5 WWE Superstars born in the wrong era who never got a chance to shine

With the WWE being around as long as it has, we've seen many different kinds of wrestling product presented to us over the years. The cartoonish gimmicks of the 80s helped make the company the biggest promotion on the planet, but that soon gave way to a more realistic, anti-authoritarian style in the 90s and 00s.

Today we have a hybrid product, with a little of each previous generation thrown into the mix. That being said, with the growth of the internet and social media, wrestling fans have grown used to criticising the product to an extent not previously seen before and it is harder than ever to get yourself over as a result.

With so many changes to the product taking place over the years, it's inevitable that certain individuals who might have made it in other eras were simply born too early or too late.

Here is a look at five WWE Superstars who were probably born in the wrong era:

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#1 Evan Bourne

Born too late?

For a while it looked like Evan Bourne (also known as Matt Sydal) might be getting a main event push in WWE. On an episode of RAW in 2010, he teamed with John Cena and earned a pinfall victory over Sheamus in the match. He then went on to feud with Edge and Chris Jericho as well as fighting alongside Randy Orton.

His fortunes then took a bit of a down turn. After a semi-successful tag team with Kofi Kingston as part of Air Boom, Bourne would soon become lost in the shuffle and was eventually released from his contract in 2014 due to failing two wellness policy tests owing to his marijuana dependencies.

Many fans spoke about him as a missed opportunity for the company, as his high-flying style really helped him to stand out, even against fellow high-flyers.

The problem seemed to be that Bourne didn't really offer anything that the WWE Universe hadn't seen before. We've had plenty of Lucha Libre inspired athletes that have an ability to jump off tables and ladders and look good doing it. Even today when we see somebody like Kalisto perform his finishing manoeuvre from the top of a ladder we acknowledge it for a short time and then pretty much forget it happened.

But what if Bourne had been alive in a totally different era of WWE? Around the mid to late 90s, both WWE and WCW were starting to embrace high-flying wrestling. They had performers who were brave enough to jump from the tops of cages before, a la Jimmy Snuka, but had never really promoted the kind of athlete more common in Mexico.

That changed when WCW introduced a Cruiserweight Division, bringing in stars like Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero.

In turn, the WWF made its own Light Heavyweight Division with the likes of Aguila, Brian Christopher and Taka Michinoku leading the way. Bourne would have really shined if he had been given the chance to compete alongside them.

The moves we've seen him do would have come across as highly innovative at the time and he would no doubt have held the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship on more than one occasion.

#2 The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)

Do they belong in the Golden Era?

For any superstar who makes it big in NXT, they know that the real challenge still lies ahead. Winning over the Full Sail University crowd is comparatively easy compared with the more general fans of RAW and Smackdown.

While most of the time NXT Superstars are under the guidance of Triple H, the gimmick can still be completely torn apart and ruined as soon as Vince McMahon and his team get their hands on the wrestler.

Konnor and Viktor of the Ascension are very good examples of this. The pair held the NXT Tag Team Championships and, in many ways, helped build that division, leading to future pairings like American Alpha and DIY to take on the torch. Many assumed that the Ascension would fit into the main roster with ease, and maybe even help rejuvenate the division.

That was not to be, however, as the pair were immediately launched into a storyline that was only going to end badly. The main roster creative team decided to turn them into a kind of reboot of The Road Warriors, but instead of paying homage to the legendary team, they instead bragged about how they were better than Hawk and Animal.

The fans understandably took exception to this and Konnor and Viktor soon found themselves jobbing out to far less impressive duos on RAW.

In some ways, you could argue that given the obvious comparisons between the Ascension and The Road Warriors, perhaps the former NXT Tag Champs would have had better look during the 1980s in the heart of the Hogan Era.

Of course, nobody would suggest they could actually rival Hawk and Animal, but if the creative team had found better gimmicks for them -- perhaps playing off their gothic/Illuminati style of clothing and makeup -- they would have been able to compete against those kinds of popular tag teams we remember from our childhood.

Imagine The Ascension taking on The Heart Foundation or The Killer Bees at Wrestlemania, or getting together with somebody like Bobby Heenan or Jimmy Hart to help keep Hogan away from the WWF Championship.

There is still time, of course, for the fortunes of the Ascension to be turned around, but they currently have a long way to go, and it's not clear whether today's WWE even care enough about tag-team wrestling to help them get there.

#3 The Patriot

Too patriotic for the Attitude Era?

The Patriot is another one of those WWE wrestlers who initially looked to be destined for great things. He was a literal personification of Americana, something that normally works wonders when trying to get yourself over with the US audience. He also shared the ring with guys like Bret Hart and The British Bulldog and even briefly teamed with Shawn Michaels.

The problem was, 1997 wasn't exactly the right time to be singing praises of the United States. The wrestling business as a whole was quickly moving away from the Hogan era format where heroes were heroes and villains were villains.

In the 80s, coming out wearing the American flag on your person was a guaranteed crowd pleaser. To get over in 1997, the idea was to rebel against authority and everything the older generation wanted you to be.

The Patriot was given his opportunity after Bret and the rest of the Hart Foundation turned into an Anti-American faction. While the gimmick did help them attract heel heat, it just wasn't the same as when the Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkoff used to do it in the 80s. People booed Bret mostly because of his rivalry with Steve Austin, the fastest growing babyface in the company at the time.

Hart did have quite a lot to say about the US, but the crowd would only really respond when he talked about how the likes of Michaels and Austin were portraying the country as a place for common degenerates - which, ironically, is what people liked about them.

If The Patriot had people like Volkoff to work against, perhaps his fortunes would have been greater. Even in the post-Attitude Era scene, he could have taken on people like Rusev and Lana or Jinder Mahal.

It is unfortunate that such a convenient gimmick failed to get the man over, but that just goes to show what a different time the Attitude Era was for the WWF.

#4 Robert Maillet (Kurgan)

Not the right time to be a giant?

In case you haven't noticed while following the WWE, being over 7-foot tall can really help you get over as a WWE superstar. Because of Vince McMahon's preference for larger than life athletes, we've become used to seeing people get opportunities that they probably hadn't earned.

Guys like The Great Khali and Giant Gonzalez have competed for the WWE on the grandest stages despite having very limited talent in the ring.

Another person on that list is Robert Maillet who made his name as Kurgan during the 90s. He initially debuted as part of The Truth Commission, a heel faction from South Africa. He was so big and powerful that even in the world of WWE, fans took notice immediately.

The problem was, the wrestling business had changed since the 80s, and Maillet was probably born a decade too late. The young fans who were mesmerised by the huge specimens in the ring during the Golden Era had grown up and were now demanding a more realistic type of competitor that could actually wrestle.

Kurgan was somebody whose novelty wore off pretty quickly and his limited abilities were soon exposed.

Maillet would probably have excelled in the Hogan era. He wouldn't have had to do much in the ring apart from collide with fellow monsters like Andre and King Kong Bundy. He might also have made a perfect opponent for Hogan himself, acting as a pro-South African, anti-American giant for Hogan to slay at a Wrestlemania or Summerslam.

Kurgan's career will not be something wrestling fans will long remember. In many ways, he is yet another example of how the WWE has never really moved on from the land of the giants we all became used to in the 80s.

#5 Bray Wyatt

Where did it all go wrong?

It's becoming increasingly apparent that the career of Bray Wyatt is heading for disappointment. When he made his debut as leader of The Wyatt Family, his creepy vignettes got the whole WWE Universe talking.

The early signs were good, having solid feuds with guys like Kane and The Shield and delivering promos in a style we hadn't heard before.

Over the years, Wyatt has failed to live up to expectations. Despite holding the WWE Championship, 2016/17 has been one of the worst periods of his career. Fans have grown tired of the basic formula he's been following during every single rivalry and many fans no longer take him seriously as a threat to anybody.

What is it that has really hurt Bray's fortunes? Is it the lack of imagination in WWE's creative team, always giving him the same kind of promo to follow? Is it his poor booking that has seen him lose to pretty much every major babyface in the company?

Perhaps it is just a case of Bray himself not being as talented as we originally thought. If the WWE want Wyatt to be a main player for them going forward, something has to be addressed, and quickly.

Still, most fans suspect that the "Eater of Worlds" might have had better fortunes in previous eras. Not only was the writing team better in the 80s and 90s than they are today, but fans were a little more willing to suspend their disbelief and buy into the kind of dark, sinister character Bray represents.

During the Golden Era, he would have been perfect as a heel who used psychology to get into people's heads, much like Jake Roberts used to do to babyfaces back in the day. Even in the New Generation and Attitude Eras, superstars like Kane and The Undertaker showed us that people from the dark side could get themselves over considering they were given strong storylines and opponents.

Whatever the case might be, Bray Wyatt is a WWE superstar that should be more over than he is. And after all the deliberation about what exactly went wrong, maybe it is all a case of him being born a few decades too late.