Randy Orton: Ex-WWE star suggests surprise name should've been 'up there' with The Viper

Former WWE Tag Team Champion Charlie Haas has argued that WWE could have made Curtis Axel the next Randy Orton. 

Charlie Haas tasted success in WWE as part of the World’s Greatest Tag Team and Team Angle alongside Shelton Benjamin in the early 2000s. Together they were twice tag team champions, before going their separate ways in 2005. 

Haas did briefly have a singles run in WWE, including a memorable gimmick where he’d impersonate other WWE Superstars and legends, but his run with the company when he was released in 2010. 

Speaking to Liam A Stewart, Haas recently discussed another released Superstar in Curtis Axel. Axel, son of WWE Hall of Famer Mr. Perfect and who also wrestled under the name Michael McGillicutty, was let go by WWE in 2020. 

However, Haas believes more could have been done with Axel if WWE presented him as a third-generation star in the same way they did with Randy Orton.  

Joe Hennig, Curt Hennig’s son, third-generation wrestler, how in the hell can you go out and be a McGillicutty? If you don’t feel comfortable in your own skin, how can you go out and get that guy over? Let him be Joe Hennig. Let him be a third-generation superstar, which he should be, up there with Randy Orton.

Axel, who is also the grandson of wrestling legend Larry ‘The Axe’ Hennig, first entered WWE as part of the original NXT and joined the main roster as a member of the group Nexus. He’s later go on to forge a career of his own under the name Curtis Axel, where he was briefly managed by Paul Heyman and went onto to win the Intercontinental Championship, and was twice a WWE Tag Team Champion. 

The 42-year-old was released by WWE in 2020, but recently returned to the company in as a try-out producer role. He was spotted on this