Many of us can relate to being in a job that doesn’t utilize our talents or takes our plans/ideas seriously because we’re just the “employees.” Now amplify that tenfold by having TV cameras on you and millions of fans watching your plight, as you’re a pro wrestler trying to build a career in spite of company roadblocks.

WWE’s landscape is littered with competitors with wasted talent. Whether it be due to a performer’s lack of commitment and work rate, or backstage politics, or a poor effort on the company’s part with creative booking, some talented individuals have fallen through the cracks. Ask Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow or Wade Barrett how happy they were with their characters’ direction during their final year in WWE. As wrestling fans, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing unfulfilled potential with some of our favorite performers.

Looking at the current WWE roster, there’s more than a few superstars that have been floundering in their roles. We pick out the men and women that could certainly be more than mid-card players if given the right opportunity.

Cesaro

The poster boy for untapped success is “The Swiss Superman.” Some guys on the roster get pushed for a variety of random reasons but the three main ones usually come down to looks, size and mic work. From Hall of Famers (Steve Austin & Ric Flair) to industry insiders and obviously fans, everyone knows that Cesaro has all the tools to become a main event superstar. Physically, he looks like a top level wrestler. His promo skills are actually underrated, as he’s gotten better over the past couple of years. As for his wrestling skills, the man can go, as he’s probably the most gifted athlete in the company. Even with all of these positives going for him, Cesaro’s had a few failures to launch.

Coming into WWE, Cesaro was a top indie wrestler with a good run in Ring of Honor (ROH). Since then he’s been a tag team champion; won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 30; had a brief stint as a “Paul Heyman Guy” and started his own fan phenomenon with the “Cesaro Section.” Currently he’s spinning his wheels, stuck in tag-team with Sheamus on RAW that started as a ho-hum feud. Clearly he’s on the wrong brand, as he could be better utilized on Smackdown Live, fighting with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. Don’t be surprised if he decides to walk away from WWE if Vince McMahon and his brain-trust keep squandering away his talent.

Nia Jax

Nia is a unique talent for the women’s roster. Her exotic beauty, size and character could easily position her as the female version of Brock Lesnar or The Undertaker. That’s not saying that she’s on their level in terms of drawing power or longevity for success. No, you build her up as an unstoppable threat in similar fashion to them. She can be that powerhouse that has a long reign as champion or simply is a special attraction by the way she wreaks havoc through the women’s roster.

Some can argue that WWE is currently on that path with Nia, having her destroy local competitors on TV every week. However, three months of her fighting jobbers has gotten stale and her character has been given no real direction or feud. Instead of being drafted to RAW in July, she should have stayed in NXT to allow her feud with Asuka to progress into possibly a classic one. The experience and skillset she would have gained fighting a seasoned competitor like Asuka, would have advanced her much further than spending months fighting nobodies.

A return to NXT isn’t gonna happen. The RAW women’s division has just been about Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Bayley battling it out for the championship. That combination has gotten repetitive, leading to Nia suggesting on Twitter that other women get title opportunities. Maybe Nia will insert herself into the title picture, proving more than worthy against Sasha or Charlotte.

Looks like a bunch of little GIRLS yelling about the #WomensTitle... maybe it's time for a new WOMAN to have an opportunity at it. #RAW

— Nia Jax (@NiaJaxWWE) September 27, 2016

Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn should be the Intercontinental Champion right now. While his former best-friend Kevin Owens is at the top of the RAW mountain as Universal champion, Zayn has become almost an afterthought, floundering with no real purpose. There’s no better prototypical baby-face star than Sami, as fans love to rally behind him. On top of that, the guy can put on great matches, with amazing in-ring talent. But just like everyone else on this list, Sami falls into the wasted potential category.

Zayn’s been the NXT champ and has had his moments here and there on the main roster. Obviously he works well with Kevin Owens as their ongoing feud is gold every time they meet in and out of the ring. The first half of 2016 started out well but since summer, Sami’s been paired with Neville, another competitor who is undervalued. If Sami isn’t competing for any of the RAW titles, creative doesn’t have much for him. Like our friend Cesaro, a remedy would be getting traded to Smackdown where he would be in the Intercontinental mix, which is exactly what his career needs at this point.

The Wyatt Family

Where The Undertaker ended, Bray Wyatt and his followers should have continued and been the new face of fear in the world of sports entertainment. But things never work out as they should. At this point, the story of The Wyatt Family should serve as a cautionary tale of how something so unique and interesting can deteriorate and go bad due to inept booking. The Wyatt Family consists of Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman (even though he’s been pulled to RAW). What should be the most dominant faction in wrestling is just a mess of talented performers stuck in mediocrity.

How WWE has continuously blundered this group’s potential is just an unsolved mystery in wrestling. The group goes from feud to feud, losing matches and any momentum in establishing credibility as a true power. The enigmatic leader of the group is Bray Wyatt who has a wonderfully twisted cult leader gimmick, with a just as chilling way of painting a picture with his words. With Harper, Rowan and Braun by his side, the men are arguably the most intimidating group of individuals to grace the squared ring.

A lack of wins, titles and memorable feuds has put a damper on what could have been a great stable. With the recent return of Luke Harper to Smackdown, WWE might be trying to do something productive with the family, but by now, we all know better than that. Here’s hoping that the fabled Sister Abigail makes her long waited debut and brings some redemption for these men.

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows

Having formerly competed as Festus, Luke Gallows should have known better than to trust WWE creative.

The hottest faction in all of wrestling is The Bullet Club. Originating out of NJPW in Japan, the heel group has dominated and won titles all over, including Ring of Honor. Former members of the group, like Finn Balor and AJ Styles, have found great success in WWE. The same can’t be said for the group’s premier tag team of Anderson and Gallows. Part of the major NJPW coup WWE pulled off earlier this year (along with Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura), fans had high hopes for these Bullet Club originals.

Since splitting from AJ Styles in WWE’s The Club, it’s been a bumpy road for the tag team. Their crowning moment as tag champions at SummerSlam never came. They should be wearing those titles now, having ended The New Day’s reign. To make matters worse, they’ve been saddled with horrible comedy segments that have killed any notion of them as badasses. Since their WWE run is fairly new, there’s still hope that things will be righted. Unfortunately, all signs point to that they should have stayed in Japan.