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WWE’s backstage environment is like a minefield: one misstep and you risk blowing something up and ruining your life/career. It’s a company filled with politics and egos, with some wrestlers given special privileged and booking favouritism, thus creating an unequal and jealously-filled environment.
This is an unfortunate reality in wrestling, as certain wrestlers will eventually reach a point where they or their characters require a degree of manipulation in terms of creative control and presentation. Thus, several wrestlers are ‘protected’ by WWE management.
In this case, being a protected star means that you do not have to worry about your spot being taken over by someone else, nor do you have to worry about losing matches or looking weak under any circumstances.
Many people in WWE are protected right now in some way or another, and in some cases is makes perfect sense. In most cases, however, a wrestler is protected for less-than-ideal reasons, or it’s because the people at the top have the wrong idea about why they’re protecting that wrestler in the first place.
Either way, here are eight of the most protected WWE superstars currently active on their regular programming.
8. Asuka
This is arguably the most logical example of a wrestler being protected for a storyline reason. On-screen, Asuka has never lost a single match and has remained undefeated more or less since she first debuted around three years ago.
For the first time since Goldberg dominated WCW, WWE has a wrestler with a (relatively) legitimate undefeated streak that brings with it an aura of dominance and magnetism towards that wrestler.
Asuka might still be relatively new to the main roster, but she’s someone around whom entire storylines could be built. Whether it’s her challenging for a title or someone wanting to make a name for themselves at her expense, Asuka’s undefeated streak is a goldmine of potential storylines.
To that end, it makes perfect sense for her to be protected as much as possible, as her undefeated streak can be used as a story-pushing device for a very long time.
7. Jinder Mahal
Jinder Mahal was arguably the most controversial WWE superstar of 2017. He was given a sudden major push that saw him become WWE Champion for the first time, which shocked many fans.
After all, Mahal was far beneath many wrestlers on SmackDown in terms of skill and overall presentation, yet scored decisive wins over several top stars. WWE’s bookers seemed to realize this, so they protected Jinder Mahal significantly, and continue to do so to this day. Most of Mahal’s biggest matches were over-the-top gimmicky matches that allowed him to conceal his weaknesses.
In more recent weeks, Mahal has been protected by rarely looking weak in promos and by looking dominant in post-match attacks on his opponents. WWE clearly want him to look strong going into WrestleMania, and so they have started protecting him again to make sure he doesn’t look too weak when he faces off against whichever opponent he’s booked against on the biggest show of the year.
6. Sheamus
There was a time when Sheamus was one of WWE’s most protected stars, and the reasons for this weren’t positive. His initial monster push was believed to stem from his close relationship with Triple H, which soon translated into multiple world title runs and frequent appearances in major matches.
Although he hasn’t been featured in a world title match in over two years, Sheamus has solidified himself as an upper-midcarder that main-events shows all the time. At this point in his career, Sheamus is indeed a protected star, though it’s not for the same reason as other on this list. Instead of being protected for creative, storyline or political reasons, Sheamus is protected for health reasons.
By his own admission, Sheamus has spinal stenosis, which is the same debilitating condition that forced Edge into early retirement. However, Sheamus’s condition doesn’t appear to be as severe as Edge’s, which is why Sheamus is still wrestling.
So for those of you expecting Sheamus to perform some crazy sick bumps in his biggest matches, don’t hold your breath; he’ll be keeping it safe so that his condition doesn’t worsen either now or in the future.
5. Braun Strowman
Braun Strowman is one of WWE’s most interesting wrestlers. On one hand, he has become arguably the most popular wrestler on RAW by being a straightforward monster that destroys everything in his path (it also helped that his biggest feud to date was opposite Roman Reigns, one of the most despised men in WWE history).
On the other hand, Strowman himself is incredibly protected, as seen with his booking. He almost never leaves his feet, seems to no-sell even the most ridiculous levels of (choreographed) violence, and his Running Powerslam – itself a relatively weak finisher – has been protected just as much as the wrestler himself, if not more so.
But the most obvious sign of Strowman being protected is that he has very little in terms of actual grappling skill. This is why he spends most of his time working crazy ‘destruction’ matches as opposed to the more traditional grappling matches: his actual wrestling skill is almost non-existent.
This is why WWE protects him by only putting him in matches that play to his strengths without exposing his weaknesses.
4. John Cena
There’s no denying that John Cena has been WWE’s golden boy for over a decade. The company has made a monstrous fortune by pushing Cena to the moon, and to protect that cash cow, they’ve protected him more than almost any star in WWE history.
For most of his run at the top, Cena was booked in incredibly one-sided segments and showed little weakness, if any, in the majority of his matches. What’s more, WWE has gone to great lengths to convince everyone that John Cena has never submitted (only two men have ever made him tap out, both cases were well over a decade ago and one of those men is persona non grata in WWE).
There appears to be a reason for this extra degree of protection: Cena’s mantra of ‘never give up’ is meant to act as a motto not just for Cena, but for all the sick children for whom he seeks to be the hero. So imagine what it would do to all those kids that look up to him if their hero gave up and tapped out.
While that in itself would make for an excellent wrestling storyline, the image of Cena that has been crafted so carefully over the years precludes him from ever being in such an unprotected situation.
3. Brock Lesnar
If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that Brock Lesnar is a protected star in WWE, consider the storyline events that took place on the March 12th episode of RAW. When Vince McMahon described Lesnar’s privileged status in WWE, he wasn’t making things up. Lesnar’s contract makes him more or less untouchable and grants him special privileges.
As further proof of his protected status, just look at Lesnar’s matches and storylines: always in main events, rarely takes big or risky bumps, uses a very small number of moves, and seems to be booked to win in more situations than necessary.
A great example of this would be his WrestleMania 32 match with Dean Ambrose: a perfect opportunity to elevate a new star ended up being a massive disappointment owing in part to Lesnar’s lack of enthusiasm towards this match.
But as long as Brock Lesnar’s name keeps drawing big money, Lesnar himself will keep using that advantage and WWE will protect him, even if doing so goes against their own interests.
2. Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns has been protected by WWE ever since the project of ‘getting him over as the next company ace’ began over three years ago. In that time, Reigns has been featured more prominently than arguably anyone else, and WWE’s bookers have gone to extreme lengths to protect him both in terms of concealing his weaknesses as a performer and by trying to shut down his critics.
In the former case, WWE has booked Reigns to win the overwhelming majority of his matches, including handicap matches that would put him at a serious disadvantage. Vince has made the booking decision to make sure Reigns never shows any weakness or vulnerability, in order to further protect this image of Reigns as an unstoppable juggernaut.
And in the latter case, WWE has done some truly ridiculous things to try and protect Reigns’ image, or at least the once they’ve created for him.
From censorship and muting of crowds booing him, to confiscating or editing fan signs showing opposition to him, to taking different elements of previous top stars and applying them to Reigns in a Frankenstein’s monster sort of way, to even editing fan reaction to him in their videos on YouTube, WWE is going to ridiculous lengths to protect Reigns as a performer.
All of this has been done to protect Reigns, and odds are that stuff like this is only going to continue.
1. Stephanie McMahon
Stephanie McMahon is quite possibly the single-most protected superstars in all of WWE. As an on-screen character, Stephanie has been in a position of power for almost five full years, and in that time she has rarely if ever gotten her much-deserved comeuppance.
More often than not, Stephanie verbally berated anyone that crossed her path, whether that was an enemy or a supposed ally. She slapped many people and they were not allowed to get revenge on her. In many cases, entire shows seemed to revolve around her more than anyone else, effectively making her the top star of RAW.
This has become such an accepted belief about Stephanie that, going into WrestleMania, the general consensus is that Rousey and Angle will win, but it will be Triple H taking the pin instead of Stephanie. It's also surprising given that this will be Stephanie's first match in the ring since Summerslam 2014!
This is because Stephanie – apparently – MUST be protected at all times, even when the storyline in which she’s involved absolutely necessitates that she lose and suffer the humiliation her character deserves.
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