Six Superstars That Should Be Utilized Better By WWE and AEW
I believe WWE and AEW have both been putting together good to great shows as of late. There’s WWE with the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber to start the year along with AEW running Revolution this past Sunday.
Things seem to be moving in the right direction for both companies. However, there are wrestlers in both companies who I feel should be utilized better. Wrestlers that are overly talented but, for whatever reason, aren’t being used to their fullest potential. WWE has brought back some people recently and AEW will sign anybody with a pulse who shows interest. So, obviously, that is going to create an environment that feels rather bloated in retrospect. I have accumulated six superstars, three from each company, who should be utilized way better than they are now.
#6: MUSTAFA ALI
It should be a crime that Mustafa Ali isn’t getting more of a spotlight in WWE. He asked for his release a little over a year ago because he wasn’t given a proper platform to display his talents. Since then, he’s been barely used and when he has been used, he’s been mostly on the losing end. Mustafa Ali can cut a damn good promo. If you haven’t seen his “New America” videos on Twitter, I suggest you seek those out. Ali should at least be in the United States Title picture on Raw.
Ali had so much promise when he was positioned against WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and WWE has just never capitalized on it. From never winning the Cruiserweight Title to Retribution to just being off of television. It’s a shame because I think Ali could be one of the biggest stars in the company. He just needs to be given a shot to do it.
#5: JADE CARGILL
I get it. She’s the AEW TBS Champion. Can anybody name anything memorable she’s done in the last several months? Ever since Saraya arrived in AEW and started her feud with Britt Baker, Jade has basically taken a backseat and that’s ridiculous. She is the second biggest homegrown star in the division and she has been directionless since Kiera Hogan left The Baddies.
The Baddies were a perfect female group for Jade. Jade could get the glory while The Baddies take the beatdowns. Then they just broke Kiera away and for what? A blow off match on Rampage with no fanfare? She’s been relegated to AEW Dark since. They broke Red Velvet away and for what? A blow-off match on Dynamite a month ago and she hasn’t wrestled since. There was no thought process behind it. It was just to give Jade two more people to beat. It was a very WWE-like move of just breaking people up for the sake of breaking them up. Jade should be the top heel in that division. Instead, it feels like she’s 3rd or 4th in the pecking order as the TBS Champion. Put her in a meaningful program. Just one.
#4: ALEXA BLISS
Alexa Bliss is one of the best talkers, male or female, on the entire roster. She has the ability to get heat like few women in either WWE or AEW are able to get. Yet, it seems WWE is obsessed with turning her into this dark, creepy, lore merchant who gets scared and bipolar every time the logo of Bray Wyatt flashes on the screen. I get it, they’re telling the story that she wasn’t as healed as we thought from her therapy sessions last year. She takes whatever she’s given and does the best she can with it but she is so much better than the material she is given.
The feud with Bianca Belair should have been way better but it was overshadowed by the Uncle Howdy nonsense. I’m not saying you have to go back to her Goddess character. Just incorporate elements of it into a new character. One that isn’t obsessed with Bray Wyatt and voodoo dolls. One that we can take seriously in the women’s division instead of rolling our eyes when she comes out. She’s proven she can do it. WWE just needs to let her.
#3: DANIEL GARCIA
Daniel Garcia was on fire in the middle of last year when fans thought he was going to turn on the Jericho Appreciation Society. The fans were waiting for that moment when he would turn on Jericho and side with Bryan Danielson. Then it just didn’t happen. Jericho’s run as ROH World Champion last year did not make a single superstar or do anybody any favors except Jericho. Do you know who they could’ve made out of that run? Daniel Garcia. Instead, they had him change titles with Wheeler Yuta while playing third fiddle in J.A.S behind Jericho and Sammy. If you have Sammy in there, you don’t need Garcia. They both play the same role.
They had a chance to make Daniel Garcia in a similar way to how they’ve helped Ricky Starks. Garcia is one of the best wrestlers in the company. Why is he being reduced to one of Jericho’s lackeys? He needs to be given his own spotlight. Have Bryan finally get through to him. Convince him to break away from J.A.S. and use that momentum to push him into a title run by the end of the year. He has the ability. He just needs the platform.
#2: JOHNNY GARGANO
I got literal goosebumps when Johnny Gargano returned to WWE last year in Toronto. The crowd gave him a standing ovation. He looked happy to be back. I was and still am happy he is back. Johnny had a fantastic showing in Elimination Chamber. Other than that, he hasn’t been given much to work with since coming back to WWE. He returned to a huge pop but since then he’s been mainly Dexter Lumis’ sidekick in his feud with The Miz. Johnny has the tools to be competing for at least the United States Title. He can talk. He’s entertaining. He can wrestle his ass off. Yet, he’s been relegated to filler matches.
Hopefully, his Raw match with Finn Balor is the start of a sustained push for Gargano and not just somebody for Finn to beat on the road to his match with Edge at WrestleMania. He’s Johnny Wrestling. Treat him like it. Reform DIY when Ciampa returns. Put him in a United States Title feud. He deserves better than to be sitting on the sidelines or running around the backstage area with Dexter Lumis.
#1: MIRO
Miro rounds out the list because he is by far the most egregious misused talent in either company. Miro had a hell of a TNT Title run as God’s Favorite Champion. He even had something with the Redeemer character. He wrestled FOUR matches in 2022. Four. Not because he was injured or asked for time off. He wrestled four matches simply because AEW didn’t have anything for him.
According to a report, Miro refused a storyline late in 2022 that would’ve seen him return only to put somebody over and he hasn’t been seen since All Out 2022. If I was Miro, I would have turned it down too. You don’t bring me back just to lose unless there’s some kind of payoff. Over the last year, since Revolution 2022, Jeff Jarrett has wrestled the same amount of Pay Per View matches as Miro and Jarrett’s first Pay Per View match wasn’t until Full Gear in November 2022. Let that sink in for a second. Jeff Jarrett has also had more title shots than Miro over the last year. Those stats are ridiculous for a talent like Miro who should be near the top of the card.
I don’t know what his issue is or Tony’s issue is but it needs to be resolved quickly because Miro sitting on the sidelines and only wrestling four matches in a calendar year despite being completely healthy is a damn crime.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for this week. WWE has been the hotter product lately while AEW put on a pretty good Pay Per View at Revolution. There are still quite a few guys on both sides that should be utilized better. There are some that I missed obviously, but I feel like those six are the ones that really stand out. I understand you can’t feature everybody. However, when you got guys like Jeff Jarrett, who I love by the way, but he’s in his 50’s, Parker Bordeaux, Omos, and Dexter Lumis taking up television time instead of the guys I’ve mentioned. There is a problem there.
No disrespect to any of those talents but they are objectively nowhere near as valuable as the ones I mentioned. Hopefully both WWE and AEW rectify this in the future. They are heading in the right direction. They just need to figure out a better way of utilizing some incredible talent before contracts start coming up and they start to look elsewhere.
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Thanks for reading. Check out my TJRWrestling writing archive here. I’m on Twitter @GiftedMoney talking about wrestling among other things, so feel free to message me on there with any thoughts or comments. Until next time.