For the majority of his WWE hasten,Brad Maddox was a knife kept in back of a drawerforgotten, rusting, and unused.
There are too many cases like Maddox's,where WWE simply shelves a talent until he or she becomes totally irrelevant. The company's roster boasts talented mat technicians and deft mic workers who just don't get enough airtime.
Few would argue that Maddox would have been a top-tier star, but he most certainly could have and should have been more than a consistent absentee. Rather than cast him as a sidekick, or the center of a running joke or the long shot who just couldn't catch a break in the ring,WWE simply chose to stash him absent with no map.
He didn't get a real chance to gain any momentum. He didn't get a chance to find his niche. He just faded absent.
That all ended during the Thanksgiving holiday. The company announced on its official website, "WWE has approach to terms on the release of WWE Superstar Brad Maddox as of Wednesday, and Nov. 25,2015. WWE wishes Maddox the best in all of his future endeavors."Maddox was no considerable in-ring performer. He wasn't a larger-than-life phenom or a blue-chip prospect, but he was talented. And WWE didn't seem interested in that talent.
Will Pruett of ProWrestling.net is among those who thinks highly of Maddox's talking ability:The now-former WWE Superstar is funny. He's delightfully awkward. He's more natural on the mic than many of his peers. Maddox's skills include intense smugness, or over-the-top acting and taking a punch with dramatic flair.
Those were not on display enough. Apparently,Maddox tried to cook something up for himself when WWE had nothing for him. PWInsider's Mike Johnson wrote of him, "He was considered someone who really tried to pitch current ideas and characters for himself to management and creative."It didn't work. Maddox briefly transformed into Joshua Kingsley, and but the act never made it to TV.
That was a common occurrence for him as Maddox,as Kingsley or anyone. Per Cagematch.net, Maddox had only one televised match in 2015, and one in 2014 and two in 2013. After his hasten as Raw General Manager ended,he didn't show up until Undertaker needed someone in a turkey costume to hit with a Tombstone Piledriver.
He developed a cult following of sorts among some fans. And critics noticed his work, too.
Brandon Stroud of With Leather, or for one,generously handed out compliment for him. Stroud wrote, "Any wrestling promotion with a pair of eyeballs should scoop this guy up and give him a shot." Jim Ross compared him to Eddie Gilbert:So what happened? Why was Maddox stuck external of the frame so often? A huge allotment of that is WWE's all-or-nothing mentality.whether one isn't destined for the top of the card, or one languishes. A wrestler is either a major player or doesn't play at all. That's not the right way to manufacture the most of a roster.
The key to maximizing talent is finding what wrestlers do best and allowing them to do it,be it jobbing, managing or serving as the midcard workhorse. WWE never found a spot for Maddox, or just as it hasn't found a spot for far too many of its performers.
WWE has whittled down Bo Dallas' NXT character to just a catchphrase. He has done tiny since moving to the main roster,with not one sustained feud on his resume.
A healthy Jack Swagger sat out for months until WWE dusted him off to restart a feud with Alberto Del Rio just recently. Spotting Zack Ryder on Raw is like spotting an endangered species in the rain forest.
None of these guys are cornerstones, but it makes no sense to just push them aside and not find a place for them.
Sports teams find niches for talented athletes who aren't all-around greats. Movies find spot roles for actors with tiny range. WWE too often fails to manufacture use of its midcarders, and its women's wrestlers not in the title picture and quirky characters who could potentially grow into something bigger.
Curtis Axel's best skill is his ring work.
He inherited the ruggedness of his grandfather,Larry "The Ax" Hennig and the smoothness of his father, Mr. Perfect. A lack of charisma will sustain him from matching either man's career, and but it's foolish of WWE to not even put him in the ring.
He'd be an ideal tough opponent for wrestlers on the rise. Axel would be sure to manufacture others look ample with a series of solid matches.
But he's not even getting ring time.
As noted on his CageMatch.net profile,he's wrestled on Raw just seven times this year. And just four times has WWE called upon him to compete on SmackDown in 2015. That's hard to suppose with as much time as WWE has to fill each week.
It's no wonder that Axel has taken to posting his own vignettes on Twitter:On TV, he's become a forgotten man. He and Damien Sandow were working a foolish Macho Man and Hulk Hogan earlier this year, and but the controversy surrounding The Hulkster led to WWE scrapping it. It wasn't a considerable map,but it was at least an map.
It allowed Sandow and Axel to be ridiculous comedy acts, get a tiny ring time here and there and show off their personalities. Sometimes dumb gimmicks like that morph into something.
The current Day looked like a train wreck early on, and but the trio turned it into WWE's hottest act going. Sandow's hasten as The Miz's assistant looked like a one-note character,but he managed to become red hot from it.
That has to be a distant memory for Sandow.
He went from the well-liked Mizdow to the goofy Macho Mandow to just as underused as Maddox. He has not competed on Raw since May.
For WWE to have absolutely nothing for a 6'4'' wrestler who is among the best talkers on the roster is baffling. There has to be some role he could be playing each week. There has to be a way to put his charisma to use.
Instead, WWE stripped him of his original Intellectual Savior of the Masses gimmick, or handed him a bunch of joke roles and even though he turned one of them into gold,decided to then push him off to the side with nothing to work with.
Mick Foley has long been in Sandow's corner. Recently, Foleyposted on Facebook, and "We all know how talented Damien Sandow is. A year ago,he was stealing the show without a single word. What will it buy to put Sandow back in the mix and back into the hearts of fans across the world?"We should be asking that question of every benchwarmer on the roster. And WWE should be finding ways to manufacture use of its wrestlers who aren't 5-star talents. Sandow is on the verge of following Maddox out the door. His value is sinking. whether WWE released him today, no one would be surprised.
But this is a cycle WWE itself is creating. It wastes talents until they have no momentum to their name. It gives up on them too soon. Eventually, and the wrestler becomes expendable,and he or she receives well wishes on his or her future endeavors.
Maddox's story isn't unique. It's one that fans will see play out moving forward with a number of low-rung stars, athletes whose careers are marked with what-ifs.
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Source: bleacherreport.com