Opinion: What should WWE do with Mike Kanellis
Mike Kanellis made his WWE debut almost a year ago now, and they have still yet to actually do anything with him.
A veteran of Ring of Honor, New Japan, and Impact Wrestling, the former X Division Champion made his WWE debut alongside wife and previous WWE star, Maria Kanellis on June 18, 2017, at WWE Money In The Bank.
Kanellis faced Sami Zayn in his WWE debut match in a winning effort, exactly one month after his debut, but lost their re-match and first pay-per-view match at WWE Battleground. Losing a match of that magnitude that early on didn't look good for Mike's future.
Mike did pretty much nothing for the rest of the year. During that period, he spent some time off the road recovering from years of drug abuse, as documented on WWE's YouTube account.
Mike entered 2018 with a purpose, with a more impressive physic, however, WWE is still yet to act on his obvious talents. Mike is not on WWE's UK tour, which ends this week.
Mike has only appeared sporadically on WWE live events in 2018 and has made very few TV appearances, with his 'highlight' thus far being he entering at number 6 in the Greatest Royal Rumble, where he was eliminated by Mark Henry in just 2.49 seconds.
It seems likely that WWE was trying to attempt the shortest Royal Rumble time record here, which is still held by Santino Marella.
So where can Mike go from here? Is he too far gone to make a big impact?
I don't think so. Love or hate Jinder Mahal, he should be considered an inspiration to lower card stars like Mike.
Jinder was pretty much a TV jobber up until April 2017, and then, out of nowhere, became WWE Champion. So if it can happen to the former 3MB rocker, it can happen to anyone. So what to do with Mike?
Recently on RAW, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre formed an alliance. For the moment, they do not appear to be in pursuit of the Tag Team titles, possibly because of plans for them to have the top tier feud with main event talent, that they deserve. What I would love to see is for Dolph and Drew to expand their team into a faction.
A faction of underrated and underused stars, to lead attacks on the entire roster, like the Nexus, and make their presence known.
I think Mike would make a great addition to their unit, along with one or two other equally talented, yet underused Superstars. If WWE gives them the same kind of attention they did to a group like the Nexus, then there is no telling in how far they, and Mike Kanellis can go.