market covered for the time being. He will continue to float about NXT and Superstars and may find a tag team at some point, but I don’t ever see anything major happening with him.

There we go. Thought I would have been a bit more brutal with the cuts, but that is five cuts out of a possible twenty one. Please note though its not that I want these guys fired, obviously I don’t wish that upon anyone. However it is something that does happen and I felt it is a talking point.

Disagree with any of these? Tell me on Twitter (DaveFCIC) or e-mail me (qdd@live.co.uk). But that is me for this week guys.

Cheers!