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WWE has never had as big as a roster today, as ever before.
With WWE RAW, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK, 205 Live and other expanding rosters in the NXT league, WWE's roster currently consists of more than 200 performers over all of its brands combined. This is quite the accomplishment for WWE to have, however it doesn't come without it's problems, and the biggest one would be the ever coveted TV time.
With so many superstars and so little TV time a week, especially on RAW and SmackDown, this leaves so many WWE superstars who can often go weeks, even months without making an appearance on WWE TV. And what is worse, is that many of these superstars are more than ready to climb back into the ring and have much to offer in both wrestling, and other aspects to be on WWE TV every week. Here are five of such.
#5 Goldust
The 'Bizarre One' Goldust is WWE's second longest running active character, behind only The Undertaker, debuting in 1995. Although Goldust found most of his success in the mid-90's in WWE, today, at 49 years old, this former WWE Intercontinental Champion is better than ever.
In recent years since he returned alongside brother Cody back in 2013, Goldust has had the best matches of his WWE career. Goldust seemed to be on an interesting path back in 2017 following his heel turn on R-Truth and promos of he in a directors chair quoting movie lines and saying that the ''Golden Age is back". However this didn't lead anywhere and Goldust resumed his previous face role.
His matches in 2018 have been few and far between, with most notably losing to John Cena on RAW back in March. In July, Goldust underwent surgery on both knees, but today, is good to go, yet is still not being used on WWE TV. Goldust still has a lot to offer WWE, both in the ring and in other TV and WWE Network roles.
#4 Luke Harper
It took a long time, but in 2017, former Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan finally stepped out of their former leader Bray Wyatt's shadow.
They spent several months hammering enhancement talent, before becoming WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions at WrestleMania 34. They lost the titles to The New Day on the post-SummerSlam edition of SmackDown, after a 135-day reign. The decision came after it was revealed that Rowan had suffered a torn right bicep, sidelining him until 2019. And with that also came Luke Harper's departure from TV.
No, Luke isn't injured too. But after spending so long as a tag team wrestler, WWE creative just don't know what to do with him, and that is such a shame. As of this writing, Luke has only wrestled two matches since Rowan's injury, and both were at NXT live events. Luke is a very talented performer, and although it was short, he has proven he can have a solo career as he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 2014.
Yes, I would like to see the reunion of The Bludgeon Brothers on SmackDown next year to continue their brutalizing ways, but until then, I think Luke would fight right in on the WWE United States Championship contender ranks.
#3 Bray Wyatt
When Bray Wyatt first emerged on main roster WWE TV back in 2013, much like his time in NXT, he had the most interesting gimmick in WWE. Bray's Backwoods Cult leader gimmick, heavily inspired by cult classic film Cape Fear, had so many possibilities, but it will go down as a flop of poor booking for the most part.
After over 3 years of poor booking decisions and several bad tweaks to his gimmick, Bray bounced back in 2017 when he became WWE Champion at the Elimination Chamber event. The reign was short lived at just a month, but is still a notable credit. After feuding with Matt Hardy on RAW in early 2018, Bray turned face and formed a team with Matt upon his return to TV after being thrown into the Lake of Reincarnation in the Ultimate Deletion.
The duo won the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships at the Greatest Royal Rumble event, but lost them to the B-Team at Extreme Rules. After a rematch on RAW, both Bray and Matt Hardy were removed from TV following Matt's in-ring future coming into question. After just about 6 months of inactivity, Bray returned to action at the Starrcade event, although his match was left off the WWE Network version.
Bray's return at Starrcade was obviously not WWE's way of Bray returning to TV as he was not included on RAW the following Monday and remains inactive on TV as of this writing. I think the only thing that can save Bray today is returning to SmackDown as a heel, and possibly reforming the Wyatt Family, and definitely resuming his former Backwoods Cult leader gimmick. otherwise, he will soon be forgotten.
#2 Shelton Benjamin
Shelton Benjamin returned to WWE TV after a 7-year absence in 2017, forming a tag team with Chad Gable. The duo lasted until Chad was drafted to RAW on the post-WrestleMania shake-up earlier this year. Shelton then resumed his solo career and looked to be about to become something again when he scored a big victory over Randy Orton in April.
In early May, Shelton announced he was taking some time off to heal up some nagging minor injuries. He briefly returned to TV in June, only to disappear again after a couple of weeks. After 3 months away from TV, Shelton Tweeted that it was WWE who were keeping him off TV all this time, and demanded to return.
Shelton returned in October, again looking like WWE may have plans for him as he took in another big victory, over Daniel Bryan, and spent the next few weeks having more matches with Bryan, as well as then WWE Champion AJ Styles, before once again being removed from TV and not being seen in over a month now.
This has been one weird and ridiculous year for this incredible athlete. A former WWE Intercontinental, the United States and Tag Team Champion, their are many roles Shelton could fill on WWE TV right now.
#1 Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy reinvented himself in Impact Wrestling as 'Broken' Matt Hardy, the most entertaining gimmick in wrestling in quite some time.
After he and brother Jeff Hardy's incredible return to WWE in 2017, fans clamoured for someday hoping to see 'Broken' Matt Hardy in WWE and when Matt obtained the rights to the gimmick, that is exactly what we got in late 2017/early 2018. And with WWE hosting 'The Ultimate Deletion' and it being a ratings and social media success for WWE, it seemed like 'Woken Matt Hardy' was here to stay.
Instead, he was thrown together with Bray Wyatt in a RAW filler tag team, and although the two held the RAW Tag Team titles, the quickly lost them to former jobber tag team the B-Team and Matt took some time away from WWE TV to heal injuries. Now while it is true that Matt's in-ring future is in question (he is yet to retire), WWE could be doing so much more with him on TV. Hell, Matt had his most hilarious and watched moments in Impact Wrestling when he wasn't wrestling for a couple of months when he was Broken.
And as his self-written and produced WWE Network special, the House Hardy Halloween special has proven he can still be a highly entertaining piece of the WWE puzzle on TV. Whether it be for a weekly segment, skit, authority figure role or something else, Matt Hardy could easily be used on WWE TV right now.
