The five most underappreciated talents in WWE today

My inspiration for the list, Rusev is a guy who seemingly just can’t catch a break. He was a successful U.S. Champion thanks to a fun relationship with real-life companion Lana, and exactly the kind of wrestler that WWE loves to push — big, strong, entertaining. Then he lost the title to John Cena at WrestleMania 31, despite entering in an actual TANK, and things went rapidly downhill for him.

Showing that the world is a different place in 2018, he and fiancée Lana went on Twitter and announced their real-life engagement without WWE approval, and suddenly his career went downhill.  The act was suddenly split up on TV and Rusev was instead managed by Summer Rae in a bad fit for both.

That went south and Rusev is now managed by Aiden English in a better partnership, but the one-off teaming of Rusev & Lana on the Mixed Match Challenge hinted at a much better direction for the character.

Rusev has been getting more popular with the fan base thanks to "Rusev Day" chants and his own wacky self-awareness, but he remains mired in the midcard and losing most of his matches. Most bizarre was the buildup to his involvement in the Greatest Royal Rumble, where a Casket Match with Undertaker was abruptly announced with no buildup, then changed to Chris Jericho for no reason, and then changed back to Rusev again with even less reason. Then he lost in eight minutes in a nothing match.

He deserves better, especially on Rusev Day!

This is another one that's kind of mystifying.

Gable is a former Olympic-level wrestler — like Kurt Angle — and he was a project in NXT that rapidly ascended to the level of tag team champion by getting himself over, dragging Jason Jordan up with him.

However, once he made it to the main roster, he was seemingly abandoned to his own devices and given up on. The American Alpha team with Jordan won the "SmackDown" tag titles briefly, but Jordan was moved to "RAW" as a singles wrestler, leaving Gable in a makeshift team with Shelton Benjamin. That team almost got over on their own as well, but they never won the tag titles, and then they were also abruptly split up in the recent Superstar Shakeup, with Gable moving to "RAW" in an off-screen draft.

Chad can talk, wrestle, and has shown great fire thus far. So why won't they let him get higher than opening the show? As Chad would say, he's clearly Ready, Willing and GABLE.

No, really, he's got a towel that says that and everything.

Hey, while we're on the subject of Rusev, another guy who doesn't seem to get the love he deserves is Aiden English.

Although his partnership with the Bulgarian Brute has helped him a lot more than the bizarre Vaudevillains team did, he still could be batting a lot higher up the order than he currently is.

He's literally an all-around entertainer, with natural singing ability and talent in the ring as well. I mean, how you can have a guy who is able to sing his own theme song and not be able to figure out what to do with him? He's also got the family connections, since he's married to Shaul Guerrero, daughter of the late Eddie Guerrero and they could always play that relationship up as well.

Is he great in the ring? Not necessarily, but he's entertaining and a good worker and could be doing a lot more than singing "Rusev Day" and occasionally getting beat up by Rusev's opponents. Frankly he and Rusev should be tag team champions by now. And maybe make an album together. One thing at a time.

Given the WWE's love of navel-gazing and paying tribute to themselves, wouldn't it make sense to push one of the guys from the Attitude Era?

Oh hey, there's one still going at a pretty high level, and yet they constantly ignore him.

Goldust is still out there busting his hump night after night, and is frankly a better worker now than he was in his glory years, but the best that creative can find for him is a feud with R-Truth where they drop it after a week. He gets big reactions at house shows because he's still a big star with a recognizable name, he doesn't get injured, he works safe … what's the downside?

If Big Show and Mark Henry can get a million un-retirement pushes, why can't Dustin Rhodes catch a break?

Making him Intercontinental Champion again would certainly be no worse than the Miz.

I know, I know, this already sounds crazy: How could one of the biggest main eventers in WWE right now be under-appreciated?

"He just won the Greatest Royal Rumble," you're saying. "It's the greatest one! It's right there in the name of the match!"

However, his ridiculous involvement at WrestleMania just makes me wonder why they're not doing even more with him. While the crowd completely rejected the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event — and let's face it, who isn't getting sick of both guys at this point? — they ate up Braun teaming with a 10-year old kid to win the tag titles in a completely stupid time-wasting "match."

Braun is hugely popular and ticks all the boxes that Vince McMahon usually goes nuts for: He's giant, he's super-strong, he can talk. So why won't they go all the way with the guy?

There's two different world titles that he could win tomorrow and easily be a top guy for years, but instead they've put all the eggs in the Roman Reigns basket and Strowman vacillates between smashing backstage sets and doing wacky skits. His brief run with Brock Lesnar got over huge, but he lost quickly and has never sniffed that level again for whatever reason.

Is he young? Yeah. Is there still lots of time? Of course. But why? Roman's already failed multiple times, and Brock can't decide if he wants to be a wrestler or a disgraced UFC fighter, so why not just pull the trigger on Braun now?

Yeah, he's already a big star, but he could be an even BIGGER star — and that's the scary thing.