In 1995, a clique of wrestlers emerged at the top of the card in the WWF–Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and Paul Levesque (Triple H), who ended up calling themselves The Kliq.
Most fans are familiar with The Kliq, as they were (at least Michaels, Nash, and Hall were) among the most popular wrestlers in the company and sought to wield even more control within the industry.
During their time together in the WWF, the group supposedly were hesitant to work major programs with wrestlers outside of The Kliq, with the idea being that the close group of friends would avoid elevating other wrestlers from outside their group, and thus remain the only major stars in the company (and thus the most essential, highest-paid members on the roster).
Historically, The Kliq has been accused of stalling the careers of wrestlers like Steve Austin and The Rock, who would emerge as the biggest stars in wrestling once The Kliq dissolved following Hall and Nash’s defection to WCW in 1996.
As WWE heads into a lackluster WrestleMania, with the company scrambling to change around the card due to lack of fan interest, evidenced both by criticism and poor ticket sales, a lot of criticism has centered around the names at the top of the card. One night of WrestleMania seems set to be headlined by Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton, while another night will be headlined by Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk.
While any WWE fan would be quick to say that all four men occupying the top spots on the card are big stars, there is clearly an issue with the top names in the company feeling stale and particularly old, with all four wrestlers over 40.
The frustration from fans is not just that the wrestlers for WrestleMania feel stale, it is that there appears to be no interest or urgency in promoting fresher, younger faces within the company.
There are options on the roster, particularly with the recent call-ups of new names such as Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans, of names that have some level of star potential. The issue for WWE is that the company has not been committed at all to elevating newer names in the past few years, leading to none of the potential younger options feeling “ready” to headline WrestleMania at this time.
Is this an issue of poor booking and planning? Absolutely, and nobody would be happier to tear about Paul Levesque’s booking than yours truly, but I think it is clear that there are clearly political issues in WWE that have led to the roster being structured this way.
Do WWE’s Veterans Want To Work With New Names?
To me, the established top names in WWE do not seem interested in working on any major programs with the promising younger names that could theoretically replace them at the top of the card.
Much like The Kliq in the mid-1990s, the top names in WWE seem to work only major programs amongst themselves, shutting out opportunities for other wrestlers to climb the card and feel like viable major stars.
Over the past year, Cody Rhodes has wrestled singles matches on PPV against Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, John Cena, and Randy Orton.
CM Punk, so eager to wrestle with all the young wrestlers in AEW when he worked there, has wrestled singles matches on PPV against Finn Balor, Gunther, Rollins, and Cena.
Out of that group, only Gunther could be considered a “new” star; everyone else has been an established veteran firmly slotted on the card.
Other wrestlers who crack into the periphery of major storylines, like Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, or AJ Styles, have also been in the same boat: veteran names that don’t present as potential new stars who could rival wrestlers like Rhodes, Reigns, or Punk in WWE’s hierarchy.
In some instances, the veteran stars seem willing to work with new names, such as Rhodes wrestling Femi on an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event in December. However, those always seem like one-off deals, with that match being a nine-minute no-contest that was never revisited. Instead of using that as a way to introduce Femi as a big new star, one that could rival someone like Rhodes, it was a forgettable, dismissive match that sent Femi on his way and kept Rhodes at the top of the card without any fresh opponents.
When the plans for WrestleMania needed to be shaken up, it was telling that WWE chose to book Orton into the main event. Instead of taking a risk on a younger, more dynamic personality with a higher ceiling, WWE opted for one of the most boring choices imaginable.
I think it’s easy to blame Levesque for not trusting a younger star in that spot, but is it possible that Rhodes was not interested in working with a younger wrestler?
The booking patterns in WWE suggest that the top stars don’t want to work with any up-and-coming personalities on the roster, preventing the company from doing the logical thing: creating new stars.
Some will argue that Bron Breakker would have factored into the WrestleMania mix if he had not gotten injured earlier this year, which is logical since Breakker is the most heavily pushed under-30 male on the roster.
However, Breakker spent most of 2025 feuding with The Usos and Sami Zayn, not exactly priming the pump for the main event of WrestleMania, and his last major match before his injury was losing clean to Punk on RAW, despite interference helping Breakker, firmly rooting him as a star beneath Punk.
Then there is Gunther, who the company did seem heavily invested in pushing a new top guy, giving him a world title run and even having him retire John Cena. However, Gunther has spent the build-up to WrestleMania back in the midcard, away from any top stars, and seems to be headed for a forgettable match on the show.
It is very telling that Gunther, a heel wrestler the company has clearly shown investment in, was not tabbed to wrestle Rhodes at WrestleMania when the company decided to pivot, instead deferring to Orton.
The wrestling world is different from what it was in 1995, but some things still remain the same. Wrestlers can be protective of their spots, and it seems clear that WWE’s top stars right now are afraid of potentially letting someone else into that club.
In the era of guaranteed television deals, sold PPV rights, and foreign investments from places like Saudi Arabia, the individual star power of wrestlers matters far less to the company’s bottom line. Wrestlers like Rhodes, Punk, and Reigns know that they are ultimately expendable in the new era of WWE–they only need to look at how UFC has conducted business, letting major drawing cards such as Ronda Rousey and Francis Ngannou work elsewhere when the time was right to let them go.
The current top group of wrestlers in WWE has little motivation to try and put over people they feel could be their eventual replacements, leaving them without a job in the future when the company looks to shed salary. They know they need to feel as integral as possible to the success of WWE, and that doesn’t happen if you work hard to put over younger, cheaper stars as equals.
With Vince McMahon no longer in charge of the company, WWE lost its omnipotent ruler who could ultimately get talent to do whatever he wanted. The backstage atmosphere in WWE is naturally more fractured, and that makes it more difficult to get top stars to do things they don’t want to do, since they clearly don’t have the same level of fear or respect for Levesque as they did for McMahon.
An added element is that both Punk and Rhodes left AEW under acrimonious circumstances. If either talent loses out on a high-paying WWE gig because they are no longer viewed as essential, there is no guarantee they can land a similar job elsewhere. For Reigns, there is zero chance he could land a job anywhere close to the multi-million-dollar no-show gig he currently has in WWE.
For all three wrestlers, they need to keep making it work in WWE if they want to keep earning top dollar, and that again makes it unlikely they will work with their replacements.
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