Because they are the largest wrestling company in the world, to a large degree the WWE has the first pick when it comes to recruiting talent to their roster. As a result, it seems like everyone in their employ should be the absolute best at what they do yet there are some people on their roster that we have to admit are a step behind the rest. Of course, there must be something about them the WWE has decided to invest in and they received their contracts because of some talents they were able to show the company prior to signing. Realizing these things inspired us to put together this list that puts together the 17 worst WWE wrestlers of 2018 and looks at what they did prior to making it big.

In order for someone to be up for possible inclusion on this list, they first and foremost must have been employed by the WWE at one time in 2018 so far. For the purposes of this list, we will only be looking at the WWE personnel that are actual in-ring workers, considering we are grading them as wrestlers. That said, their ability to take part in high-quality matches is only a fraction of what we are looking at here, as in the WWE, being able to portray a character is a highly important skill. Finally, those that have not taken part in a televised match in the year 2018 were still in the running as long as we have a good idea of their skill level based on previous years.

17 Dana Brooke

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Signed by the WWE in mid-2013, Dana Brooke made her NXT debut early in 2015 and from the very beginning, it was clear the WWE wanted her to go far. Pushed pretty hard at the start despite a lack of experience, she then began teaming with Emma and the two hit on something pretty great as a villainous pair. Then she was brought up to the main roster and since then she has been the sidekick of one wrestler after another and never been given a consistent role in which she can thrive. As such, her character has suffered and she often accompanies others to the ring instead of wrestling, which isn’t a good way to improve. A bodybuilder prior to catching the eye of the WWE, she had no experience in the business at the time, so their decision to drop her into the deep end so soon was foolish.

16 Mojo Rawley

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Rawley is yet another former football player to find himself on this list. If there weren ‘t so many people who’ve successfully made that transition, this list would start to make us think it is impossible. Known throughout his run with the WWE for his extreme energy levels, Mojo Rawley’s tagline for a long time was that he doesn’t just get hyped, he stays hyped. While that certainly appears to be true in a lot of ways, it does seem like he was never overly hyped about the prospect of learning to compete in matches at the highest levels. Still, there is no doubt that he has a lot of work ethic, as it extremely hard to play for NFL teams like the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals, as he did under his real name, Dean Muhtadi.

15 Big Cass

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Big Cass is currently on the shelf after he suffered a torn ACL during a 2017 Raw, but we hope that when he returns, big things will be on the horizon. Still, we’d be lying if we tried to pretend we had faith in that. A massive man that is billed as being seven foot tall, at this point we see that as his greatest strength. We say that because he was never spectacular in the ring and he got a lot of the personality that got him over because of being teamd up with his former tag team partner Enzo Amore, who is now gone. That said, he didn’t have a lot of experience before signing with the WWE as he only worked for the little company World of Unpredictable Wrestling for a year after training under Johnny Rodz. He also played college basketball for New York University, where he was still known by his real name, William "Bill" Morrissey.

14 Heath Slater

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A wrestler that has followed in the footsteps left by "joke" characters like Santino Marella, Gillberg, and others, Heath Slater is the latest WWE performer that is generally slotted as comedy fodder. Initially brought onto the main roster as a part of The Nexus, he stopped being taken seriously as soon as he began to be compared to the Wendy's girl. That's not a bad thing, as he has worked for the WWE ever since, but despite that, it is clear that his continued employment has nothing to do with how good he is in the ring. Prior to joining the company he worked for the Georgia-based World Wrestling Alliance for only two years, then signed a contract with the WWE at the very young age of 23.

13 Lana

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Lana is someone that is fantastic at giving promos but sucks as an in-ring performer. If Lana only managed wrestlers, she wouldn’t be included on this list. However, we do have the utmost respect for her trying to improve in the ring, and given her history as a dancer, we have hope that she could someday be as good as her peers. Still, if you’ve ever sat through one of her matches, you’d know she still has a really long way to go in that department. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, as she seems to be passionate about wrestling despite finding success in the entertainment world before and after joining the WWE. After all, she has found some success in singing as a part of the girl group No Means Yes and in the acting world she has received a lot of work including in the Pitch Perfect franchise.

12 The Ascension

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When The Ascension was a part of NXT they kicked butt and took names, but on the main roster they’ve been a joke. That said, even when they were dominant, their gimmick seemed limited, as their entrance was marvelous, but once the bell rang things went downhill. Konnor and Viktor were able to have a tiny bit of a resurgence in 2017 when they were played for laughs as the sidekicks of Breezango, but even that seems to have come to an end. As for what they did prior to signing with WWE, Konnor went by Ryan O'Reilly and made a few appearances for TNA after debuting in Four Star Championship Wrestling. He then joined the fourth season of NXT as Conor O'Brian. Then you have Viktor, who trained under Bruce and Ross Hart and appeared as a part of companies like Stampede Wrestling, New Japan, Derby City Wrestling, and Ohio Valley Wrestling.

11 Ronda Rousey

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At the time of this writing, Ronda Rousey has not taken part in a single publicly viewable wrestling match, which is why she is only being presumptively listed. That said, we know that she is set to take part in a very high-profile match with the likes of Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle at WrestleMania on April 8 of this year. Her debut match, even if she does significantly better than expected, will be graded on a sliding scale and it doesn’t seem possible that she will be better in the ring than her peers. As such, it made all the sense in the world to us to include her here even if it breaks our rules a little bit. Ronda was given this opportunity because she was a famous fighter and a lifelong WWE fan with name recall; in the past she competed at the Olympics where she won a medal in Judo, and she was also the inaugural UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.

10 Bo Dallas

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A member of one of the most respected wrestling families of all-time, Bo Dallas is directly related to Bray Wyatt (brother), Mike “I.R.S.” Rotunda (father), Barry Windham (uncle), and Blackjack Mulligan (grandfather), among others. Given an opportunity by the WWE largely for that reason, he was signed by them the same year he turned 18, which is simply stunning. Eventually seen as one of their most promising young talents, he even had a run as the NXT Champion after he created an awesome character for himself as a motivational speaker. Still, despite his lineage and the fact that he was a lot of fun when he was a champ in NXT and as a part of The Miztourage, his character work saves him, since he is a pretty mediocre worker. Perhaps that is in part because he never worked anywhere else, as he was signed out of high school where he played football and qualified for the state wrestling championships.

9 The Colóns

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As real-life first cousins that are a part of a family that many would consider to be wrestling royalty, Primo and Epico have both been a part of the main WWE roster for quite a while now. Sadly, they are a part of this list largely because of the way they’ve been used, and it seems like these two should be doing a whole lot better. However, since they were first put together as a team in 2011, they have been given one terrible gimmick after another, including being Matadors and timeshare salesmen. As a result, it seems like the two of them have not been invested for quite a long time now which has led to their performances suffering. Made up of the son and nephew of WWE Hall of Famer and Puerto Rican promoter Carlos Colón, they worked for his World Wrestling Council, and Epico also spent time with Japan’s Pro Wrestling Zero1 prior to the WWE.

8 Rhyno

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As the last ever real ECW World Heavyweight Champion, Rhyno will always have a place in history. Forever beloved by hardcore fans of Paul Heyman and his band of wrestlers, as a result, he also gained many fans while teaming with the much-beloved Edge and Christian. That said, ever since he left the WWE the first time around his career has seemed aimless. As a part of TNA’s roster for a number of years, he gave many formulaic promos and became tedious in the ring, a quality that has remained the same since his WWE return. However, we will say there is little doubt that the crackers and canned cheese eating version of his character can be amusing. An experienced performer before joining the WWE the first time, as we pointed out he had a run in ECW, but even before that he worked extensively for a long list of Canadian independent promoters.

7 Tamina

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Tamina is the daughter of the WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, and as is often the case, that heritage gave her a massive opportunity early on. A part of the WWE’s roster since 2010, she made her debut alongside the Usos and at that time she looked the most intimidating of the trio. A large woman that carries herself like someone to be feared, despite all of her connections and her image she has never had a run as a champion in the WWE. We think that is because she has never used the athletic ability she clearly has to become excellent in the ring, and her stone-faced demeanor only going so far as suggesting she lacks personality. Still, she only began training under the Wild Samoans and wrestled at a some of their shows the year before the WWE signed her, and they’ve never allowed her to branch out as a character.

6 Shayna Baszler

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Baszler is someone that we truly think has all the potential in the world. She signed with the WWE in 2017 and has already become a focal point of NXT’s television, and was previously able to compete in the Mae Young Classic, where she made it to the finals and given a match for the NXT Women's Championship at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. In short, she is poised for big things. Still, despite her meteoric rise in the company, her work in the ring still needs a lot of work and even her character work, which has been her greatest strength, isn’t quite there yet as of this writing. A former MMA fighter who is a part of the so-called MMA Four Horsewomen, she had a 15-11 record prior to appearing for wrestling companies like ROH, Shimmer, and finally the WWE.

5 Jinder Mahal

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As longtime fans of the WWE that follow the business, we often find things to be pretty predictable with the notable exception of Jinder Mahal’s 2017. A former member of 3MB who was released by the WWE in 2014, Jinder was then brought back seemingly to be a jobber to the stars. However, to the surprise of pretty much everyone, he became the WWE Champion in 2017. Of course, this is the WWE and we all know that Vince McMahon loves guys with huge muscles, which Jinder has developed of late. As a result, he was given the keys to the castle despite having not been built up for the role and lacking many of the skills it requires. Another former performer for Stampede Wrestling to find himself on this list, prior to signing with the WWE, Jinder also feuded with people like Hannibal and Samoa Joe in Great North Wrestling.

4 Titus O’Neil

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Titus O’Neil is by all accounts a marvelous person; he even won an award for being a great dad and seems to have a passion for giving back to his community. Fully entrenched in the WWE’s tag team division for the much of his WWE run, Titus has worked with men Darren Young and Apollo. Now working as the leader of the Titus Brand, that does seem like a better role for someone with a great personality but who has never been great once the bell rings. However, once you learn that Titus played football prior to working for the WWE, it seems like that athletic side of the business should have been his forte. As Thaddeus Bullard, he was a former player for the University of Florida for several years, and from there he also went on to be a stalwart of the Arena Football League from 2003 until 2007.

3 R-Truth

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Ronnie Killings is another instance of a wrestler that seems to have given up on being taken seriously a long time ago. Whenever R-Truth is around, he tries to elicit laughter. He has not been seen on television for a long time now, as he has been dealing with an arm injury since August of 2017. That said, it isn’t like he was in a prominent role prior to that and it seems pretty likely that he had decided that in the twilight of his career that he is perfectly fine with coasting. Still, we do have to give respect where it is deserved and the man has delivered some truly horrendously written lines better than a lot of people could. Originally known as K-Kwik when he debuted in the WWE in 2000, prior to that he was convinced to give wrestling a try by Jackie Crockett of the NWA, which is why he cut his teeth in NWA Wildside.

2 Tino Sabbatelli

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A part of the NXT roster since 2014, over that time Tino Sabbatelli has seen his career prospects improve year over year, which is what anyone should want for their career. Signed despite having no history in the ring, the company saw enough potential in him that they came to believe it would be worth it to train him from the ground up. We've seen that process partly take place in the WWE Network’s “reality” series Breaking Ground, and since then he has become a consistent presence on NXT TV. That said, he is still learning his craft and you can definitely tell that both from both his matches and the sometimes over the top way he plays his character. He was given this chance because of his athletic past; under his real name Sabby Piscitelli, Tino was a safety in the NFL, where he played for teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns, and Kansas City Chiefs.

1 Aliyah

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Aliyah is someone that is the polar opposite in some ways than the last two entries on this list. That's why the company is being very careful with this NXT star. Introduced to many fans as a part of the WWE Network “reality” series Breaking Ground, there we saw her try to figure out her character and entrance. Since then seen sparingly on NXT, she has undergone several changes and isn’t around enough to have any mistakes she makes build up to such a point that it damages her in the long term. However, as avid fans that watch every episode, we have still taken note of the fact that she often comes across like she is still pretty nervous and learning, even though she has made great strides. Prior to getting tapped by the WWE, this Toronto native debuted in Squared Circle Wrestling, before making some appearances for American promotions.