Apollo Crews Can Help WWE Compete Against More Diverse Programming

WWE's midcard is a lousy one.

Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Cesaro and even Chris Jericho are all talented performers, but they have similar origin stories. It's worth noting Zayn is of Syrian descent who speaks Arabic, and WWE has embraced his background to appeal to this emerging Arab markets such as Dubai.   

The former independent wrestler who traveled the world is a cute angle, but this homogeneous mix continues to dominate WWE programming, and the audience is quickly becoming tone deaf.

Apollo Crews has a similar background to the aforementioned talents, but as a premier African-American talent, he comes with much more diversity.

Still, WWE's presentation of one of its newest stars leaves much to be desired. Crews currently comes off as one-dimensional with little to offer outside of his wrestling ability. Crews can contribute as a breath of fresh air in WWE's midcard, but he needs a storyline that will draw in viewers while breaking up the monotony.

With WWE going up against stiff competition over the next several weeks, wrestling won't be enough. The promotion needs entertaining content.

Jericho, Owens, Cesaro and new No. 1 contender AJ Styles main evented the Raw after WrestleMania. Despite having good wrestling matches, ratings for Raw were down from last year, per ShowBuzzDaily.com (h/t Marc Middleton of WrestlingInc.com). Although that Raw went head-to-head with the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, numbers were much lower than that of the 2014 Raw after WrestleMania in that exact same position.

With so many independent wrestling alumni who appeal to the same underground demographic, it's no wonder that the April 18 edition of Raw—with a main event featuring Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens—once again got smoked by the much more electrifying NBA Playoffs, Love and Hip Hop and more flavorful, diverse programming.

This is especially surprising—and alarming—considering 26 percent of WWE's fanbase is African-American. With similarly popular programming to the African-American demographic airing on other channels, this audience is less likely to stick around for a Raw that is bereft of black stars in main event positions.

Each show that ranked above WWE Raw not only contained African-Americans as a focal point, but also featured African-Americans working in harmony with other races and cultures throughout pivotal moments. WWE's upper midcard and main event talent are dominated by Caucasians, and very rarely feature African-Americans as consistent main event stars. To this day, there still remains much controversy as to WWE's lack of a black WWE champion.

In viewing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship history on WWE.com, only Mark Henry, Booker T and The Rock stand out as black world champions. Booker T and Mark Henry held these championships when they were secondary to the WWE Championship, and while he is half-black, The Rock's Samoan heritage is a much more significant part of his character given the tattoos and ties to the Anoa'i dynasty.

While WWE certainly isn't without diversity, even the New Day—arguably WWE's most popular act, which consists of three African-American WWE Superstars—is positioned as a midcard tag team. By positioning more African-American talents as main eventers, perhaps WWE would be able to eat into the 18-49 demographic of competing programs that have perfected such an art.

Crews has enjoyed a winning streak in his brief stint across WWE programming, but outside of an impressive move set, Crews is not presented as a compelling character.

Simply being a good wrestler who is hungry to be champion is not enough. This is the assumed mission statement of any WWE Superstar. Crews needs to find a niche and build on it on a week-to-week basis. His popularity needs to come from a place of uniqueness that only he can deliver.

Where are the promos? Where's the unique motivation outside of wanting to be a champion? Could he use a manager?

In Crews, WWE has an immense talent who can add balance to the current makeup of the midcard. Even if Crews is paired in a tag team with fellow superathlete Neville, he needs a purpose.

If WWE fails to capitalize on his introduction, fans will quickly dismiss Crews as just another good hand with no real star power to keep casual fans around when Steph Curry is draining threes on TNT.

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.