Return of Kane Continues Unfavorable Trend of Veteran WWE Title Contenders

Seth Rollins' string of WWE World Heavyweight Championship contenders is following a disturbing pattern.

Night of Champions ended with the return of the demon Kane, now 48, who seems positioned as Rollins' latest challenger. A match against Kane seems fitting for the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, but it's also an indictment of WWE's youth movement.

Following Rollins' WWE Championship victory in April, he began his reign against contemporaries such as Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. But after multiple title defenses against his peers, Rollins' last three WWE Championship matches on pay-per-view have come against WWE Superstars over the age of 38.

Event	Date	Opponent	Age
Battleground	July 19, 2015	Brock Lesnar	38
SummerSlam	August 23, 2015	John Cena	38
Night of Champions	September 20, 2015	Sting	56

With Kane back in the mix to continue that trend, WWE's young stars of tomorrow will continue to be merged into an ambiguous midcard. 

With such a grizzled field of recent contenders, WWE is delaying the process of establishing strong rivalries between its current talent. These rivalries would only be made stronger through high-stakes matches for the world title.

Instead, many promising talents are reduced to starring in cheap love triangles, such as Rusev, and repetitive tag team matches, such as the saga between Reigns-Ambrose and the Wyatts.

If the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the most important title in the company, most WWE Superstars should be vying for it.

With no full-time WWE Superstars in contention—outside of Sheamus, who is only a contender on the merits of the Money in the Bank briefcase—not only does it reflect poorly on the roster, but it also reflects poorly on the championship.

A tournament, a Battle Royal or a Beat the Clock challenge featuring current WWE Superstars will allow fans to take regular talents more seriously as potential No. 1 contenders. 

WWE needs to put more fresh faces in the world title picture to cement future WWE top stars as main eventers of the present.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @ThisIsNasty and subscribe to his weekly wrestling podcast.