Alexa Bliss and the 5 Most Poorly Booked WWE Superstars

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Credit: WWE.com

Any time a roster exists such as the one WWE currently has at its disposal, there are bound to be Superstars who are underutilized or underserved by the creative process.

There is only so much material to go around, and with a plethora of performers across Raw and SmackDown, not everyone who should be prominently featured in the best matches and storylines IS going to be.

There is a collection of Superstars, though, whose continued misuse is baffling.

They are former champions, potential stars of the future and those who have done it all but find themselves without anything significant to do.

Whose current use is often as frustrating as the overall creative state of the WWE product as a whole? Let’s have a look.

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It is still relatively early into Ciampa’s main roster run but thus far, things are not looking positive for a guy who defined NXT during his time there.

A former world champion with the black-and-gold brand, The Blackheart is a celebrated performer who can cut an emotional promo one minute and wrestle an intense classic the next. He is a great pro wrestler who any company would be privileged to have on its roster.

Maybe that is why it is so disheartening that he has appeared on six Main Event broadcasts, a show with limited viewership, rather than taking his rightful place among prime-time players on Monday nights.

Ciampa has been portrayed as a bounty hunter of sorts, attacking Mustafa Ali and squaring off with him in his only two Raw matches.

Instead of sharing the ring with Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, the 37-year-old has been relegated to working two straight Main Event tapings with 24-7 champion Reggie.

That is a major misuse of his talents and a huge indictment on WWE Creative. Sure, he was always going to face an uphill battle in terms of his size, but if his work in NXT did not prove to officials that he is a performer who should not be defined by his size, then all hope may be lost for this current crop of writers.

The only reason he does not rank higher on this list is because it is so early in his run. Comedic matches on the Island of Misfit Toys that is Main Event will not cut it, though, and may land Ciampa at the top of this countdown in the future.

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WWE should be printing money with Shotzi on its roster.

The 30-year-old has a unique look, a larger-than-life personality and is toyetic. That is, before they took away her horned helmet and the tank she rode to the squared circle every week and turned her into a generic heel.

That has changed slightly with her booking in her two most recent matches, where she just narrowly missed out on a SmackDown Women’s Championship match in a Six-Pack Challenge and then took titleholder Ronda Rousey to the brink in a non-title bout.

Things are trending more positively for the woman who previously referred to herself as The Ballsy Badass, but there is still reason to approach her recent usage with cautious optimism.

First, she is feuding with Aliyah in a program centered more on who can lock who behind a closed door than anything that goes on between the ropes.

Second, we have seen WWE Creative heat up characters for brief television programs with top stars while others get the pay-per-view exposure. That could well be what we are seeing with Shotzi, who is keeping Rousey occupied before she clashes with Natalya at Money in the Bank.

Even if it is a resurgence, it is difficult to forgive booking that took away everything about her that was so different and special, leaving her with a bland persona that forces her to rekindle any connection she previously had with the WWE Universe.

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Ricochet won the Intercontinental Championship on the March 4 episode of SmackDown and, for a hot second, it appeared he may be in line for the push he had not seen since his main roster call-up in 2018.

An awe-inspiring athlete whose abilities between the ropes are often unfathomable, he has long been underutilized by WWE Creative. Winning the prestigious title would surely be the jolt he needed to realize his potential as a real-life superhero in the WWE Universe, right?

Wrong.

Ricochet’s title defenses saw him defeat Sami Zayn in a rematch and then retain against Los Lotharios’ Angel and Humberto on the April 1 episode of SmackDown, miss WrestleMania 38, then defeat Jinder Mahal and Shanky in consecutive title defenses. Other than Zayn, that is hardly an all-star, credibility-building lineup.

What started as a promising run with a title the 33-year-old should have held multiple times already was instead one of heightened expectations and unrealized potential. By the time he dropped the gold to Gunther on Friday, it was impossible to think he was anything but a placeholder champion.

It is a massive disappointment for a professional wrestler who could go toe-to-toe with anyone in the world and deliver a show-stealing match.

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Alexa Bliss’ post-WrestleMania return was met with great anticipation from fans who had not regularly seen her on television in months.

Sure, there were pre-taped vignettes that teased a change in character and a one-off appearance at Elimination Chamber in February but she had not been seen consistently since September.

Perhaps that is why her return to television proved so underwhelming. The fiendish persona that had been so prominently featured was gone. In its place? Well, nothing, really. She was just…there. There was new theme music and she still carried her doll, Lily, to the ring but there was no semblance of character development or backstory for the sudden change.

She just existed. It was a welcome existence from a WWE Universe that has always appreciated Little Miss Bliss, but it was a major creative letdown given all the work that went into her character prior to her hiatus.

Things have not getting any better, either.

Bliss is visible, but someone of her star power should be given better and more interesting material than simply wrestling a match every week.

We witnessed over the last two years what she can do from a performance level. Let her be a larger-than-life character. Let her show off the acting skills that may not have always hit, but did help make her one of the most captivating performers on the roster.

If there is a silver lining, it is the teased partnership between Bliss and Liv Morgan which could be just what the women’s tag team division needs after recent controversy and the exposure of the somehow-worse creative behind it.

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How is it possible for an act to be on television consistently, be one of the most beloved in the company, consist of a former WWE champion and current King of the Ring, yet still place so highly on a countdown of the most poorly booked Superstars?

Look no further than The New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods who are routinely among the most frustratingly booked competitors in the promotion.

Kingston is a former WWE champion. Woods is the King of the Ring. Why, then, have they spent six months as the punching bags for Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch when the blue brand has a very real star-power problem?

Why are two of the most universally beloved and talented performers wasted on a feud that is long past its sell-by date and really should have been put to rest with the WrestleMania match between the two teams?

Instead of coming up with literally anything else for either of them to do, they continue to drop matches to the newly coined “Brawling Brutes,” as if it somehow helps the heel trio to repeatedly beat the same guys over and over again.

No one is campaigning for another Kingston title reign, but giving him and Woods something to do that is not working the same tag match against the same collection of talent every week is the most absurd waste of legitimate stars in quite some time.

An act as over as The New Day does not come along every week. It took many years, failed experiments and considerable drive on the part of the talent involved to make it work and endure the way it has.

Not utilizing those involved to their fullest extent is a massive failure on the part of WWE Creative and leaves fans scratching their heads given the depth issue that exists on the company’s roster.