10 Former Champions WWE Isn’t Utilizing Right Now

WWE always has more than 100 wrestlers on its roster at any given time. One would think that it would be easy to fit in all of the active talent onto weekly programming, when considering there are Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live, Main Event and NXT segments to fill — with a battle royal, an eight-man tag, and/or a lumberjack match — but alas, that doesn’t always happen.

Here are some of the former champions who WWE is not doing much with at the moment:

Mark Henry – We saw Mark Henry in the Royal Rumble and he also made an enhancement-esque appearance following the Rumble, but he has not been part of a major storyline in a long time. Go back and watch that fake retirement promo he did with John Cena and tell me that the man can’t be better utilized.

Goldust – The man is in much better shape now than he was in his 20s or 30s, and he always gets a great reaction when coming through the curtain.

R-Truth – Speaking of Goldust, there’s the other half of The Golden Truth. Still in great shape. Just a few years ago he had done very well with his “Little Jimmy” concept, headlining a pay-per-view alongside John Cena, The Rock and The Miz.

Jack Swagger – It is widely-known that Jack Swagger asked for his release and WWE has not yet granted it. Swagger was a World Heavyweight Champion and worked at the top of the card for quite a while. He and Cesaro were a surprisingly-great pairing as The Real Americans.

Titus O’Neil – Within the past week, Titus sent out a tweet that referenced Swagger’s situation and hinted at being in a similar situation himself. The former tag champion was teased as a new member of The New Day for a few weeks, but has been fledging as a jobber for the past few months. No reason a guy of that size should be used as an enhancement talent, eh?

Darren Young – Titus’ old tag team partner was teased with last year’s ill-fated “Make Darren Great Again” vignettes. After the vignettes ran their course, he disappeared without explanation. Then he got hurt during a televised match. But even without the injury, WWE is unarguably missing out by not having Mr. No Days Off making public appearances on behalf of the company.

Heath Slater – Like the aforementioned Jack Swagger, Heath Slater was brought into Smackdown as “the hottest free agent.” He and Rhyno had a fun run as tag champs, but have since been quiet. In fact, it is unclear if he and Rhyno are still a team as the teased tension was not fully worked out.

Kane – 2017 is said to be the first time that Kane had not been at the Royal Rumble in 21 years. Statistics aside, Kane has not been involved in a significant storyline since he was the angle with The Authority. If healthy, there’s no reason that Kane cannot be a WrestleMania legacy mainstay the way that The Undertaker is.

Curtis Axel – Curtis Axel was reinvented a few months back with the “skol” concept, but he has since gone quiet again. Before that, The Social Outcasts were never properly disbanded. And prior to that, his run as Axelmania never got a proper send-off due to Hulk Hogan’s then-pressing scandal.

Bo Dallas – Speaking of The Social Outcasts, some weeks Bo has been destroying enhancement talent and other weeks he has been the enhancement talent. Either way, we haven’t seen much of the former NXT champion lately.

Maybe the answer is for WWE to create another off-shoot of Main Event?