In Depth: WWE's Future Stars - revisited

Back in November of last year, I wrote an article about where the future stars of the WWE were going to come from - examining the last ten years worth of attempts. My conclusion was that I was worried as to where the next crop of stars were going to come from.

What a difference six months make!

2013 has seen the emergence of some young talent that has really added, and improved, to the current roster of the WWE. Dolph Ziggler has finally cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and it's now his time to shine. Ryback has grown and emerged as a genuine threat to John Cena's WWE Championship. And most recently, Daniel Bryan has sparked a new phase of popularity with his 'weak link' talk; showing great intensity and gaining huge reactions from live audiences as well as the IWC.

Along with these three, there are also a line of young up-and-comers who are making great strides and turning heads. Here are my '10 to watch' (individuals/teams/factions) in the coming months:

1. Curtis Axel (age: 33)

After a failed and potentially career suicide name 'Michael McGillicutty', the real-life Joe Hennig has now been repackaged as the newest 'Paul Heyman Guy' - Curtis Axel; taking his father's first name and a variation of his grandfather's nickname for his last name, Axel has now got a name and an association (in Heyman) that should take him places. Added to this, he has been thrown in at the deep end - facing John Cena and Triple H in his first few matches in his new persona.

Clearly there is a lot of faith in Axel this time around, and it'll be interesting to see where/how far this new path can lead him. He competes for the Intercontinental Championship at Payback on Sunday.

2. Antonio Cesaro (32)

Antonio Cesaro has been on the main roster for nearly a year now. He made an instant impact by defeating Santino Marella and capturing the United States Championship on the pre-show of Summerslam 2012. Subsequently, he went onto have a very successful and dominant reign before losing the title to Kofi Kingston a few weeks ago. This filled me with wonder as to how he would then be used.

Antonio Cesaro

I saw some positives in Cesaro's run of matches after his title loss. Despite losing the majority of these encounters (to the likes of Orton and Del Rio), Cesaro still looked very strong, getting in an above-average amount of offence against these bona fide main eventers. This leads me to think that he is simply waiting his turn to challenge for one of the World titles. Whether this is the current plan or not, Cesaro will be a World Champion in the not-too-distant future. It appears that Zeb Colter might be showing an interest in him after Raw this week...

3. The Usos (both 27)

When it comes to tag team wrestling, I'm a fan of traditional tag teams. This is why I'm not a fan of Team Hell No or Rhodes Scholars; I'm not big on two singles wrestlers being thrown together because there's nothing else for them to do. Due to this, I have a great appreciation for the Usos. Like many of the current crop of WWE superstars, they have the heritage - being the sons of Rikishi. They also have a unique look and a great entrance - modern, and also paying homage to their Samoan roots.

The 'powers that be' in WWE seem to blow hot and cold with regards to the tag team division in the last few months, with Kane/Daniel Bryan being the stand out performers allowed to shine. With the newly crowned Reigns/Rollins as Tag Team Champions, though, new contenders must be found. Realistic contenders at that.

This seems to be where the Usos fit in. The last few weeks have seen a slight change in appearance - with the introduction of face paint - to go with a strong, winning run in their matches. The tag team division should start to look bright from now on and a new charge could be led by the Usos.

4. The Shield (Ambrose 27, Rollins 27, Reigns 28)

Possibly the best build of any debuting faction in the history of the WWE is that of The Shield. Back at the Survivor Series (2012), the 'Hounds of Justice' - Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns - interfered in the WWE Championship match between CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback, powerbombing the latter through the announce table to allow Punk to retain his championship. Since then they have been on a path of destruction, fighting what they deem as 'injustices' and defeating every three-man-team that have stood in their way.

Nobody has gotten away. Not even the legendary and superhuman have been able to resist this threesome. John Cena, The Rock and The Undertaker are probably the three biggest names that have felt The Shield's wrath.

To freshen thing up, and to further their story, all three members of The Shield won gold at Extreme Rules; Ambrose winning the United States title and Reigns/Rollins capturing the Tag Team titles. These title wins have shown that they can work well individually as well as a complete unit. I think that there's still a lot of mileage in them as a team, but when they do eventually go their separate ways I feel that there will be even greater storytelling and matches for us all to enjoy.

5. Fandango (31)

Fandango danced onto the scene at the start of March on the lead-up to Wrestlemania 29. In a few short weeks, he went from correcting people who couldn't say his name perfectly to having his debut match against the ever-giving Chris Jericho. To top it off, he gained his first feather in the cap with a win over Y2J in their match at Wrestlemania.

The night after Wrestlemania saw a partisan crowd confirm that Fandango is well-and-truly 'over'. It has been all uphill since; competing in another decent outing with Jericho at Extreme Rules and now in the Intercontinental title picture (although a recent concussion could put a halt on that for the time being). Don't be put off by the current gimmick, though. Look past this Fandango character as somewhere down the line we will see the true Johnny Curtis - and he'll be a star with a normal name, too.

6. Bray Wyatt (26)

Wyatt - and his family - will soon be lighting up our Monday (and Friday) nights. This debut could be on par with that of fellow NXTers, The Shield. The emergence of Wyatt and his disciples has been highly anticipated for a while now and this is a great opportunity for the second generation Rotunda.

Bray Wyatt

After a failed attempt on the main roster in 2011 (as New Nexus' Husky Harris), the elder brother of Bo Dallas went back to developmental and has now struck gold with the Bray Wyatt character - described as Max Cady (Cape Fear) leading The Devil's Rejects. A perfect description of how freaky, hypnotising and unpredictable these three may be presented to us. They're coming.

7. Big E Langston (27)

With the emerging news that Langston lost the NXT Championship to Bo Dallas recently, are we now going to get the big man exclusively on the main roster? I hope so as he has definitely earned his stripes in the last few months as Dolph Ziggler's 'heavy'.

When Ziggler suffered his concussion we finally got to see Langston's potential come to life - having several matches with number one contender Alberto Del Rio - looking very strong and even winning a couple. These are huge results so early on for Langston and could also add fuel to any potential program that might happen with Ziggler.

It also appears that Langston has a great personality going forward, too - showing confidence and wit on the mic and in hilarious responses/tweets on Twitter.

8. AJ (26)

Despite Kaitlyn being the current Diva's Champion, the stand out diva in the last year has been AJ by a mile. Lately, she has taken a back seat to Ziggler and Langston in more of a valet's role. This seems to be changing in the last week as she was revealed as the mastermind behind Kaitlyn's secret admirer - this being for the purpose of building to their title match at Payback.

Prior to all of this, she was the young, innocent girlfriend of Daniel Bryan who accompanied him to ringside before cracking and becoming the crazy chick who took a shine to CM Punk, Kane, John Cena and now, Dolph Ziggler. Also, during this time she has shown her talents in the ring and on the mic. All these 'layers' that AJ has shown add positives to the future of the Diva's division.

9. Cody Rhodes (27) / Damien Sandow (31)

I'll focus on these two as a pair. Both seem to be talented and ready for the big-time, but both are stuck in a rut right now.

Cody is a former Tag Team Champion, a credible former Intercontinental Champion and a former associate of Randy Orton in Legacy, but still he remains firmly rooted to the mid-card, jobbing to the likes of Sheamus whenever he needs another win from somewhere. Surely there should be a better use for the young Rhodes?

Damien Sandow has quickly emerged as a great talker in the last year. Very much talking the talk with regards to his 'Intellectual Saviour of the Masses' gimmick. But similar to Rhodes, he constantly loses to top talent with no obvious direction in sight. This has changed in the last few weeks with some good TV time on Smackdown where he conducts intellectual challenges; Sheamus accepting these invitations. The first couple of weeks saw Sheamus get the better of Sandow, but recently Sandow got his revenge; putting the boots in on Sheamus. This has resulted in a match between the two on the pre-show of the Payback pay-per-view - with the result being fairly predictable, I feel.

Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes

Although both Rhodes and Sandow are stumbling along as singles wrestlers, they almost found success as a team - Rhodes Scholars - at the turn of the year, feuding with the then Tag Team Champions Kane/Daniel Bryan in several losing efforts. I still feel that this was a missed opportunity in not putting the tag team titles on two of the most talented individuals on the roster today.

10. NXT

The Breeding ground for pretty much all of the talent on this list was NXT. And if you think these names are the only ones that will flourish from NXT then you need to start watching this fantastic 'developmental' show that WWE has.

Waiting in the wings to make their main WWE roster debuts are the likes of Leo Kruger, Corey Graves, Adrian Neville and the outstanding Kassius Ohno (formerly Chris Hero). Along with these gentlemen, a young English lady by the name of Paige will also be waiting to make a much anticipated showing on WWE's flagship show. That could spark new interest in the ladies division.

I started watching NXT regularly from around February and I find that it's really interesting to see where the 'future' is coming from.

Summary

Unlike my article in November 2012, I am now a lot more optimistic about the future main eventers. All in this article (with the exception of the Usos... at the moment) I can see becoming World Champions. They all have youth on their side coupled with an enormous amount of talent.

I'm very glad that this crop of talent has arrived in the last six months, and if things continue to improve then I'll be happy to say that I overreacted back in November.

@jimmosangle