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“Pin Me, Pay Me.”
–Al Snow, J.O.B. Squad
Every great story needs supporting characters.
In professional wrestling, one vital supporting role is that of enhancement talent – a/k/a the jobber. In wrestling lingo, “doing a job” means losing to another wrestler. Wrestlers whose primary role is to lose are called jobbers, or enhancement talent, so named because they enhance their opponents, who look better in comparison.
In the 1980s, WWE featured dedicated jobbers on television: wrestlers who often lacked a gimmick or defining characteristic and lost their matches quickly and decisively. For instance, Dusty Wolfe, SD Jones, “Iron” Mike Sharpe, Rusty Brooks, and Barry Horowitz wrestled on television more often than many top stars, but rarely became involved in storylines beyond losing week after week.
Some enhancement talent stood out. Steve Lombardi graduated from anonymous jobber to lower-midcard character by becoming the Brooklyn Brawler, while “Iron” Mike Sharpe had the temerity to declare himself “Canada’s Greatest Athlete.” Other legitimate WWE stars once worked primarily as jobbers before reinventing themselves and hitting it big. The Prototype became John Cena, Jack Foley became Mick Foley, Jean-Paul Lévesque became Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Damon Striker became Edge.
The decades that followed saw jobbers given gimmicks, more personality, larger roles, and the occasional win. Funaki, Gillberg, Heath Slater, and James Ellsworth come to mind.
Today’s enhancement talent are full-fledged characters in their own right, often participating in ongoing storylines even if they are rarely the focal point. Some fill the role better than others.
For the purposes of this column, I’m referring to anyone who has lost significantly more often than they have won over the past year as enhancement talent, although they might fall into the classification label of “jobber to the stars” that rose to prominence in the 2000s.
Rising Enhancement Talent: JD McDonagh
While his buddy Dominik Mysterio styles himself the King of the Luchadores, JD McDonagh could rightfully call himself the King of the Jobbers.
The prototypical enhancement talent, the Irish Ace excels at making his opponents look fantastic. An expert ring technician, he looks more than competent executing offensive maneuvers. His greatest skill, however, may be his selling.
McDonagh bumps around the ring like a human crash-test dummy, making his opponents’ offense seem all the more devastating. Although he is less than dynamic on the microphone, his role as enhancement talent doesn’t require that skill.
His ability to enhance other wrestlers makes McDonagh an asset to Raw – and one WWE bookers take full advantage of. Cagematch statistics confirm that McDonagh has wrestled well over 100 matches since his 2023 Raw debut, with more than 75 percent ending in defeat.
Last week on Raw, McDonagh scored a rare victory, defeating Joe Hendry and Je’Von Evans alongside his Judgment Day partner Mysterio. Occasional victories are important because they maintain the idea that McDonagh is a capable opponent, making it mean something when someone eventually defeats him.
Even after more than 100 losses, JD McDonagh remains an important character on Raw.
As long as WWE continues to need someone who can make everybody else look good, the Irish Ace has a job for life.
Runner-Up: Roxanne Perez
McDonagh’s Judgment Day stablemate Roxanne Perez has lost an extraordinary number of matches since arriving on the main roster. Like McDonagh, she is an excellent ring technician and excels at selling.
Unlike McDonagh, Perez has a strong presence. She emotes well in the ring, and her villainous mannerisms and behavior generate an immediate negative response from audiences.
Her match against Stephanie Vaquer on last week’s Raw seemed to lack much in the way of suspense. Regular viewers could reasonably assume the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Yet Perez was still able to draw the fans in attendance into the drama, encouraging them to rally behind Vaquer.
That is the essence of good enhancement work: making the audience care about the person beating you.
Perez is more than capable on the microphone and appears ready for a larger role on Raw. If given the opportunity, she has the ability to rise above enhancement status and become a bigger star.
The longer she is defined as a perennial loser, however, the more difficult that becomes.
Here’s hoping 2026 sees The Prodigy take the spotlight rather than continually serve as the backdrop for somebody else’s.
Second Runner-Up: Michin
A fantastic in-ring worker who has struggled to connect with fans on an emotional level, Michin may have finally found her place as Jade Cargill’s chief “Baddie.”
Michin’s WWE career has been defined by group membership. As a gifted ring worker who has struggled at times to deliver an engaging promo, she has often been a natural fit as part of a wrestling stable.
Michin debuted on the main roster in 2020 as Reckoning, a member of the anarchist Retribution stable. The doomed group fell apart within six months, and Michin was eventually released from WWE.
She returned to Raw two years later as part of The O.C. alongside AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows, initially wrestling as Mia Yim before adopting the name Michin, which roughly translates to “crazy” in Korean.
Michin subsequently competed as a singles babyface on SmackDown for two years with little success or traction. Only after turning heel in March of this year and aligning herself with her former bully, Jade Cargill, did Michin begin to find her groove.
As Cargill’s enforcer, Michin presents as tough and capable, but she is also more than adept at selling. Her ring work looks especially sharp in comparison with that of her stablemates.
She is often the formidable obstacle Cargill’s opponents must overcome before getting a shot at The Storm, a role she plays quite well.
After years of searching for the right role, Michin may finally have found one that fits.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Fading Enhancement Talent: B-Fab
Somewhat less successful has been B-Fab, who has struggled to find her footing in virtually every role since debuting on SmackDown in 2021 as Hit Row’s manager.
Her mic work has never been more than adequate, while her ring work has been decidedly subpar.
B-Fab fails to generate much of a reaction from crowds in any capacity, including her current role as Michin’s counterpart and Cargill’s follower.
Like Michin, B-Fab frequently loses to Cargill’s babyface rivals.
Unlike Michin, B-Fab does not possess the ring skills to make those losses particularly convincing. Her matches are often awkward, and her opponents don’t seem to benefit much from defeating her.
That is the fundamental problem with enhancement talent: if beating you doesn’t make the other wrestler look better, what exactly is the point?
After five years in WWE, B-Fab has failed to make much of an impression.
At this point, it seems increasingly unlikely that WWE sees her as anything more than another body in the background.
First Runner-Up: Kit Wilson
Kit Wilson may be the most frustrating case on this list.
Possessed of innate charisma, solid ring skills, and a personality that has occasionally connected with fans, Wilson seems capable of occupying a much higher position on the card.
His crusade against what he regards as “toxic masculinity” has given him a distinctive hook, and he has the obnoxious heel qualities necessary to make the gimmick work.
Instead, he keeps losing.
Like Perez, Wilson has never been given much of an opportunity to shine. Unlike Perez, his role has seemed to diminish with time.
The most damaging example may have been his feud with Danhausen, which turned Wilson into the butt of cartoon humor and pushed him even further down the card.
Talk about toxic.
Wilson’s situation is particularly unfortunate because Pretty Deadly once looked like a team with genuine upside. Injuries to Elton Prince disrupted the duo, leaving Wilson to try to establish himself as a singles wrestler.
He has shown flashes of being able to do exactly that.
But flashes aren’t enough.
At this point, Wilson seems less likely to be given a chance at something greater. Should Prince eventually return from injury, perhaps Pretty Deadly can give both men a reset.
Until then, Kit Wilson appears destined to keep doing what he does best: making snarky comments, taking a beating, and staring up at the lights for three seconds.
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