WWE: Can Alex Riley Succeed on Raw Without The Miz?

At a time when WWE's main event scene is alarmingly thin and the company is scrambling for new potential stars to replace all the ones they have lost, it seems pertinent to examine the company's options when it comes to mid-carder, and one-time henchman of WWE main event star The Miz, Alex Riley.

He's had a decidedly hit-or-miss career on Raw since acrimoniously splitting with his mentor in May of this year.

Last summer, when he was introduced on NXT Season 2, Riley garnered attention and praise for his obnoxious jock character, which he played to perfection. Clad in a varsity jacket and exuding arrogance and cockiness in every promo and interview, Riley was an outstanding and memorable character on what was ultimately a rather lukewarm second season.

As a bonus, Riley (real name: Robert Kiley) managed to dodge any of the truly atrocious names given out in Season 2 to the poor, unsuspecting wrestlers (Eli Cottonwood, Husky Harris). Hey, that had to be a relief.

In more good news, Riley was at this point reported to be a heavy favourite with WWE management, who were fans of his attitude and look and wanted him to win the show. Although, in the end, it was indie sensation Kaval who emerged victorious (much good it did him).

Despite Riley's loss, shortly after that he was appointed as an enforcer for The Miz, who also served as Riley's coach during that NXT season. Indeed, while Kaval may have won the overall contest, it was Riley who gained the real promotion from his exposure on the show, as Kaval languished in WWE’s lower card, before eventually being released in December last year.

The Miz and Riley were an excellent paring (both had incredibly arrogant attitudes and, not surprisingly, Miz found his second NXT rookie far more agreeable than his first, the troublesome Daniel Bryan).

This addition greatly helped Miz, who has often been criticised by fans and critics for not exuding toughness or appearing dangerous enough to be a top guy. With the burly Riley in his corner, Miz became much more intimidating and it was easier to buy him as a threat to the established main eventers.

Serving as Miz's right-hand man also gave Riley his most high-profile role to date, as he was often featured prominently on Raw and PPVs. The NXT star found himself working with main eventers like John Cena and Randy Orton on a regular basis.

Providing the muscle and often taking the bumps for his cowardly boss, he performed admirably in what must have been a nerve-racking role for a relative newcomer to television.

Their split was handled well, too. After Miz lost the title to John Cena and failed to get it back, he became increasingly erratic and took to blaming Riley for all his problems, harshly berating him in backstage promos and in front of the live crowd for costing him the title.

Eventually the long-suffering Riley, with the full support of the crowd behind him, finally snapped and beat the living daylights out of his whiny boss.

More impressively, he generally dominated their feud and even managed to beat The Miz clean at WWE's Capitol Punishment PPV. Many predicted that Riley could become a big star out of this.

After all, the crowd reactions were there and he often performed with gusto in his post-face turn segments with a now-seething Miz and annoying heel announcer Michael Cole. He was also aided by a fantastic new theme song (seriously, listen to it, it's like the best '80s sports anthem ever).

Of course, as most know, this didn't quite happen. And after his victory at the PPV, Riley found himself demoted back down to the mid-card, where he has been floundering ever since. He seems to be an afterthought to the booking team, who appear to put little effort into him.

More disturbingly, his once-impressive crowd reactions aren't really there anymore either, and the fans have become indifferent to him.

So what happened?

It's possible that the ever-fickle WWE booking team lost interest. This may be likely, as others like Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler (who Riley has been feuding with lately) have been similarly demoted for no real reason, other than the booker's were mad they didn't get over enough as hoped and quickly gave up.

Indeed, it's been difficult for any aspiring mid-carder, with the exception of Alberto Del Rio and The Miz, to gain any real traction the main events in recent times, due to the lazy and inconsistent booking,

But we can't simply pin all the blame on management. Some of it is surely down to Riley's gaping flaws as a performer, which may explain WWE's reluctance to push him to a main event level.

One thing is that despite his promising personality, even Riley supporters still acknowledge he has quite some way to go as far as his in-ring skills are concerned. While he undoubtedly works hard and is no slouch, he is still uncoordinated, prone to botches and appears to lack confidence when he's wrestling.

Notably, he broke The Miz's nose in one of their house show matches a few months ago (and many on-lookers noted that, after this happened, Mizanin seemed to be extra careful in there with his former protégée).

There was also Riley's deeply embarrassing botch in a match with Jack Swagger last month: Swagger went for his Gutwrench Powerbomb finisher, Riley, for some reason, sandbagged him and Swagger was frustratingly forced to do the move with an uncooperative opponent.

Swagger, in an impressive display of strength, actually managed to pick him and do the move the third time he tried, but the finish still looked an absolute mess, and everyone noticed.

Make no mistake about it: Riley did not have a good night and almost certainly did himself no favours whatsoever with management. And if he wants to perform in main events on a regular basis, he has to start wrestling like a main eventer, not doing the bare minimum and relying on others to carry him.

It’s difficult enough to navigate through the politically hazardous world of the WWE main event scene without having that giant mark against you too.

Another issue may be that Riley is simply a natural heel and struggles to excel in the face role. He oozes arrogance and sleaze, and forcing him into to being a baby-face may be extremely unwise. Indeed, our virtuous good guy has been reduced to taking nasty, cheap verbal shots at poor Vickie Guerrero (which really is a sign of baby-face desperation).

At the moment, I would have to say Riley's career post-Miz looks decidedly bleak. Far more talented wrestlers than he have found themselves stuck in the upper mid-card, tantalizingly close to the main events, but ultimately unable to break through the thick glass ceiling.

He has the size and look, which greatly aids him with the image-obsessed management, but that's of little use if he can't back it up in the ring.

Perhaps, if he wants things to turn around, Riley could start taking in-ring advice from skilled veteran wrestlers, like William Regal or Triple H, or even head back to FCW a few times a month to go over his in-ring skills and become a better, smoother wrestler with a firmer grasp of the basics and psychology.

One thing's for sure: Riley has to improve greatly as a performer if he's to convince management to give him another shot on top.