To be fair, Punk and Bryan were great with their characters if they could have creativity in it and they were great wrestlers to boot. Though Punk is becoming stagnant...
What the developmental league is doing is teach them the WWE style of wrestling, you know, kinda like orientation/initiation/probation period. Since they have been wrestling in the indies for so long, working a small crowd compared to working a big crowd is different in my point of view.
Steven Idol, on the other hand, doesn't have a character in the first place (bland), and he was mediocre in the ring when he was in the tag team division. Now he found his character, he actually incorporated it in his in ring performance. This is what made him entertaining, for now.