Falls Count Anywhere: When Getting Fired Could Be For The Best

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Last week, the WWE finally granted Rey Mysterio his release from his contract. His release was something he asked for, and was long overdue. Mysterio hadn’t been seen on TV since the day after WrestleMania XXX. He didn’t like any of the creative directions the company wanted to go in with his character after he recovered from his latest injury, and he was looking to return to Mexico to finish out his long and illustrious career. It was a very unceremonious end to his WWE career, but it was unavoidable. He will forever be remembered as WWEs greatest underdog. His release got me thinking though. How many guys in WWE could be better served by getting the “future endeavors” post on WWE.com? Who would be better off working somewhere else? I’m sure it is every wrestler’s dream to make it to the WWE, but for many reasons, some guys would be better off not dreaming that dream. Here are five guys I think would be better off not working for the WWE, and what promotion could fit them best going forward. I avoided using NXT stars because we don’t know how they would fare on the main roster yet.

5. Jack Swagger to TNA-Swagger is a former World Heavyweight Champion that is criminally underutilized in the WWE. Just because he isn’t good on the mic, doesn’t mean he is not a good wrestler. In the ring, Swagger can hang with the best of them. He is a powerful guy and a great, old school matt wrestler. Swagger could head to TNA right now and head straight to the top of the card. Kurt Angle isn’t getting any younger, and a guy like Swagger could step back into his old All-American American gimmick and fill that face role rather nicely. Or he could come back with Zeb(who still hasn’t returned to WWE TV) and use is Real American heel gimmick. Either way, it is better for his career than jobbing to Rusev over and over again. And we al know how much TNA loves former WWE champions.

4. Adam Rose to NJPW-Adam Rose never had a chance. The Rosebuds gimmick was destined to fail once he was called up to the main roster. WWE does not know how to properly push a comedy gimmick. If you start out in the company as a comedy act, you have virtually no chance of achieving any success above the lower mid card. But Adam Rose, in the ring, is not bad at all. In fact, he is pretty damn talented. He is a bit of a jack of all trades. He can work different styles of matches. He can take it to the air against bigger opponents, or work as the big man with a nice set of power moves against smaller guys. For him to succeed, he needs to get as far away from the Rosebuds stigma as he can. NJPW is about as far away as you can get. He needs a complete rebranding somewhere where the majority of the fans have never heard of Adam Rose or the Rosebuds. A clean slate in a new promotion could do wonders for a talented, veteran wrestler.

3. Fandango to DGUSA-Fandango(Johnny Curtis) has been with the WWE in some capacity for almost a decade. A friggin’ decade! That is way to long to have never won a title. In fact, other that his inexplicable debut victory over Chris Jericho at WrestleMania, he has done nothing of significance in the WWE. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a wrestler just can’t get over in a particular company. Fandango seems to have everything the WWE looks for in a top star. He has the look, size, and athletic ability the WWE usually puts at the top of the card. He just hasn’t been able to get past the mid card level. It is well past time for him to move on. Dragon Gate could be a good place for him to rejuvenate his career. DGUSA has a nice mix of veteran guys and kids on their roster. Fandango could bring a lot of talent to that roster, and his wrestling style would seem to be a good fit for that promotion.

2. Big E/Kofi Kingston/Xavier Woods to TNA-I cheated a little bit here because of their faction. When the New Day was formed, the rumor was that the faction would be a reboot of the Nation of Domination faction from the Attitude Era. I thought that was a good idea at the time. All three of their singles careers were going nowhere fast, and the WWEs fan base was clamoring for edgier content in the PG Era. But then the Ferguson shooting happened and the political climate changed. WWE got cold feet on a faction consisting of 3 angry black men waging a racially charged war against “the man”. They settled on the gospel gimmick the trio are using today. The angle is clearly going nowhere, and the fans have turned on a very talented trio.  TNA is always willing to take a risk on any gimmick they could think of, and many that someone else thought of. And we all know they are not shy about rehashing Attitude Era storylines. An invasion angle headed by a returning Consequences Creed(Woods), accompanied by his equally angry partners could certainly help all three men rejuvenate their stagnant careers. With TNAs love of factions at the top of the card, everybody wins.

1. Daniel Bryan to RoH-This is probably where you are going to turn on me, but please, hear me out. Daniel Bryan is one of the most talented wrestlers on the planet, and he is being wasted by the WWE. In less that a year, Bryan went from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the barrel. I understand that his injury set him back, but the WWE clearly used that as an excuse to bury him in the mid card, probably for the rest of his WWE career. I mean, could you imagine if back at the 2008 Royal Rumble, John Cena made his heroic return, only to be eliminated 10 minutes later by Umaga? You can’t. Why? Because everyone knows the WWE had faith in John Cena as a main event talent. No injury would ever knock him out of the main event scene in his prime. The WWE obviously doesn’t view Daniel Bryan as a guy that can headline big shows for them. Daniel Bryan in the mid card is a waste of his talent, and can only make the hard core fan base resent the overall product more than it already does. As long as Daniel Bryan is wrestling in any match that is not the main event, there will be the risk of the fans’ turning on whoever is in the main event, simply because it is not their guy. Daniel Bryan going to another promotion could be what’s best for his career right now. He is still young enough that he could go to, say Ring of Honor for a year or two, and prove that he can carry a promotion as “the guy”. Then, he can make a return to the WWE if he wants, and the fans would treat him as a savior, coming home to reclaim the top spot they believe is rightfully his. And think of all the great matches he could have in RoH. There are the Briscoes, Christopher Daniels, and Frank Kazarian just to name a few. Hell, they could even do a cross promotion with NJPW and have a dream feud with Bryan and AJ Styles. I know that Bryan has fought some of these guys before, but that was a long time ago. Now that these guys have become some of the best wrestlers in the world, the possibilities are endless.

So, did I miss anyone? Who do you think would be better off wrestling for anyone but the WWE?