WWE WrestleMania 28: Ranking the 10 Wrestlers Most Unfairly Left off the Card

WrestleMania season is a bad time for anyone who's not a main-eventer or an upper mid-carder.

Most of the focus is going to be on the WWE's biggest superstars and those wrestlers teetering on the borderline of the main event, so for forgotten mid-carders and lower-card workers, they're probably going to be relegated to the pre-show 'Mania dark match, if they even appear on the show at all.

It's a part of the business, and some wrestlers aren't on the WrestleMania card because they truly don't belong there. But others who deserve to be on pay-per-view will be watching it from backstage.

Here are the 10 wrestlers most unfairly left off the WrestleMania 28 card.

10. Hunico

Hunico is one of the more underrated guys in the WWE.

His gimmick is far too stereotypical and therefore limited, but despite the fact that he hasn't been given very many opportunities to advance up the card, he's always proven to be a reliable worker in the ring.

While Mistico was supposed to be the next great Hispanic superstar, Hunico delivered better performances under the Sin Cara mask than Mistico did, and he continued to have above-average matches once he stopped working under a mask.

Unfortunately, Huncio has been saddled with that aforementioned gimmick and hasn't been given much of a feud outside of his brief rivalry with Ted DiBiase on Smackdown. That's a shame.

I thought Hunico would be a nice addition to Team Laurinaitis at WrestleMania, but instead, he's going to sit back and watch as guys like The Great Khali actually get to appear on the card.

9. Justin Gabriel

Justin Gabriel is yet another solid in-ring worker who's being overlooked because of his gimmick.

Why? Well, because he doesn't really have one.

Although Gabriel doesn't have any distinguishable character, he's still pretty over with the fans for a guy who doesn't get much TV time, and the reason for his likability is simple: He can wrestle.

Gabriel isn't going to be a World champion or anything like that, but when the WWE had trouble finding some quality baby faces to put on Team Teddy, the creative team completely passed over a perfect candidate in Gabriel.

He can be really exciting to watch in the ring, and given that each participant in the Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny match likely won't be in the match long, he could have went balls to the wall in the ring for a few minutes, hit his 450 splash and then called it a night.

But instead, we're going to see a semi-retired announcer on Team Teddy. I like Booker T and can see why he was added to the match, but I think full-time wrestlers should be given top priority over guys who should be calling the bouts rather than participating in them.

8. Tamina

Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos over Tamina? Really?

While I'm not exactly jumping for joy about the possibility of any realistic Divas match at WrestleMania 28, I would have preferred that the baby face side of the Divas tag team match had at least one quality wrestler on its side.

Not to take anything away from K2 (who's dramatically improved over the last couple of years) or Menounos (who is better than a lot of full-time Divas), but Tamina also improved a ton over the last year and managed to get over pretty well as one of the WWE's top baby face Divas.

She should have been rewarded with an extended feud with Beth Phoenix that resulted in her competing at WrestleMania 28. 

After all, Tamina and Beth had a very good match (by today's standards, at least) at last month's Elimination Chamber and could probably deliver another solid showing on the grandest stage of them all.

7. Rey Mysterio

Rey Mysterio has said time and time again that he was targeting WrestleMania 28 for his return from injury.

Yet here we are just a few days away from the pay-per-view, and there's been no sign of the high-flying superstar whatsoever on WWE TV. 

I suppose that Mysterio could be a surprise fill-in for Team Teddy at 'Mania, but I thought for sure that he would have been revealed as a final member of the baby face squad by now.

While Mysterio has been out of action since August, he's one of the WWE's biggest stars, a very reliable in-ring worker and someone who probably doesn't have a lot of time left. The WWE should utilize him as much as possible.

Then again, if he's not healthy enough, I can see why the WWE didn't want to risk bringing him back too early.

6. Brodus Clay

The WWE obviously has a lack of baby faces who are actually over with the crowd, yet the creative team managed to leave one of its most over ones off the WrestleMania card.

Brodus Clay (as "The Funkasaurus") hasn't been around very long, has only had a handful of squash matches and has never had a real feud, but he's managed to become pretty popular despite all of that.

So why not give him The Great Khali's or Booker T's spot on Team Teddy?

There are rumblings that Clay may get a squash match at WrestleMania, but we've already seen a bunch of those from him and could certainly use a change. 

Although Clay would have been a great candidate for a spot on Team Teddy, it looks like his 'Mania may consist of participating in a pre-show battle royal.

5. Goldust

Several months ago, Goldust took to Twitter to campaign for a "Career vs. Intercontinental Title" match against his real-life brother Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 28, rallying fans to support the match and to make it happen.

At the beginning of 2012, the WWE teased that we would indeed see Goldust vs. Rhodes at some point when the two crossed paths a few times on Smackdown. But, of course, that led to nowhere.

The creative team seemed to drop the feud for no real reason, and as we all know, Rhodes was placed into a WrestleMania feud with The Big Show instead.

While I'm not saying Big Show should have been left off the card altogether, I'm one of those fans who was much more interested in seeing a feud between Goldust and Cody, and I thought it would have been a great addition to the card.

Goldust is a very underrated wrestler, he's done a lot for the WWE and the business in general and it would have been nice to see him call it a career at WrestleMania.

Unfortunately, he's now probably going to just fade off into retirement like many others have.

4. Natalya

The way that the WWE books Natalya is absolutely ridiculous. 

As if it wasn't bad enough that she was saddled with that unfortunate farting gimmick for a while, she hardly ever gets a chance to actually compete in the ring, and when she does, it usually results in a loss.

That's a terrible waste of a woman who is probably the best pure wrestler in the entire company.

There's a reason why fans all across the Internet have been campaigning for a Natalya vs. Beth Phoenix match at WrestleMania and why no one was asking to see the Divas tag team match that we're actually going to get.

Natalya is one of the few women currently under contract with the WWE who can actually make the Divas division interesting, and yet she's going to watch WrestleMania from the back while three women with far less talent get to compete on the pay-per-view.

3. Christian

Christian was removed from Team Johnny on last night's Raw after a vicious attack by CM Punk, and, apparently, the reasoning behind this is that Christian isn't quite ready to return from injury.

So what's changed in the couple of weeks since Christian was added to the bout?

It looks like the WWE may have jumped the gun on Christian, and now I feel even worse for the guy than I did when I thought he was going to be relegated to performing in that meaningless 12-man tag team match at 'Mania.

Christian didn't compete in a match at WrestleMania 27 and then went on to have a fantastic 2011. But his "reward" is yet another missed WrestleMania and the paycheck that comes along with it.

That's rough for Christian, who was one of the WWE's many MVPs last year.

2. Alberto Del Rio

The circumstances surrounding Alberto Del Rio and his WrestleMania status are pretty interesting.

Check out this report from F4Wonline.com (via WrestleNewz.com):

"

When asked why Alberto Del Rio may be kept off WrestleMania 28, a source with knowledge reported that it was likely due to Del Rio not being 100 percent ready to return. Reports from the weekend live event in Puerto Rico where Del Rio teamed with Ricardo Rodriguez noted that Del Rio performed well in the ring.

"

While it seems like Del Rio is being left off the card because of his nagging injury, reports seem to indicate that he looked good when competing over the weekend.

If that was indeed the case, then why wouldn't he be on the WrestleMania 28 card?

You probably know that I'm not a huge Del Rio fan, but he definitely would bring some star power to the pay-per-view and had a perfect storyline set up for him after he voiced his support for John Laurinaitis at Elimination Chamber.

While I could see why the WWE doesn't want to risk ADR getting injured again, it looks like he's fine and should be in the match anyway.

1. Epico and Primo

The most infuriating thing about last night's episode of Raw was the burial of the WWE Tag Team Champions.

Even though there are about 20 other guys who could have jobbed to The Big Show, the creative team chose to put Primo in that spot. Yes, the same Primo who is holding the tag team titles along with Epico.

These guys should not be jobbing six days before WrestleMania. They are the tag team champions for crying out loud and should be preparing to defend their titles on the grandest stage of them all.

Obviously, the tag team division is nowhere near what it once was, but Epico and Primo have done about as good of a job as they can as the WWE Tag Team Champions, and it's not their fault that the creative team can't book them correctly.

They should have had some type of feud that resulted in a WrestleMania match that would probably be pretty damn good.

Epico and Primo are both very talented guys, and—let me stress this again—the freakin' tag team champions. They deserve to defend their titles at WrestleMania.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.