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When Tye Dillinger burst onto the main roster scene, exploding into action during the Royal Rumble match after entering at Number 10 to a thunderous ovation, nobody could have predicted what 2017 might hold for him. If there were any predictions being made at the time, however, it can be said with certainty that none of them involved Dillinger fading to his current level of irrelevance.
It's a sad sight, but within a few months of ascending from NXT to the bright lights of Smackdown Live, Tye Dillinger appears to be staring straight down a huge metaphorical dead end. But can he recover from this disastrous initiation period? Is there still hope for the Perfect 10?
Put simply, the chances of Dillinger ever having a major role on WWE TV decreases with every week that he continues to be treated like an afterthought on Smackdown Live. Other than in the period immediately following his debut, Tye really hasn't appeared on Smackdown Live all too often, and even when he has, the results have been less than spectacular.
This is no judgement on Dillinger himself. He's actually a very talented athlete who knows the business and managed to get himself over massively in NXT despite never quite hitting the main event scene down there. The issue has been WWE's portrayal of him since his move to Smackdown Live - it's sucked.
Essentially, he beat Aiden English continuously for a few weeks, a couple of months ago, and he's had absolutely no storyline of any sort surrounding him since then. At Battleground, he faced Aiden English yet again, but this time he lost, something which really makes no storyline sense
Sure, he recently had a match on TV against Jinder Mahal but lost easily and never appeared to legitimately threaten the WWE Champion. The arena reacted with huge enthusiasm when Dillinger made it to the final three of the US Title Number 1 Contenders' Battle Royale a short while ago, but he lost that match too and nothing further came of the situation.
There is clearly a scenario in which WWE gives Dillinger the bare minimum of time and opportunities to work with, to which the crowd still responds positively because they love Tye and want him to have a bigger role. WWE then responds by ignoring the fan response and continuing to keep Dillinger down in the lower card. So much for Smackdown Live being the 'land of opportunity'.
For whatever reason, it seems as though WWE currently have no interest in seeing Tye Dillinger in a major role. There were rumours earlier this year that Vince McMahon was unhappy with Dillinger's performance in the Royal Rumble, to the point where he was allegedly kept down in NXT for a further few months as punishment despite his appearance and cameo being one of the highlights of the whole match, so perhaps Vince simply isn't a fan of him. However, as we all know, things can change very quickly in WWE.
The aforementioned Jinder Mahal started the year in a very similar position to Dillinger, only over on RAW, and now look at what he's accomplished. This isn't to say that we should expect a Tye Dillinger run with the WWE Title anytime soon, but it's still entirely possible that Dillinger gets opportunities to establish himself as a strong midcard guy in the near future.
All it takes is a few injuries, a healthy slice of luck and a continuation of the solid performances that Dillinger gives whenever WWE actually decides to put him on TV, and Dillinger could find himself much higher on the card than even he expected.
At 36, Dillinger isn't getting any younger, so if there's ever going to be a time where he's taken seriously as a capable superstar on Smackdown Live, it is going to have to be very soon. If there's really nothing for Dillinger to do in singles competition, pairing him up with Aiden English as his tag team partner is one possible direction that WWE could head in.
It may not sound like a particularly thrilling concept on paper, but then neither did Breezango, who went on to become one of the most entertaining acts in the entire company after a shaky start.
Tye Dillinger has forged a really solid reputation for himself as a popular, charismatic, talented guy over the past few years. WWE doesn't appear to know how to present Dillinger now he's left developmental, nor do they seem to particularly care.
Hopefully, this will change, as Dillinger has a lot to offer WWE in a midcard role, and we should hope that the company realises it before his reputation is completely eroded by months and months of dead end booking. A lot of the damage has already been done.
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