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3 talented stars on the main roster without a creative direction

The WWE roster is definitely overcrowded.
The WWE roster is definitely overcrowded.

WWE has a loaded roster of about 200 Superstars, of which an estimated 150 are men and approximately 50 are women. To cope with such an enormous roster, WWE has 4 main shows on a weekly basis - Raw, SmackDown Live, 205 Live and NXT. WWE's Main Event also takes place weekly, but most fans don't give much significance to it as it doesn't air on the WWE Network. Excluding Main Event and pay per-view weeks, WWE provides fans with 7 hours of television weekly - 3 hours of Raw, 2 hours of SmackDown Live and an hour of NXT and 205 Live.

Even with so many weekly shows, many stars are unable to appear regularly on television. These stars often lack creative direction, so many officials backstage in WWE don't feel the need to bring them up on television. Lack of creative direction can be due to a number of reasons.

Firstly, the star may not be able to connect with the fans the way WWE wants them too, thus WWE might not know how to book them if fans are not interested in them. Secondly, the roster is so huge that even 7 hours of weekly programming aren't enough. It's an arduous task to write story-lines for so many stars, many of which have unique characters. Hence, those that are not particularly prioritized by WWE, are often neglected.

A third reason could be the unbalanced roster. For example, on both Raw and SmackDown Live, there is a lack of quality heels for the babyfaces. Hence, many babyfaces don't have creative direction as WWE has no heel to feud with them. WWE seldom does babyface vs babyface matches.

This list focuses on 3 talented individuals on the main roster that lack purpose and creative direction.


3. Ali

Ali has been a great addition to the SmackDown Live roster
Ali has been a great addition to the SmackDown Live roster

Ali debuted on SmackDown Live in December, instantly becoming a fan favorite and earning the respect and admiration of the fans and WWE officials. Management was high on him initially, he pinned then-WWE Champion, Daniel Bryan, on his first night on the main roster. He also defeated Andrade on a couple of occasions and had an impressive showing in the Royal Rumble match. Ali fell with injury after the Rumble match and was written off. He returned soon, but he had to regain momentum and rebuild himself.

Ever since his return in March, Ali has fallen down the pecking order. He did compete in a WWE Title match at Fastlane, but came up short. Ali's fortunes were about to change at Money in the Bank when he was a whisker away from grabbing the briefcase, until Brock Lesnar's music hit. Lesnar assaulted Ali and ruined his dream. Since then, Ali hasn't done much.

Ali has been kept off television lately and that could be due to WWE's loaded roster. He has immense potential, so I don't expect him to remain directionless for long.

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