[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by Destor Not going to touch your Ascention point because it's valid. They were booked poorly...but here's the thing: The Ascention ( WHO I LOVE) are not stars. At all. And there are nearly none in the industry today. It's not that WWF is failing to make new ones. It's that none exist. They're fighting to make guys who arent stars feel like stars and frankly no one could do better with the crop they have. The territories died and with it we lost the tools that trained good workers. Now we have a corperate system that is trying to manufacture them and it just isnt going to work. I think it's a death spiral honestly...we'll see how the next decade goes.

I don't entirely agree with you. It isn't that WWE doesn't have potential stars, it's that they are poor at ascertaining who the true diamonds are. Remember when Cena and Orton were an "experiment"? They saw little value in two guys who they would shit themselves if they lost today. Rocky had a rocket up his ass before he was ready. Austin, in his own words, was a "utility worker". He wasn't seen as what he would become, and if origional plans were followed, we likely would never find out.

Eva Marie was so much worse than a debuting Trish Stratus (no rose glasses; she sucked at first) and Kelly Kelly combined, and in spite of EVERY OTHER WOMAN on the roster at the time being objectively better no matter how green they were, they were dead set on pushing her until the backlash and/or mounting evidence of potential injuries was too much to ignore. Daniel Bryan was over as fuck, and they still nearly passed on that. Don't need to argue about Zack Ryder again. They let Cody Rhodes go. AJ Styles seemed to be brought in begrudgingly. Do you really think Jinder would be getting this push if they weren't looking at this foreign market strategy heavily right now? He was there for years, released, and brought back. Hell, Braun Strowman ticks all the boxes of every goddamn thing Vince wants except for maybe a luxurious mane, and they're STILL dead set on Roman being Cena Lite even seemingly at Brawn's expense.

They have people who have talents we possibly haven't seen yet or possibly ever because we don't get to see it. Rusev on social media is a charm and a treasure, and I say that as someone who isn't exactly one of his banner wavers. Rusev on TV is a fucking boring and generic foreign heel done ad nauseum. It shouldn't have taken Talking Smack to inject life into people that they can't seem to do in actual allotted television time. It shouldn't take someone *having* to take to social media because writers can't seem to concentrate on more than one angle at a time. We could have a whole treasure trove of top talent being wasted, and we are none the wiser.