5 Best Former Versions of Current WWE Stars

It's no secret WWE has its greatest roster in terms of wrestling today, yet they just don't know how to utilize each player to maximize their potential. In turn, this has resulted in what is thoroughly a somewhat enjoyable if average products. That's worse than being a terrible product outright.

From top to bottom, there is so much potential in the current WWE crop even down at NXT that one wonders what it is that WWE is failing to grasp. Sure there are investors and bureaucracy to tackle. Yet the writers and bookers just can't manage to string together these main even talents into a worthy product.

Vince McMahon might be a deciding factor in all this. Yet, not only the boss but individuals all the way down to the wrestlers themselves have failed to grasp their characters and project their positives, while shunning negatives.

Many wrestlers in the roster better fit certain parts of their characters/characters they have portrayed previously within the company or outside of it. These guys deserve a complete revamp to bring back what they'd lost.

Here are five individuals who could do with a makeover to the past, where they were much more over and better equipped to the main event for the WWE.

#5 The Boss Sasha Banks

Banks hasn't lived up to the legit moniker

Character evolution is a necessary part of WWE storytelling. If a wrestler weren't to change-up once in a while and progress even a bit, then the product becomes stale. Yet the evolution of a character even from a stunning face to heel turn or vice versa needs to make sense.

When a character loses the very essence of what makes them who they are, then it becomes hard to really follow. I'd argue that in her transition from NXT to WWE, joining the poorly named B.A.D. Banks already lost herself. Yet she regained her Boss stature with a well pulled of heel to face transition.

Unfortunately in the subsequent years that Boss tag has worn off. Sure she still pulls off the mannerisms while entering the ring, but she really isn't the badass she was down in NXT. Beaten down by challengers such as Charlotte and Alexa Bliss, her short title reigns define her as a bust and not a Boss.

That Boss needs to come conquering, especially with the opportunity of an imminent heel turn against Bayley.

#4 The IT Guy Bobby Roode

Watching Bobby Roode on RAW one feels a sense of pity for him. Fear pervaded when the veteran transferred from NXT to the main roster. After all, his theme song is Glorious and his character work on NXT basic but stellar. Unfortunately knowing the main roster, his run would become all about the entrance music.

It did and that is where Roode is now stuck. A former US Champion, he is swimming in the lower pool of Monday Night RAW with nothing to do. Bobby Roode was once a main event tier talent not just in Impact but NXT as well.

It all comes down to his 'IT Factor' still drowned out somewhere in the entrance music. Roode's character work is impeccable, as the egotistic suited heel, he oozes charisma and power. Unfortunately, you wouldn't know that seeing RAW. It's not just about a simple heel turn, but a complete reinvention to tap into what made him the 'IT Guy'.

#5 No F***s Given Lashley

This Lashley could step into 205 Live and snatch away the Cruiserweight Championship

What has really changed since Bobby Lashley left WWE and returned?

Nothing much, he's still the same smiling, silent and hard-hitting powerhouse. Then why bring him back if he hasn't really improved. Well he has and that is why WWE hired him, yet they can't help but return to formula.

Lashley is what Brock Lesnar could have been, had he not been a lazy part-timer. The heel version of Lashley from Impact Wrestling is miles ahead of what we got in WWE today. He didn't care for anyone and anything, living only to fight and win.

A championship caliber competitor, Lashley is leaps and bounds above what WWE is projecting. In a stuffed roster he is consistently losing momentum, crafting another disappointing career. This times it's without any opportunities when he could actually do better. We need Lashley to keep giving effort without giving a f*** if only WWE would oblige.

#2 Prizefighter Kevin Owens

Family before Friends should be Owens Motto

Kevin Owens made his debut in NXT by brutalizing his former friend Sami Zayn. The same Kevin Owens went on to defeat John Cena in his first match, on the main roster. This is because the man needed no one but the drive to provide for his family.

A cavalcade of friends and support has done to Kevin Owens, what joining the Authority did to Seth Rollins. It has sucked the soul out of the fighting champion and challenger. If that Kevin Owens resurfaces then he can truly earn the world championship and even vanquish the Monster in the Bank.

None of that will happen because WWE loves running to the default of a scared heel. Which is sad as it has never really fit with Owens confrontational and snarky character. If Owens can find this edge in being a face then so be it turn him. The WWE universe deserves a prizefighter and Owens deserves a prize.

#1 Uber Babyface Bayley

This one's a lost cause, because no matter the amount of reboots Bayley may never capture the love and adulation to the level she once had. Bayley at one point in NXT was so popular, it seemed fans would never grow tired of her.

The stench of apathy reverberates through her entrance to matches these days. It's absolutely sad. Especially when one considers that she could have been the next big face for the WWE. That would be a true evolution of the company and for the women's wrestlers.

Bayley in her NXT incarnation up to her initial days in WWE evolved from the underdog fan to spirited fighter of right. She parlayed great character and promo work from this yet now when fans speak of her they more often than not criticize her staleness and lack of promo skills. It's simply sad that WWE's constant breakdown of Bayley has resulted in her being nothing but another warm body in the roster.