WWE: 7 Superstars Who Would Make Great Producers/Road Agents When They Retire

When some pro wrestlers retire, they distance themselves from the business or move onto other ventures like acting or radio.

But plenty of them stick around even after they hang their boots up to become what the WWE calls "producers" or "road agents."

An agent or producer in WWE terms works as a medium between the creative team and the wrestlers, helping today's WWE stars in multiple areas such as match planning, story lines, promos and even character development.

Among the former wrestlers working as agents today are BG "Road Dogg" James, Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko, and as time goes on, those guys will be joined by other former stars who become agents themselves.

So, which current stars would fit well into a role as a WWE agent?

Here are my top seven.

7. Santino Marella

Santino Marella might not strike you as someone who would be a great agent, but I think he'd fit the role perfectly.

Though Santino isn't known for main-eventing PPVs, that's not what being a producer is all about.

Santino has proven to be one of the most entertaining performers in the WWE, and even though his gimmick doesn't translate to phenomenal wrestling, he's also one of the company's most underrated performers in that area.

Were Santino to ever have a more serious gimmick that highlighted his in-ring skills, I think you would notice that the guy is actually a pretty damn good wrestler.

He's someone who could help up-and-coming WWE talent in all areas, from technical wrestling to entertaining the crowd during matches to promos.

6. CM Punk

There's nothing that CM Punk doesn't do well.

I know it's not exactly deviating from the norm to praise Punk, but the truth is that the guy is really good at just about everything he does.

He is probably the most well-rounded talent in pro wrestling at the moment, so as you might expect, he's got a plethora of tools that he could definitely help pass on to the next generation of talent.

Punk is a great psychologist, and he's someone who can help assist future wrestlers with their promos, technical wrestling, everything.

While Punk may not necessarily strike me as someone who will end up as an agent down the road, he does strike me as someone who would be great at the job.

5. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho has made a career out of making others look good—it's only fitting that he continue to do so after retires.

Although Y2J will likely move on to a full-time music career with Fozzy once his wrestling career is over, he, like Punk, is a guy who can do just about anything there is to do in the wrestling business.

Jericho has worked countless amazing matches throughout his career, becoming one of the WWE's best technical wrestlers and most charismatic superstars in the process.

He knows what does and doesn't work during a match, he knows how to perform as a face or a heel, and perhaps most importantly, he knows how to get the fans involved in any match, even if it's against an NXT rookie named Heath Slater.

Not many guys have the gifts that Jericho has, and should he work with the WWE's rising talent in the future, I have no doubt that he'll pass those gifts on to others.

4. Randy Orton

Randy Orton is only 31 years old, but he's already been in the WWE for a decade.

If he retires when he's 45 years old, then he'll still be relatively young, but he will have already had 25 years of experience in the business.

Along with all that experience comes a lot of knowledge, and I think Orton's knowledge of the business already shines through in each and every one of his matches.

Orton, at least in my view, has developed the best in-ring psychology in the business, as just about every single one of his matches has a great flow and tells a good story.

If for no other reason than to work with the WWE's stars on telling stories and being good psychologists in the ring, Orton should be an agent when his wrestling days are over.

The young guys could learn a lot from watching Orton's maneuvering and pacing in the ring.

3. Dolph Ziggler

I can already see it now: "Selling 101, Taught by Dolph Ziggler."

Seriously, I think Ziggler would make an excellent trainer because there's no better seller or bumper in pro wrestling.

But I also think he'd make a great agent because he's got such a well-rounded skill set: He's charismatic, he's worked in tag teams, he's jobbed, he's main-evented, he's got an amateur and technical wrestling background, etc.

Ziggler has developed into one of the best overall talents in pro wrestling, and he could help any WWE star in just about any area.

He's sort of like the WWE's renaissance man, and although the booking of his character is so up-and-down, that doesn't change the fact that the dude can flat-out wrestle, which should be the No. 1 characteristic of any agent.

If you can't wrestle, what the hell are you doing here?

2. Christian

Christian has put together a Hall-of-Fame-caliber career, and I think he'll get that much-deserved induction one day.

The question is: Will he be a WWE agent when that day comes?

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, because, like with just about everyone else on this list, Christian is one of the best overall talents in pro wrestling.

He's proven to be as reliable and consistent of a performer as there is, putting on great matches for nearly 15 years now and doing so in different phases of the business—he's done it as a tag team, as a mid-carder, as a main-eventer and even in TNA.

Although Christian doesn't stand out as the best at any particular thing, the one constant is that Christian has always been a great performer.

There are few men that are still around who have the knowledge, experience and skills that Captain Charisma has.

1. Daniel Bryan

If you want to improve as a performer and become successful in pro wrestling, then you might want to learn from a guy who learned from William Regal and Shawn Michaels.

I'm talking, of course, about Daniel Bryan, who has taken the wrestling world by storm in 2012 and has become one of the biggest stars in the business.

He's done that for two reasons: His character development and his in-ring skills.

There may be no better all-around talent than Bryan, who can do anything and everything a pro wrestler is supposed to do, and he can do it well.

Psychology? Check.

Technical skills? Check.

The list goes on and on.

If there was one person who could work with up-and-coming talent and help them dramatically improve in multiple different areas, it would be Daniel Bryan.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.