Kalisto's Booking Damning Evidence of WWE Creative's Inability to Create Stars

"Vince McMahon's going to make money despite himself. He's a millionaire who should be a billionaire. You know why he's not a billionaire? It's 'cause he surrounds himself with glad-handing, nonsensical yes men."

It was June 24, 2011 when CM Punk uttered those words, sitting with his legs crossed on the Raw entrance ramp, his frustrations boiling over and into the mic for the world to hear. While some may have confused his words with bitterness, there was certainly truth to what he was saying.

After years of proving himself, he was sick and tired of being passed over in favor of the established stars who simply were not as good and did not have the connection with the audience that he did. He was unleashing a scathing criticism of Vince McMahon and the creative process in WWE for the world to hear.

Who would have thought that five years after Punk raged against the machine, the same issues that presented themselves at that time would still be relevant?

Thursday night on SmackDown, Kalisto dropped the United States Championship back to Alberto Del Rio just three days after winning it on Raw, the latest bit of damning evidence against WWE Creative's ability to create stars. 

Any form of entertainment is reliant on household names, and unfortunately for WWE, the company's creative staff has done more to harm the future of the company with its inability to produce stars. It heats a character up, be it someone like Dean Ambrose or, going a bit further back in time, John Morrison, then cool him off with implausible losses.

Worse yet is when the writers heat a young star up only to sacrifice him to established stars, as was the case with Kalisto on SmackDown.

Alberto Del Rio may be a very strong wrestler but has never, ever been as over as the pushes he has received, championships he has won and his television time would suggest. Don't believe it? Go back and watch the "response" he received for his win over the masked luchador Thursday night.

The lack of crowd response is not the biggest issue with the title switch, because the audience had not yet fully accepted Kalisto, either. The problem is that the company is in desperate need of stars, especially with the depletion of the roster due to injury.

In Kalisto, it had a flashy performer reminiscent of the great Rey Mysterio. And just as WWE appeared to have hooked the crowd via a clean championship win over Del Rio, it stunted his growth and had him drop the title right back to his overrated rival.

It is a series of unfortunate events that has repeated itself far too often in recent years.

The aforementioned Morrison was a star that the company had heated up and was riding a wave of momentum into 2011. A series of strong victories over Sheamus had Morrison looking poised for the breakout star fans had been waiting for for years. A couple losses to Miz and one inexcusable defeat at the hands of R-Truth, and Morrison's heat was extinguished.

There was Zack Ryder, whose YouTube show Z! True Long Island Story had catapulted him into wrestling stardom. Fans chanted "We want Ryder" in arenas across the country, and at Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2011, it appeared as though Vince McMahon and Company had given into the masses when they booked the underdog to win the United States title. 

Then he dropped it to Jack Swagger and fell right back down the roster.

Everyone from Mark Henry to King Barrett, Bo Dallas to Bray Wyatt have been adversely affected and seen their stars dimmed significantly by WWE Creative's inconsistent booking and inability to create stars, despite having one of the deepest rosters in terms of in-ring ability that the company has ever seen.

Perhaps no case is worse than that of Dolph Ziggler. A phenomenal wrestler who has always had the respect of fans thanks to his considerable skills inside the squared circle, he has been pushed and de-pushed so many times that fans would get whiplash trying to track his movement up and down the card. 

Stars cannot be created when fans cannot decipher who is and who is not to be taken seriously. How can Sheamus be invested in as champion when he was losing tag matches to The Lucha Dragons just days before his title victory? Who can buy into Wyatt and his family when they are losing tag matches to The Dudley Boyz, despite professing the danger they impose to the roster?

The recent treatment of Kalisto is just the latest example of McMahon and his merry band of writers failing fans, failing the wrestlers who work for him and, most damning of all, failing the company that he built from the ground up.

The longer he is allowed to fumble pushes, robbing all three Superstars of momentum that could very well lead to the next wrestling boom period, letting them wallow in the mangled mess of midcarders who may have been, the more he will be a millionaire despite himself.