WWE Called Out for Failing to Elevate Champions After Title Wins

Vince Russo is calling out WWE’s booking — and he says the company is failing its own champions once they win titles.

After the April 3 episode of WWE SmackDown saw Sami Zayn retain the United States Championship — a result that led to backlash over Hayes seemingly missing WrestleMania 42 — Russo jumped in with a much bigger issue. According to Russo, the problem isn’t just one booking decision — it’s a pattern.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Russo said WWE consistently fails to build stars after putting titles on them, arguing that winning a championship should be the beginning of a push — not the end of it.

“Bro, here’s the thing that stands out to me—and this has been going on now for years. Guys, when you’re writing wrestling and you make the decision to put the title on somebody, once that title is on somebody, your job is to elevate them.”

Vince Russo explained that championships are supposed to raise a wrestler’s level — making them feel like a bigger deal and preparing them for the next step. But according to Russo, WWE isn’t doing that — and instead, champions are left in the same spot they were in before, making the title feel meaningless.

“They are a champion now—now we elevate them. So if somebody’s here and they win the belt, now you want to get them up to here. This is always getting that Intercontinental Champion ready for Hulk Hogan. That’s what the Intercontinental Championship always meant. He’s got that title—now we’re going to build him to the next level. Bro, we can sit here, we can do the rest of this show naming people that they put a title on, and once the title was on them, they did absolutely nothing to elevate them. And once the title comes off them, they slot right back to where they were prior—which means they are not using the titles whatsoever to get anybody over.”

He pointed directly at Hayes as the latest example, saying his run as champion lacked any real development beyond matches. Russo then connected that to the current situation — with Hayes losing the title and now seemingly dropping right back down the card.

“The latest case is Carmelo Hayes. Carmelo Hayes won the title. All they did while he was the champion was—he just wrestled. That’s all he did, bro. There was no character development. There was no story. We didn’t get to know him any better. He just wrestled. Now he loses the belt to Sami Zayn—you know Sami Zayn is always the guy that everybody loses the belts to—and bro, now he’s going to get slotted right back to where he was.”

He added that this isn’t an isolated case, pointing to other names as part of the same issue. And when the discussion turned to what “elevation” really means, Russo doubled down — arguing WWE is putting people at the top without giving them anywhere to go.

“And, Ben, we can go down the list, man. We can look at them. You know, we can look at Lyra Valkyria. We can look at Tiffany Time. There are so many— We can go on and on, but they put the belt on people and never elevate them, Ben, once they do that. Well, your words are interesting. We say ‘elevate,’ and that is to raise someone’s level of marketability, interest, and popularity. But true elevation comes as you go higher up, right? We’re taking people to the top of the mountain—which is the title—dropping them off there, and then where do you expect them to go? They only have one way to go. Right—it’s down.”

With WrestleMania 42 right around the corner and questions already swirling about Carmelo Hayes’ spot, Russo’s remarks just add to the conversation about whether WWE is truly building its next generation of stars — or just cycling them through title runs without long-term impact.

Do you agree with Vince Russo’s take — is WWE failing to elevate champions like Carmelo Hayes, or is this just part of the business? Drop your thoughts below and let us know.