5 WWE Superstars who are currently on the decline and how they can be rebuilt

One of the major criticisms aimed towards WWE today is that they cannot create new stars. Whilst that may unfortunately be the case, there's no denying they've actually done a very good job of giving new faces the spotlight in the past few months.

On Monday Night RAW, we've seen Apollo Crews get plucked from relative obscurity to be given more screen time, and eventually win the United States Title. We've seen unknowns from NXT like Austin Theory and Angel Garza get shop right to the top thanks to their placement in two popular stables like Zelina Vega's and Seth Rollins'.

On WWE SmackDown we've seen The Forgotten Sons get a lot of momentum, Drew Gulak put into a major program with Daniel Bryan, as well as relatively dead in the water acts like Heavy Machinery and Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville all get major storyline pushes.

Sadly however, whilst others are getting more screen-time than ever, it undoubtedly means that others lose out. With that in mind, we take a look at 5 WWE Superstars who are on the decline and how they can be rebuilt.

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#5. Chad Gable

Chad Gable's short-lived gimmick change and renaming to Shorty G saw him enter a decent enough rivalry against Baron Corbin and Sheamus, but the aftermath did not give him the babyface rub that I'm sure WWE were going for.

Since then, he's been relatively absent from WWE programming which is a borderline crime for some as technically proficient and talented as he is. It's even worse when you consider that he's literally the perfect replacement for one of the company's most popular wrestlers ever in Kurt Angle.

And that's exactly how you repackage someone like Chad Gable. You make him a wrestling machine, a work horse, a technical ringmaster like Angle, Benoit or even Dean Malenko. If you wanted to go that little bit further, I'd bring his former American Alpha tag-team partner Jason Jordan back onscreen as his manager!

#4. Mustafa Ali

Remember that incredibly hot streak that Ali was having, where he inventively escaped that RKO against Randy Orton and then qualified for the Elimination Chamber, only to have the opportunity taken away from him due to unfortunate injuries and he hasn't really recovered since.

Ali has yet to make it onto the main WWE SmackDown show at all in 2020 which is such a shame for a high-flyer as exciting and talented as he is. Not to mention that as a person, he makes just about the perfect babyface wrestler.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for Ali, as the predominant theory surrounding the ongoing anonymous WWE SmackDown hacker storyline is that Ali is the one responsible for the series of sinister videos posted on the @TheMessageWWE Twitter page, and for revealing some of the WWE Superstars' secrets on the show.

This would be a dramatic departure from the former police officer babyface character that Ali previously inhabited and it would certainly be intriguing to see him fill the role of an enigmatic and benevolent hacker. I'm all for it!

#3. Ricochet

Man, Ricochet was the United States Champion less than a year ago, but only held the title for twenty-one days. Then he was the number one contender for the WWE Title but was quickly defeated by, then champion, Brock Lesnar in under 2 minutes.

Since then Ricochet has plunged dramatically from being number one contender to appearing on WWE Main Event in, albeit admittedly, great matches. But it doesn't matter how great a match is if not many people are watching it.

But then, the tag-team with Cedric Alexander formed and it looked like we were going to get a hyped up new massively athletic and high-flying tag-team that the WWE Universe could get behind. But then they kept losing and losing.

Ricochet and Cedric Alexander are both superb wrestlers who have put on some of the best matches I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. It shouldn't be that difficult to get them over in WWE. My suggestion is to just let them go out there and do as much of the gravity defying stuff as they can. That'll do it!

#2. Lucha House Party

You'd be forgiven for not realizing just how good Lince Dorado, Kalisto, and Gran Metalik are individually as wrestlers and it's certainly easy to have forgotten that Gran Metalik beat wrestlers like Zack Sabre Jr, to reach the finals of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.

With that in mind, you'd have expected that putting the three men together would reap massive rewards for them and see them become a force to be reckoned with in the WWE Tag-Team Division. Sadly that hasn't happened and still doesn't look like happening.

Sure, they've been getting title opportunities and are appearing regularly every now and then on WWE shows whenever they need a tag-team to fill spot, but they're definitely not being treated with the respect three men of their talent deserve.

At the moment, Kalisto is out with an injury but Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik could absolutely be a force to be reckoned with as a duo. My advice to help them get over slightly is to add them to the stable slowly growing in NXT that's behind all of the mysterious car park kidnappings.

#1. Carmella

Carmella is a special talent in WWE's women's division and there's a reason why she was chosen to win the first ever Women's Money in the Bank match (and the second). There's a reason why she cashed her briefcase in against Charlotte to become SmackDown Women's Champion.

Sure, the spotlight on SmackDown at the moment seems to be surrounding the will-they-won't-they-turn-on-each-other relationship between Sasha Banks and Bayley and the SmackDown Women's Championship and I fully appreciate that everyone can't be on top all of the time.

A lot of people didn't like Carmella's WWE SmackDown Title reign and her relationship with James Ellsworth, but I would argue that as a heel she did her job perfectly. She has always been an incredibly consistent character onscreen, as evidenced by her pairing with R-Truth and the WWE 24/7 Title escapades.

I'd shoot Carmella back up to the top by having her return to her heelish roots and launch a campaign of terror against the rest of the SmackDown roster. Perhaps she aligns herself with some NXT women like Aliyah, I think the two would be a good fit for each other.