Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan and Every Current WWE Champion's Biggest Flaw
At least in theory, the champions in WWE should be considered the best of the best.
But while there are spirited debates about whether Seth Rollins or Becky Lynch is truly "the man" or if someone like Brock Lesnar is the absolute pinnacle of WWE, every champion has their flaws.
Nobody is perfect, and when they are holding gold, their issues—major or minor—are magnified due to the increased amount of spotlight they absorb.
With that in mind, these are what could be considered the biggest flaws of the current champions on the WWE roster.
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
1 of 9
Shinsuke Nakamura was immediately a big deal upon his arrival to WWE, quickly becoming NXT champion and moving to the main roster relatively soon after that.
He carried that momentum into a spot on the SmackDown roster and won the Royal Rumble, where it seemed like his destiny was to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.
That didn't come to pass, and since then, Nakamura has suffered from a string of months that amount to virtually nothing.
His losses started stacking up, and when he won the United States title, it seemed like the start of turning that around. But things actually got even worse as WWE just stopped using him at all.
Somehow, winning a title made him even less of a priority. By now, Nakamura's biggest flaw is that he's someone WWE doesn't feel the need to do something with.
Why that is the case is anyone's guess, but given the treatment of people who suffer from an inability to cut better promos, either due to a language barrier like Asuka or just a lack of verbal talent like others, his mic work could well be the culprit for this lack of a push.
If Nakamura were a better talker or had a manager to carry that part of the storytelling for him, he would be more of a focal point and not a champion who hasn't had a legitimate feud since July.
Without the ability to cut promos, it seems Nakamura is stuck on the sidelines with the writers not knowing what to do with him.
Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins
2 of 9
It's hard to think of a flaw for someone like Seth Rollins. He's one of the biggest babyfaces in the company who exemplifies a hero's attitude and backs up his words with his fists.
He's one of the good guys who fights with honor and respect, but that doesn't hinder him. If anything, it's a strength, as his heart is on display when he gives it his all in the ring.
He's had some injuries and even caused some to other people, but those aren't issues popping up every time he steps out into an arena or anything of the sort. Rather, he seems to be one of the most reliable people as far as performances go.
In many ways, he's exactly what WWE is looking for in an all-around star. And yet, he's not the guy.
Oddly enough, what might be his biggest flaw is not something that he's at fault for, which is simply that he isn't Roman Reigns, who has been WWE's choice as the true standout of The Shield.
Being associated with Reigns is a double-edged sword. It's good for Rollins and Dean Ambrose in terms of group recognition, but it's bad because those two will always be the ones to take the fall and play second-fiddle to Reigns if WWE has a choice.
In an unfortunate set of circumstances, Reigns is out of action while having treatment for leukemia, which has immediately boosted Rollins' stock as perhaps the top guy on Raw, save for Brock Lesnar.
When Reigns was around, Rollins was good enough for the midcard title, but not the Universal Championship, and the surge Rollins is getting from the power vacuum of Reigns' absence only further illustrates how being on the same brand as The Big Dog is perhaps the only thing holding him back.
Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy
3 of 9
NXT's best-kept secret Buddy Murphy wowed the WWE Universe with his transformation from a guy whose career was circling the drain on the developmental house show circuit to being one of the standout performers on 205 Live.
Since cutting weight and going to that brand, Murphy's stock has risen so much that he might as well be a different person, as he sure comes off like he was reborn.
All things considered, Murphy is one of the best performers on the 205 Live roster, exuding more confidence every week and putting on tremendous performances like it's easy.
But his biggest flaw is that he's still just a member of the cruiserweight division and someone who is a big fish in a small pond.
If the brand split were to end tomorrow and 205 Live cease to be a separate entity, Murphy, even as champion, would be viewed as someone lesser than the regular members of the Raw and SmackDown rosters.
He wouldn't be booked as on par with a world champion or even as if he were holding a true midcard title. He'd be placed in the 2018 equivalent of the European or Hardcore Championship level from that era, as someone supplemental.
No matter how good he and his fellow roster members are, the fact that the Cruiserweight Championship doesn't get on most pay-per-view cards nowadays speaks volumes to how little WWE cares about the division and how even someone as skilled as Murphy is still just not a big deal in its mind.
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Raw Tag Team Champions Akam and Rezar, the Authors of Pain
4 of 9
AOP's biggest flaw isn't even them at all, it's their manager, Drake Maverick.
As a performer, Maverick is great. He stepped into WWE with a level of comfort that made it seem like he had been there for years and has upped the value of the 205 Live brand by being a great general manager for that show.
In theory, he could have translated that charism into being a great manager on Raw or SmackDown, but being paired with Akam and Rezar has always felt strange.
Paul Ellering made it work because he came off as the brains behind the brawn and someone twisted enough to plan the machinations of the destruction The Authors of Pain brought down on their opponents, yet Maverick is written in no such way.
He's more along the lines of how in Star Wars, Salacious Crumb is the smiley little pest beside Jabba the Hutt, who is there for no reason other than to be annoying.
This recent storyline of Maverick peeing himself and then trying to make up for being laughed at by urinating on Bobby Roode's robe is uninspiring and comedic—in an unfunny way—which flies in direct opposition of what AOP should be representing.
Instead of hammering the point that these two behemoths are a destructive force to be reckoned with, WWE's current focal point for the tag team champions is their manager's bathroom habits.
They shouldn't be booked for laughs. They should be treated like dominators.
SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus, The Bar
5 of 9
Sheamus is a multi-time world champion and Cesaro has several titles to his name as well. Together as a unit, The Bar have held tag team gold five times.
But nobody cares, and that's the biggest flaw with the current SmackDown tag team champions.
They're nothing special right now. They're just simply fine.
We've seen this act before and with more energy, passion and purpose, so they just feel like they're repeating something that was better two years ago.
Since becoming champions, they've primarily been hanging around with Big Show for seemingly no reason other than WWE wanted to put them together, and that story has already ended with a whimper instead of a bang.
These two are talented, but there's no effort coming from them or WWE's creative team to spice things up and give fans a reason to care about the tag team division on Tuesday nights, so the whole act is forgettable.
SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch
6 of 9
For the longest time, Becky Lynch was the runt of the litter when it came to The Four Horsewomen, as Charlotte Flair was always the golden child, Sasha Banks was the second-in-command and Bayley was the scrappy underdog.
Lynch didn't have her proper spot and wasn't even able to fully capitalize on her potential during her first title reign as SmackDown women's champion, and she fell to the back of the line after that.
But in the past few months, she caught lightning in a bottle and her popularity has ascended to a level where she has become one of the most beloved acts in WWE today that pretty much has no flaws to speak of.
It can be argued that her biggest issue right now is her injury, but even that is something we will likely look back on as a blessing in disguise that only helped further her career out of sympathy and making fans wait for the Ronda Rousey match.
She's in the best position she's ever been in, her character is evolving to new and interesting levels every time she comes out, her promos are getting better as her confidence grows and her in-ring skills have never been in question.
What flaws are there to point out about The Irish Lass Kicker other than that this all didn't happen sooner or that she hasn't been cloned yet to give us two of her?
Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey
7 of 9
From the onset, Ronda Rousey was going to be a prominently featured star in WWE just due to her celebrity status and athletic background. Thankfully, she's lived up to the hype, instead of being eaten alive by the pressure.
But as good as she has been and how much progress she's made since her debut, it's glaringly obvious just how inexperienced she is when it comes to the world of professional wrestling.
She's mostly learning on the job, and she's coming along fantastically, but every screw-up she has stands out as something that reminds viewers that she's new to the game and is nowhere near a seasoned performer.
An example of this is how often she comes out to the ring smiling like a regular celebrity would while doing a guest spot, only to then remember that she is supposed to be angry, so she puts on her mean face and starts to act for her promos. We can see the switch happen.
Also, her ring work is sometimes spotty, coming off a little rough when having to call something on the fly or when a move isn't executed perfectly according to plan. In a way, you can see that she's flustered and not as smooth as someone like Mickie James or Randy Orton would be in the same circumstance.
This is all fine, though. Relatively speaking, when her biggest flaw is that she's new and not perfect yet, that's a testament to how good she already is at this and how as time goes on, the better she'll continue to get.
WWE Champion Daniel Bryan
8 of 9
It's sad to say it, but Daniel Bryan's biggest flaw has always been his appearance.
Had he been born with a few extra inches to his height and everything else exactly the same, Bryan never would have been in question for someone to put in the main event.
The stigma of being "too small" for a top spot has always lingered in WWE—the land of the giants—and thankfully, that has been dwindling over the past few years, but it still does exist to a certain extent.
Someone like Bryan was able to capitalize on this by tapping into the underdog story and turning into the skid, so to speak, much like Rey Mysterio before him. But if Bryan were to have the body of Bobby Lashley, he never would have had to struggle as hard to become champion to begin with.
Still, he made it on several occasions despite this uphill battle, and as the current WWE champion and a heel on top of that, Bryan is in a great spot right now to turn things around, forgo the underdog aspect and prove his value as a top guy.
Here's hoping his one and only other major flaw, which is his history of injuries that prevented him from wrestling for several years, does not get in the way of his success ever again.
With enough good luck stopping that from happening, Bryan may well be on the path to undoing that stigma of being too small for the big time.
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar
9 of 9
Brock Lesnar is a monster who has the appearance and legitimate background to truly come off as a wrecking ball unlike any other.
That is, of course, when he is allowed to do that.
When push comes to shove, Lesnar is able to put on good matches, as evidenced by his performance at Survivor Series.
The fatal flaw that has plagued his past few years is how WWE seems to be perfectly content with having him do the least amount of work and effort possible and that is absolutely it.
The bare minimum is all we get to see. WWE either actively wants him to do nothing but German suplexes and an F-5 in short matches only a few times a year with a handful of silent appearances on Raw to build to those lame matches, or that is Lesnar's call and no greater effort is made to get more out of him.
By now, his reputation is that he's either lazy, greedy and selfish, or that WWE specifically wants him to be the embodiment of why fans get frustrated and stop watching the product and forces that type of performance on to him.
Either way, it's a misguided direction that hinders his status as a quality performer, as he used to be in a completely different boat before this mandate to make him the unstoppable guy who is never around.
When Lesnar brings his A game, he's great. But when that only happens for roughly 15 minutes or so a year, it just isn't good enough.
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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