28 Days of 'Mania: How the Mighty Have Fallen in the WWE

Disclaimer: This will be an ongoing series for the next 28 days leading up to the biggest event in sports entertainment, WrestleMania 28. The idea behind the piece is to build more momentum for the event and give you, the Bleacher Report fan, a chance to read, comment and weigh in with opinions about the WWE, the business and the event. It is my hope this becomes something positive and we all enjoy the ride for the next four weeks to Miami and the biggest event of the wrestling year. Enjoy.

Not even six months ago, there was a different landscape in the WWE. Injuries were still a big part of why creative teams were scurrying to make sure matches and angles were filled, and names like CM Punk, John Cena, The Miz and Mark Henry were at the top of the landscape of both brands—Raw and Smackdown.

While Punk still rules the roost and Cena is still the one of the best on Raw, wrestlers like The Miz, Mark Henry and others are just dropping out the championship picture and have become as important to the brands as Justin Gabriel.

They just seem to be swept under the rug at the moment with no true angle in sight. Miz and Henry are former champions, leaders of their brands and some of the best heels that the WWE has seen in some time. Now, they are afterthoughts. Even Kelly Kelly is sitting on the back burner waiting for something huge to happen.

What happened? What did they do? What did management, creative and anyone else who has a hand in deciding what who is challenging for titles do in the last six months that made them think these stars aren't worthy of their lofty status? Why all the changes? Why the disconnect?

It's unfortunate, but everything seems cyclic. Champions turn over, injuries affect planning. Angles that were not expected to work do, and fan support tends to be deciding factors in these changes, we may not like them, but they do happen.

The WWE Title and the World Title have been in the same places they started at the beginning of the 2012 year, which good now that it appears to be over three months since a title change. Maybe the WWE is mellowing out over putting straps on wrestlers continuously. However, they could have still done this with Mark Henry (yes, he sustained injuries), but Punk has had them and played through the pain.

Henry was the best pure heel in this business since JBL. We needed his accord in the ring and the Hall of Pain angle worked. Big Show was good at his pursuit, but it did not completely work and fans may have been tired of his gimmick.

It made sense to take the title off Kelly Kelly and put it on Beth Phoenix, but until Tamina came along, there was no real female who could challenge her. Tamina makes a lot of sense, but Kelly Kelly just seemed to fade away and her popularity was high at the time of the title change. Unless the script writers find a way to insert Kharma in the mix or turn Natalya against her "friend" this division is soft.

R-Truth and The Miz have been hurt since R-Truth was suspended. The Miz needed to be given a bigger angle and he was pushed aside. Meanwhile, Dolph Ziggler and Santino Marella were given more attention and still are being given that push now.

With other stars starting to mark their marks or wrestlers being given another push, these wrestlers and more about to be as insignificant as the WWE Tag Team division. Something needs to be done and fast if the brands have any chance of trying to rebuild these stars back to where they still should be.