Opinion

The competition for quality programming between WWE and All Elite Wrestling has already created some of the best wrestling television in years, but there are several elite performers on each company's roster who are flying under the radar.

While Tony Khan does a better job utilizing his talented roster, even AEW has performers currently taking a backseat who are set to break out. Vince McMahon has proved to be outdated with his thinking, and the WWE roster is full of performers who could blossom into mainstream stars with the right push.

Here are the sleepers on the WWE and AEW rosters who are destined to shine.

Daniel Garcia

Joining forces with Chris Jericho will limit how much of a sleeper he really is, but Daniel Garcia has taken on a secondary role in The Jericho Appreciation Society and remains one of the most dangerous in-ring technicians in the business.

The 23-year-old is still new to wrestling on TV, and his promo abilities are improving each time he gets an opportunity. With Jericho, Jake Hager, Matt Menard and Angelo Parker taking on larger roles, the youngster can now develop behind the scenes without being the primary focus.

With Garcia flying under the radar from a pressure standpoint while continuing to develop his promo abilities, it's just a matter of time before he turns on The Demo God and becomes a top singles star in AEW.

Garcia will be main-eventing pay-per-views soon enough.

Raquel Rodriguez

One of the most talented women on the recent NXT roster was Raquel Gonzalez, but a name shift to Raquel Rodriguez and a move to SmackDown have left fans uncertain about what's next for the former NXT women's champion.

She has become a major sleeper for WWE and fans, as NXT stars who make the transition to the main roster often fail due to poor booking and lackluster character development.

At 31 years old, Rodriguez is one of the strongest women in the entire company. With the right program and storyline, she can show the immense strength and athleticism that made her a force in NXT for so long.

The multi-time champion has proved the doubters wrong throughout her career, and despite the odds that she will be buried on the main roster, she has too much raw talent and drive to become just an afterthought on SmackDown.

Bet it all on Rodriguez.

Kiera Hogan

One of AEW's most underrated signings was former Impact Wrestling women's tag team champion Kiera Hogan. While she has done little in the company so far, she is gaining more television time alongside Jade Cargill as one of her Baddies.

The 27-year-old has grown in leaps and bounds in the ring, and when given the chance on the mic, she has shown her ability to cut a solid promo. With the opportunity to work alongside one of AEW's hottest acts in Cargill, she will benefit the most from the group.

The hope is that Hogan will be allowed to build her confidence now that she's on AEW programming more often.

Cargill will eventually need a worthy challenger to capitalize on the TBS title run, and Hogan turning on her would prove she's a star on the rise.

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The Dallas Cowboys may have boasted the top total and scoring offense in football last year, but it's unlikely the team will be able to repeat that feat in 2022.

Attrition is one of the main reasons why the Cowboys are poised to take a step back. The club failed to keep the band together after last year's 12-5 finish that represented the team's best showing since 2016.

Given Dallas dealt with another disappointing early playoff exit—the seventh time the Cowboys lost their postseason opener in their last 10 trips—it's hard to blame team brass for wanting to shake things up.

It's hard to believe, but it's now been over 25 years since the 1995 Cowboys won it all and became the last Dallas squad to even reach the NFC Championship Game.

The wide receiver position was hit particularly hard by this shakeup. Dallas went from having one of the league's deepest receiving corps last year to one that could be concerningly thin to start the 2022 campaign.

The team elected not to retain Cedrick Wilson Jr. after the emerging wideout had his best season as a pro in 2021. He proved to be an invaluable depth option for the Cowboys, starting four of the 16 games he appeared in last year while securing 45 of his 61 targets for 602 yards and six touchdowns.

The Miami Dolphins scooped the 26-year-old on a three-year deal worth a shade over $22 million.

Amari Cooper, who tied tight end Dalton Schultz for both the second-most targets and most receiving touchdowns on the roster last year, was traded away for a meager fifth-round pick and a slight move up the board in the sixth round.

While the move helped the Cowboys free up some cap space—Cooper had the highest salary of any wideout at $20 million last season, a contract that owner Jerry Jones thought was incongruent with his on-field production—the team still wasn't able to make any splashes on the open market this offseason.

Dallas' free-agency pickups were mostly quiet signings that bolstered depth. James Washington, a disappointing second-round pick for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018, was the only notable wideout inked to help fill the void left by Cooper and Wilson's departures.

The Cowboys did use a significant chunk of their available finances to retain Michael Gallup. The four-year veteran, who only posted a single 1,000-yard campaign and missed almost half of the 2021 campaign with injury, signed a five-year, $57.5 million extension shortly after suffering a late-season ACL tear.

Gallup's availability for Week 1 is still in doubt as he works his way back from that major knee injury.

Dallas will likely be asking a lot of from rookie Jalen Tolbert, the South Alabama product who was taken at No. 88 overall last month.

Tolbert was one of the top collegiate wideouts over the past two seasons and established himself as a solid receiver in a loaded class for the position, but he's going to face much tougher competition than the Sun Belt defensive backs he battled with for most of his tenure with the Jaguars.

CeeDee Lamb will still draw the opponent's top cornerback on a weekly basis, a challenge the second-year receiver proved he was up to last year when he amassed 1,102 yards and six touchdowns on 79 receptions. Unfortunately, he'll face even more defensive attention this year unless Tolbert ends up being a rookie sensation.

Considering Dallas only ran on 40.39 percent of its offensive snaps and passed out of the shotgun formation on nearly 80 percent of Dak Prescott's dropbacks, the lack of talented wideouts could come back to haunt this squad.

It's hard to fault the Cowboys' coaching staff for relying heavily on the passing game. Ezekiel Elliott, formerly one of the best running backs in the league, is now a shell of his former self.

Elliott was a true bell-cow back when he entered the league, averaging over five yards per carry on 322 totes as a rookie in 2016. He eclipsed 300 carries in 2018 and 2019 as well but saw his efficiency decline to 4.7 YPC and 4.5 YPC, respectively, in those seasons.

His usage and efficiency have gone down over the past two years, failing to even breach 300 total touches in either the 2020 or 2021 campaigns while averaging just 4.1 yards per rushing attempt in that span.

Elliott's rushing production dropped below 60 yards per game for the first time as a pro last year, nearly half of the 108.7 rushing yards per game he posted as a rookie. It's unlikely the 26-year-old will bounce back to those early-career numbers after taking so much wear and tear over the past half-decade.

Tony Pollard has been the much more efficient back for Dallas over the past three years and could take on a heavier workload in 2022. However, Pollard has yet to prove he can shoulder a larger role than the current change-of-pace one he assumes for the team.

He saw a career-high 130 totes in 2021—averaging a career-best 5.5 yards per carry on them—and could be in line for more this season. The Cowboys are undefeated in games where Pollard receives a double-digit carry count—going 11-0 while averaging 36 points—but game scripting has generally dictated that type of volume.

Regardless of who is pounding the rock for the Cowboys, it may be more difficult to find open lanes behind an offensive line that is undergoing change in 2022. Dallas came in at the top of PFF's 2021 offensive line rankings but will be without two starters from that unit.

The team parted ways with tackle La'el Collins after he emerged as a stalwart on the right side of the line over the past four seasons. He was released with three years remaining on his contract, quickly coming to terms with the Cincinnati Bengals to shore up their shoddy offensive line.

The Cowboys also said goodbye to Connor Williams, their incumbent starting left guard, after the free agent was lured by the Dolphins with a two-year, $14 million contract.

Williams should be replaced by rookie Tyler Smith, the Tulsa product who Dallas selected at No. 24 overall last month. The club has had plenty of success drafting offensive linemen over the past decade, with its three first-round choices since 2011—Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin—all making Pro Bowl appearances.

Collins' successor appears to be Terence Steele, the undrafted free agent who has been playing a depth role for Dallas since 2020. Steele may be the weak point for this unit after he scored a concerning 50.3 PFF grade by allowing nine sacks on 970 snaps as a rookie. He improved his PFF grade to a 64.5 last year but still gave up another pair of sacks on 910 snaps.

Tyron Smith and Martin are still locked into their respective left tackle and right guard roles, but both have been injury-prone in recent seasons. Smith hasn't played a full season since 2015, notably missing six games last year and 14 in 2020.

Martin missed a significant amount of time for the first time in his career in 2020 but bounced back to his All-Pro form in 2021 while playing 16 games. He's on the wrong side of 30, however, and has plenty of tread worn off his tires after eight years in the league.

The Cowboys still have enough cap room—Spotrac projects them to be $13.4 million under the cap right now—to boost the offense by adding another free agent, but the team is running out of time to find suitable talent.

Veteran wideouts such as Julio Jones and Jarvis Landry are still looking for new homes this offseason, and they are players who could give Dallas some steady production at a relatively cheap price if they can stay healthy.

There are also some proven offensive linemen such as Duane Brown and Daryl Williams on the open market, and they could provide insurance to the offensive trenches and bolster a line in transition.

One of Dallas' main issues last year was consistency, especially late in the season. After scoring 29 or more points in five of their first six games, the team only reached that mark four more times after the Week 7 bye.

The team's two highest-scoring performances came down the stretch against a pair of NFC East rivals—Dallas dropped 56 on the Washington Commanders in Week 16 and 51 on the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 18—but those were sandwiched around a 25-22 loss to the Arizona Cardinals and punctuated by an embarrassing 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card Round.

It's hard to envision the Cowboys having as high of an offensive ceiling as they did last year, but they can improve with better play-calling and shrewd adjustments by head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

Dallas is far from hopeless this year. The team is still favored to win the division and is one of the top contenders in the NFC because of its combination of having a top-flight quarterback, elite weapons in Lamb and Schultz and an emerging defense that appears ready to take a step forward.

Even with the offense regressing slightly, the Cowboys will still be a strong team this year with a chance to make some playoff noise if they can improve their consistency and step up defensively.

The "Super Bowl hangover" is a thing.

Over more than a half-century of the biggest game in sports, there have been all of three instances where a team that lost the Super Bowl went on to win it the following year—the 1971 Dallas Cowboys (Super Bowl VI), the 1972 Miami Dolphins (Super Bowl VII) and the 2018 New England Patriots (Super Bowl LIII).

For each such team that bounced back, there have been multiple examples of teams that not only didn't get back to the Super Bowl but missed the postseason altogether. After losing Super Bowl XXXVIII, the 2004 Carolina Panthers went 7-9. The year after that the Philadelphia Eagles went from losing Super Bowl XXXIX to 6-10. It's the same record the Panthers posted the year after losing Super Bowl 50.

After a surprising 2021 season that culminated in an AFC North title and an even more surprising run to a date with the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, it will fall to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals to shake off that hangover in 2022. It won't be easy. Frankly, the odds are against them.

But the team has done what it can to avoid being a one-year wonder—by quietly having one of the NFL's best offseasons.

Per Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports, after that Super Bowl loss Burrow said he fully intended to lead the Bengals back to another Super Bowl.

"We're a young team," he said. "You'd like to think that we'll be back in this situation multiple times over the course of the next few years. We take this and let it fuel you for the rest of our careers."

There was (and is) substantial reason to be confident. Burrow has as much offensive weaponry as any signal-caller in the league. Joe Mixon is a top-10 back in the prime of his career. Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year Ja'Marr Chase combine to form arguably the best trio of wideouts in the NFL.

A defensive front seven featuring two dangerous edge-rushers in Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson and a capable linebacker corps anchored by Germaine Pratt and Logan Wilson are underrated.

Then there's Burrow himself, who looks the part of a megastar in the making after throwing for 4,611 yards with 34 touchdown passes in his second professional season.

But there were two major weaknesses on Cincinnati's roster entering the offseason. And the Bengals bolstered both in a major way.

The first was glaringly obvious. The offensive line play in the Queen City a year ago was…offensive. Counting the postseason, Burrow was sacked a jaw-dropping 70 times in 2021. Only two quarterbacks in the history of the league (David Carr in 2002 and Randall Cunningham in 1986) were taken down more times in a season.

Upgrading that line with both quality and quantity was a must. And the Bengals got after it as soon as free agency opened.

After four seasons (and a Super Bowl win) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, veteran guard Alex Cappa signed a four-year, $35 million contract with the Bengals. Seventh-year center Ted Karras got $18 million over three years with Cincinnati after allowing three sacks in 829 snaps with the Patriots in 2021. The Bengals have a new starter at right tackle as well after La'el Collins bolted the Dallas Cowboys for a three-year, $21 million pact.

After Collins was signed, offensive line coach Frank Pollack lauded his overhauled unit.

"We have three new guys that know how to set the tone," Pollack said, via Geoff Hobson of the team's website. "Pros that know how to prepare and practice. That's what L.C. is. He prepares hard and practices hard."

The new linemen aren't elite options. But they are capable, experienced veteran players who offer marked improvement. If left tackle Jonah Williams continues to improve in his fourth season, last year's biggest weakness could be a strength.

Cincinnati's other issue wasn't quite as massive. But it was a problem, nonetheless.

The Bengals have an excellent pair of safeties in Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates III. They found a free-agent gem last year in cornerback Chidobe Awuzie. And Mike Hilton is a decent veteran slot corner who told reporters that the team is on a mission to show that last year's success wasn't a fluke.

"When you think of the Bengals," Hilton said, "you're like, 'Oh, the Bengals,' you know? But now, with this group of guys that we have and the coaches that we have, we're really turning this organization around. And we're just trying to get the respect we deserve."

But despite re-signing Eli Apple, the other boundary corner spot was a weakness. After playing all of five games in two years with the team on a $42 million contract, Trae Waynes was shown the door in the offseason. Apple may not be quite as bad as the memes make him out to be, but he has allowed a passer rating against north of 100 in two of the past three seasons.

Whether it was depth behind Apple or a replacement for him, the Bengals needed to add talent in the defensive backfield. And that was the focus of the early rounds of the 2022 draft.

With the 31st pick, the Bengals selected Michigan safety Daxton Hill, a talented and versatile young defensive back whom Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network thinks could be a difference-maker in the NFL.

"Hill is an athletic safety who has shown consistent improvement on the field and increased his production every year," he said. "He possesses good upside and projects as a traditional free safety who can line up over the slot receiver."

Not only can Hill play both safety spots and the slot, but he told All Bengals after the draft that he's willing to try his hand at outside corner if needed.

"Yeah, I mean definitely," Hill said. "With corner, that's something I definitely have to prepare myself for. Whatever that is and whenever that is I'm ready for the challenge."

Cincinnati circled back in Round 2, drafting Nebraska's Cam Taylor-Britt, a physical presence Bleacher Report's Cory Giddings wrote has significant potential.

It's not guaranteed that either of those youngsters will beat out Apple to be a Week 1 starter. But at the very least defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has more depth in sub-packages, added versatility and some insurance against an injury or a potential contract impasse with Bates.

All those things are good.

Granted, addressing those needs doesn't punch Cincinnati's ticket for a trip to Glendale. A lot that has to go right to facilitate a deep playoff run, not the least of which is key players like Burrow staying healthy.

Getting through the AFC North isn't going to be easy, either. The Baltimore Ravens were ravaged by injuries on both sides of the ball last year and had arguably the best draft of any team in the league. Depending on the playing status of quarterback Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns could be a very tough out. The Pittsburgh Steelers haven't had a losing season since 2003.

Even if the Bengals can run that gauntlet and win the AFC North in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history (or make the playoffs as a wild-card team), getting back to the Super Bowl means navigating a second meat-grinder.

In 2022, the AFC is almost ridiculously stacked.

The Buffalo Bills are almost as loaded as the Bengals offensively and feature the league's No. 1 defense from a season ago. After a flurry of impact trades and signings this year that started with Denver's acquisition of quarterback Russell Wilson, the AFC West is loaded with teams from top to bottom that have aspirations of a deep playoff run, whether it's Wilson's Broncos, a Chargers team that made big changes defensively or a Raiders team that gave the Bengals all they could handle in the Wild Card Round and have since added edge-rusher Chandler Jones and wide receiver Davante Adams.

The only team in the West that didn't make high-profile additions this offseason was Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs. All the Chiefs have done is win six straight division titles and host the AFC Championship Game each of the past four seasons.

Other than that, they are just OK.

Of course, those teams all have their own question marks. The Chiefs have holes on defense and traded away star wideout Tyreek Hill. The Chargers faded down the stretch last year and missed the postseason. Buffalo's run game is suspect. And so on. But those teams also took steps to address their weaknesses in the offseason, which made it all the more imperative the Bengals do the same.

In revamping a woeful offensive line and upgrading the defensive backfield, Cincinnati did just that. It's hardly a guarantee that the team will become the fourth franchise to shake off the Super Bowl hangover and win a championship. There are no such guarantees to be had—especially as loaded as the AFC is in 2022.

But the offseason moves the Bengals made also make it less likely that these Bengals will be a one-hit wonder.

There's still some more music to be made in the Queen City.

The Judgment Day have sent a clear message to the rest of the Raw roster that they will not be sitting idly by and Edge will rule over WWE from his mountain of omnipotence with the help of disciples Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley.

The faction leader has already made life a living hell for AJ Styles and, according to his own promo Monday night, the group is not finished adding members. 

As Edge's rivalry with The Phenomenal One rages on, there is no better way to complete the mental chess game with his foe than by recruiting a close, personal friend to the dark side.

Bullet Club for Life...Or Not?

Finn Balor is the founder of Bullet Club, an internationally recognized faction from New Japan Pro-Wrestling that has also featured big names such as Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page and "Switchblade" Jay White.

And AJ Styles. 

Balor has been an ally of The Phenomenal One in recent weeks and fended off Edge and Priest Sunday night at WrestleMania Backlash. They have recalled their history with the faction, using the iconic "too sweet" hand gesture on multiple occasions.

Imagine, though, if it's all a ploy to sucker Styles into a false sense of security before revealing the Irishman's status as the latest addition to the faction. It would certainly make sense. While its members claim Bullet Club is for life, there is a history of betrayals and ejections from the group.

The Bucks sent Balor packing with a shocking attack, as Omega did to Styles.

Such a development plays on the past while propelling both Balor and Judgment Day forward in a way that is mutually beneficial and further enhances the sympathy and support for Styles, who is already well-over with the fans.

Why It Works

Balor has been on a creative treadmill for a long time.

He had two great runs in NXT, but his time on the main roster has been disappointing, and the writing team never seems to know what to do with him. He's a fantastic wrestler and the fans love him, but he has been pigeonholed into the midcard, from where he never really progresses.

Adding him to Judgment Day may not rectify all the issues with his booking, but it would elevate his status on the red brand by pairing him with an act that clearly has the attention of the powers that be. 

It would also introduce the possibility of an extended program with Styles. 

For as often as WWE repeats matches until fans cannot possibly care less about the pairing anymore, Balor and Styles have only wrestled a single bout against each other, at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs in October 2017. The Demon won that contest.

Putting those two in the ring together not only results in a fresh match, but it also takes the emphasis off of Edge working every month. He can do more as a personality, talking the feud forward rather than having to take all the bumps and ruin the allure of future contests with The Phenomenal One.

More importantly, it sets up the potential for Balor to break free from the group further down the line and oppose Edge, Priest and Ripley. That development would go a long way in helping to heat him back up and possibly provide him with a main event-worthy run that has been lacking for him previously.

There are some who will argue that throwing him into a faction will only lead to him being overshadowed by Edge, but anything is better than being "that guy who has good matches" on a roster full of them.

Balor is a guy who should be fighting in marquee matches for world titles. That is not happening any time soon, as things stand.

Put him in Judgment Day, let him tear the house down with Styles and methodically plant the seeds for his eventual betrayal of Edge and his minions.

It benefits all involved by strengthening the faction in the short term and providing Balor with what might be his last realistic opportunity at top-tier success on the main roster.