Vince McMahon's Biggest Creative Failures Among Stars Laid Off by WWE

The release of many WWE Superstars Wednesday afternoon left the world of wrestling stunned, frustrated, angry and saddened. Men and women who had devoted their lives to chasing stardom in an industry they grew up loving were suddenly without a job. 

As the emotion subsided, though, it became evident that several of those now on the outside of Vince McMahon's sports-entertainment empire can be best classified as some of the chairman's biggest creative failures—through no fault of their own.

In the wake of an industry-shaking day, let's look back at the released Superstars who were most failed by the creative process in WWE.

Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle’s second run with WWE should have been a monumental reminder of his in-ring badassery and undeniable entertainment value outside of it. Instead, it was marred by questionable creative decisions that culminated in a lackluster and disappointing retirement.

First was the revelation that Angle had an affair in college, where he had an illegitimate son who was revealed to be Jason Jordan. While that story was never paid off due to injuries suffered by Jordan, the fact that it existed at all was an indictment on the writing team.

Then there was the half-assed retirement tour that saw Angle wrestle the likes of AJ Styles and Samoa Joe on free television, only to lose to Baron Corbin in an afterthought of a match at WrestleMania 35. Why? So he could make an even greater heel out of The Lone Wolf?

Do you imagine Shawn Michaels was asked to put over The Miz on his way out the door to really solidify The A-Lister as a main event heel? Do you think management pitched Ric Flair on losing to MVP in his last match?

With all due respect to Corbin, who is a phenomenal heel and a great old-school bad guy, Angle had earned better. In an industry where the term "deserved" is thrown around with abandon, that guy deserved better.

While he did have a modern WrestleMania classic in 2018 partnering with Ronda Rousey against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, that one match does not make up for the head-scratchers thrown his way by a writing team, headed by Vinnie Mac himself, that should have had a better plan for him.

Imagine what he could have done for Chad Gable just by being his on-screen mentor.

Sarah Logan

There is a reason Crazy Mary Dobson captured the attention of WWE officials in the first place. An unorthodox worker with an unhinged character, she had raw potential that the company could mold and shape into the performer they wanted her to be.

But they just never really cared.

Logan became a fixture in the NXT women's division (except, she didn't really) before making the jump to the main roster as one-third of The Riott Squad. Unfortunately, even with as much television time as the trio got, she was still wildly underdeveloped. She had no character, rarely won and was unable to connect with fans as a result.

When that group broke up, she wallowed in obscurity before returning just in time for Elimination Chamber on March 8.

The most infuriating part of her story, similar to that of the also-released No Way Jose, is that she was brought into Monday's Raw amid a global pandemic, deemed essential to the night's show and laid off two days later. 

Times are tough, business is business, but Logan's disappointing run in WWE can be traced back to the moment she was brought into the company and seemingly set up to fail, for reasons we may never know.

Hopefully, she finds success beyond WWE and the world gets to know the real howling huntress of professional wrestling.

Drake Maverick

When one looks at the long-term success of a Santino Marella or R-Truth, it is all the most astonishing that Drake Maverick was failed as significantly as he was by WWE Creative.

A virtuoso comedic performer with the potential to be an inspirational underdog babyface, he was never used to the fullest of his potential.

We got flashes of brilliance during his 24/7 Championship run alongside Truth, with whom he created some of the more genuinely enjoyable and entertaining segments in recent WWE television.

Whether he was the general manager of 205 Live, the mouthpiece for The Authors of Pain upon their call-up to the main roster or the comedic relief at a time when the three-hour format of Raw needed it, he was a consummate entertainer and someone who earned a lot better than being wasted via release just after being named as a competitor in the tournament to crown an interim cruiserweight champion.

Lio Rush

Without Lio Rush, Bobby Lashley’s return to WWE would be an abject failure.

During his time as the mouthpiece for The All Mighty, Rush created a dynamic that made fans care about Lashley. The WWE Universe wanted to see Lashley beaten and Rush silenced. They wanted someone to stop Rush from chanting "Lashley." It was a great pairing and more importantly, it gave Rush weekly exposure.

And then it disappeared.

The talented high-flier and athlete returned to television as part of the cruiserweight division, where he won the title and was able to showcase the in-ring talents that weren't apparent to the WWE audience during his run with Lashley. His entertainment value, including his natural charisma, was not allowed to shine.

Horribly misused throughout the course of his run with WWE, Rush is one of those Superstars who will always have "what if?" attached to their name when discussing his run with the company.

Rusev

Rusev is a former United States champion with a high-profile WrestleMania 31 match against John Cena to his name. He was a fixture of WWE television from his arrival on the scene in 2014 all the way through the love triangle storyline between him, real-life wife Lana and Bobby Lashley that engulfed the Raw brand earlier this year. He had opportunities and, on more than one occasion, made the most of them.

And on more than one occasion, he also had the rug pulled out from underneath him.

Even after he lost support in the writer's room, a determined Rusev refused to let himself wallow in obscurity and mediocrity. In 2017, he and Aiden English developed a Rusev Day gimmick that took WWE by storm.

Fans in arenas across the country chanted "Rusev Day" and greeted The Bulgarian Brute with such love that the company had no choice but to turn him babyface, despite its previous insistence on keeping him a one-dimensional foreign fanatic.

Rusev served up WWE Creative and Vince McMahon a gimmick that was immensely over, had fans chanting his name and resulted in the movement of a ton of merchandise—and the company bungled it.

Perhaps out of stubbornness, maybe just because it was ill-prepared to capitalize on the gimmick, he fell back into the midcard abyss, where he stayed until his untimely release Wednesday.

Like the final Superstar on our list, Rusev is one of the hungry and driven stars who did everything he could have to be a success in WWE. When he was unhappy with the direction his character was heading, he offered up an alternative that worked and had him equally as popular as any of the top stars in the company. It went nowhere, though, and as frustration boiled over, it became clear the events of Wednesday would come one way or the other.

Even sadder about the entire ordeal is the fact that Rusev had just pledged $20,000 of his own money to production team members forced off the road due to the coronavirus pandemic, stating, "We can't do it without y'all. Production, security, etc. LOVE YALL [sic]."

Zack Ryder

One of the most visionary and revolutionary personalities in WWE history was released in this round of layoffs in the form of Zack Ryder.

Yes, he is a former intercontinental, United States and Raw tag team champion but his value to the company extended well beyond his in-ring talents. In 2011, he revolutionized professional wrestling, although most of us didn't know it at the time.

It was then that he introduced the world to Z! True Long Island Story, a weekly YouTube show that featured him and his friends in wacky and entertaining stories that allowed them to showcase their personalities and get over, despite the creative shortcomings that limited them on WWE TV.

The result? A massive following that culminated at the 2011 Survivor Series, when the fans in New York's famed Madison Square Garden and chanted "we want Ryder" while the returning Rock tried to cut a promo in the ring.

While WWE Creative managed to kill his brief push, likely hoping to cut his unlikely rise in popularity off at the knees, what it didn't realize is that his success on the YouTube show and the manner in which fans invested in him, Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison throughout it, would lay the groundwork for The Young Bucks to create Being The Elite, which took that formula and perfected it en route to the formation of All Elite Wrestling in 2019.

Ryder was clearly an ideas guy, a young star with his finger on the pulse of this generation's wrestling audience. That he gifted Vince McMahon and the writing team a character fans clearly wanted to see succeed proved as much.

That McMahon and Co. threw it away by mid-2012 simply because it wasn't their brainchild shows the uphill battle the Long Island native faced in trying to succeed in a company he watched as a child, dreaming to one day compete in.

Disappointment is a word used repeatedly throughout this article, but in Ryder's case, no word better sums up his stint with WWE than "sadness."

He did everything he needed to, became an internet sensation and handed everything over to the company he trusted to make him a star. And they responded by spitting in his face and shoving him back down the card, in a not-so-subtle reminder to know his role and not step out of line.

Of everyone to face sudden and unexpected uncertainty as a result of the mass layoffs WWE perpetrated Wednesday, Ryder's is the one that feels least fair. Hopefully, he can seize the opportunity to go elsewhere, kick ass and shove his success in the faces of those who did not believe in him.

One thing is for sure, though: He has a supporter in friend (and AEW executive vice president) Cody Rhodes, who applauded him in an emotional Instagram post.