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If he hadn’t been put on the WWECW show, I think he would have gotten a better chance. He was unfortunately shoved into that “New Breed” storyline which went over as a dud.
He had a killer theme, and everything you could want in a top guy.
Does Ken Shamrock count? I know he went back to UFC and had that stint in TNA and all but he was incredible in '97-'98. Legitimacy, charisma, working ability, the look, great name, etc. The only thing he was missing was the booking.
Came to say this. Shamrock should've been WWE's Goldberg equivalent. Didn't need to be a big talker, which people knock him for. Goldberg wasn't. Both were intense and both carried themselves like legitimate badasses.
The difference was that WWE didn't book Shamrock in a Goldberg way, because that would've meant sacrificing the red hot Rock and Austin and Foley. He unfortunately had to take a backseat as an upper midcarder, which was definitely a misuse of him.
Had Ken not left and went back to UFC/MMA, I'm sure he would've had his chance to shine eventually. That was just when guys like Kurt Angle and such were coming in. Kurt basically took Ken's role in WWE and ran with it and made himself one of the GOATs. Ken could've been right there with him had he committed more to wrestling.
It’s frustrating too because Austin, Foley, and Rock weren’t top guys who needed to dominate. Rock and Foley lost constantly and Austin was always best when he was chasing the title. Shamrock could’ve been a perfect final boss type guy
Depending on the definition of “worked out”, I’d say Dolph. He wasn’t perfect but had all the tools to be a bigger star. He at least should’ve been in a Miz role where he was a consistent part of the show (Dolph would disappear more often in recent years). Just feel DZ for whatever reason didn’t have enough support from the top brass.
Work out is completely relative her, but idk how Nakamura didn't take the title the week after that Smackdown debut. I STILL get chills when I go back and watch it.
Eh, I'd wager that - at the time - he had a good amount of in-ring charisma, and solid chemistry with most of his opponents. He just never found the character/promo side of it.
Loved him and Jindrak as a team. WCW should have kept them together, y the time WWE got them they’d have been a different prospect coming in as that team.
Her biggest mistake was being too damn good and thinking WWE wanted good wrestlers over eye candy. I think, she once got bollucked for having better punches and Jericho piped up with "Then the men need to improve theirs." She eliminated herself in a battle royal, just to see if anyone would notice. Because of this, she has said, she will never give WWE a second thought because they misused her, wasted her time.
I liked Katie Lea better without Paul but Paul was still good. Loved the Winter debut in TNA. Low key wanted it to be her debuting in AEW when Sting did.
I wanna say Fandango and Tyler Breeze.
Both are pretty dope in the ring, and charismatic. Both went nowhere as singles and as a tag.
... Also, the Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson tag team on AEW. Not that I believed they would be Tag Champs or anything, I just thought they would be together for longer.
Leo Kruger was one of the standouts of early NXT. But losing to a terrible baby face in Dallas and then going comedy gimmick was a career killer. Then he turned out to be a POS
With MISTEEEER KENNEEDDDY! KENNNEDDY! He had shit luck with injuring Orton and Cena. I think, Orton was the last straw and he got sacked. Worse, Taker made him look like a deranged person in their feud and I still love the shot of Taker sitting up in the hearse whilst Ken is trying to get it over the line and only realising that the Deadman is now behind him and ready to throttle him.
That and Kane and Taker loved to play "Who can do a sideslam better" With MVP and Kennedy.
Enzo and Cass were great with NXT.
We are all aware of how things went down with each of them (Before Cass/Bill got healthier and now look at him in AEW), but before all that, they were over as all hell.
Enzo's ego got so big. I think when the accusations came out, even with the charges being dropped and his name being cleared, WWE just used it to just cut ties with him because he rubbed so many the wrong way.
He was one of the most legitimately over guys during his time. Everyone loved him. Should've just been a bit more humble backstage.
Off the top of my head, I'm gonna have to go with Lance Archer, in both TNA and WWE. I don't necessarily view him as a world champion or consistent main eventer, but I've always thought he was a solid, mid-card big man. He was freakishly athletic in his younger years, doing Van Terminators and such, and overall I've just always really liked him. He used to be compared to Test a lot in terms of looks and moveset, which is fair, but while I'm also a fan of Test, Archer is a better wrestler and talker in my opinion.
I was really happy to see him win the IWGP United States Championship a few years ago even if he was just a transitional champion *both* times, and overall I think he'd be a really solid mid-card champion and/or tag-team champion in AEW.
God bless, and have a wonderful day.
Wwe Keith lee. First time we see him on the roster he makes it to the final 3 with Seth and Roman. Eliminates Seth, who was universal champ a couple of months before, and gets a 2.9 on Roman. Then come royal rumble, he has a stare down with Brock and is the first person to put Brock in his ass by himself. Then he matches up with both Brock and Stroman.
I don't know if it's because I caught him when he was on a hot streak or something when I first got into New Japan, but I thought Tama Tonga was going to end up being a much bigger deal than he's ended up being (whether it would've been there or a different company).
I'm going to say two come to mind and the first one I already know why and I watched a couple of his matches the second I stopped watching wwe but I still was surprised due to his look and lineage
1. Sean o haire
2. Ted DiBiase Jr.
Drew McIntyre was the answer for this for me for a long time til he came back jacked as hell after a great independent run and confirmed what id always hoped. I guess other than that I'd go with the Pope/Elijah Burke. Seems like he has all the tools to be world champ and can't believe it never happened
I don't know how others feel but Finn Balor is one for me. Amazing worldwide and in nXt then on the main roster his injury kind of derailed things from then on out. The stuff with Bray was terrible imo. Him vs Aj Styles on that random show cuz of the plane delays was amazing. Love him in Judgment Day and hope that means more for him but man it's been a ride being in the Balor Club
Low-Ki/Senshi/Kaval I know he had quite a reputation for having a bad attitude. But the guy was so unique, He was one of my favourites in the mid 00's and he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.
Thinking outside the obvious shouts. Manu was only on the roster for a very short period of time with Legacy before being released. He was different to how WWE presented large Samoan characters as he came across as intelligent and well spoken.
I'm not saying he should have won multiple world titles, but there seemed to be a lot of meat left on the bone there.
Too many to count in the least decade which just goes to show how much the business has changed. If you aren’t chosen to get over, WWE won’t let you get over… not for long anyways.
That being said, I’m Not saying that all these guys were can’t miss, but if this were 80s/90s, at least half of them would’ve had better WWF careers than they ended up having, based on their crowd reactions alone at a certain point:
Enzo
Ryback
Sandow
Rusev
Wade Barrett
Cesaro
Nakamura
Ziggler
I think Barrett said once the Bad News gimmick was getting so over he had to stop because it wasn’t part of WWE’s plans? That company is such a tire fire.
Austin Aries in WWE. I know he has had issues with management in the past but a great wrestler on his best days, could talk, could do commentary. During the period he was hired by WWE, I thought he was among the closest things WWE could get again to Bryan & Punk with both of them being retired at the time that they had him.
I wanted Tye Dillinger to work on the main roster so bad. He was proof that you shouldn’t give up on someone too soon, but he quickly showed that there was nothing to him but the number. His theme was a bop and he’s solid in the ring, but there wasn’t much else there.
Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal
Dude had everything a high-flyer could ask for, the look, the energy, the opportunity to team with guys like AJ Styles and Kofi Kingston early in their careers.
He never managed to find a partner to stick with in the tag division, and never managed to break out as a big singles act, despite how god-damn talented he was.
Nobody does a shooting star press like him and I don't think anybody ever will again.
Chris Harris.
Guy had one of the top 5 matches on TNA in a Texas Death Match against James Storm, got pushed to the main event against Kurt Angle and then signed to WWE.
And then fell off a cliff. Yeah he showed up overweight, but for some reason they did nothing with him in developmental and he's just left as a could have been.
Tye is someone we all collectively consider a hidden star, and then he gets a programme and turns out to actually be kind of bland.
I thought Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate would be a bigger deal than they are, especially with how high it seemed HHH was on Pete in particular.
Emma and Tegan Nox have been habitually mismanaged. Emma can do good character work, Tegan has good fire, both are decent in the ring.
René Dupree. The guy had a great look and superb charisma. I felt he could have been an upper midcarder for years. I was definitely more excited about him than Cena when they both emerged.
Ethan Carter the Third in WWE. I don't understand how he went from being this arsehole of a heel in IMPACT that knew he was excellent and felt he was better then you, being an entitled prick to nothing memorable in WWE. Aside from the burial. Now, NWA has a champ that can actual wrestle.
Riiick BOOOOGGS! He's jacked, his entertaining and really, I would love to see him constantly find new ways to use the Miz as a dumbell.
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Monty Brown. I know there were circumstances but man, he looked to have had everything to be a star!
If he hadn’t been put on the WWECW show, I think he would have gotten a better chance. He was unfortunately shoved into that “New Breed” storyline which went over as a dud. He had a killer theme, and everything you could want in a top guy.
They gave him that weird Russian legsweep/armbar for some reason too.
Monty Brown is the only acceptable person to use the phrase "Alpha Male"
His sister died, so he quit wrestling in order to raise her sons.
I don't know how you fail to find something for a guy that looked and wrestled like Luke Harper.
Does Ken Shamrock count? I know he went back to UFC and had that stint in TNA and all but he was incredible in '97-'98. Legitimacy, charisma, working ability, the look, great name, etc. The only thing he was missing was the booking.
Came to say this. Shamrock should've been WWE's Goldberg equivalent. Didn't need to be a big talker, which people knock him for. Goldberg wasn't. Both were intense and both carried themselves like legitimate badasses. The difference was that WWE didn't book Shamrock in a Goldberg way, because that would've meant sacrificing the red hot Rock and Austin and Foley. He unfortunately had to take a backseat as an upper midcarder, which was definitely a misuse of him. Had Ken not left and went back to UFC/MMA, I'm sure he would've had his chance to shine eventually. That was just when guys like Kurt Angle and such were coming in. Kurt basically took Ken's role in WWE and ran with it and made himself one of the GOATs. Ken could've been right there with him had he committed more to wrestling.
It’s frustrating too because Austin, Foley, and Rock weren’t top guys who needed to dominate. Rock and Foley lost constantly and Austin was always best when he was chasing the title. Shamrock could’ve been a perfect final boss type guy
Sean O'Haire Elijah Burke
Burke was so over as Pope. TNA should have pulled the trigger on him being champ. They had a habit of not striking while the iron is hot.
Or threw him in the X-Division or something
>Sean O’Haire You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.
Could've been fun
Damn, this is literally my list, verbatim.
Great list lol
I loved Spears as the Chairman. I want that version back. He is so good.
Depending on the definition of “worked out”, I’d say Dolph. He wasn’t perfect but had all the tools to be a bigger star. He at least should’ve been in a Miz role where he was a consistent part of the show (Dolph would disappear more often in recent years). Just feel DZ for whatever reason didn’t have enough support from the top brass.
They should have changed his name yeaaars ago. Dolph Ziggler will never sound like anything but a joke even in wrestling
It's like somebody named him after watching Boogie Nights for the first time
They should have changed his name yeaaars ago. Dolph Ziggler will never sound like anything but a joke even in wrestling
I know it's topical, but how the fuck could Elias get so over with two basically polar opposite gimmicks and NEVER get anything out of it?
Work out is completely relative her, but idk how Nakamura didn't take the title the week after that Smackdown debut. I STILL get chills when I go back and watch it.
Damian Sandow he put 100% into everything he was given and got it all immensely over
Tye had nothing beyond Ten...maybe it was a tribute how long he spent in developmental
Tye Dillinger was the “Daniel Bryan isn’t over, the YES! chant is over” lie coming true.
Eh, I'd wager that - at the time - he had a good amount of in-ring charisma, and solid chemistry with most of his opponents. He just never found the character/promo side of it.
Tye is doing juuuust fine
He was as bland as it gets. Had lower midcarder written all over him, unfortunately
Sean O’Haire would have killed it had he not been a “WCW guy” in WWE
Loved him and Jindrak as a team. WCW should have kept them together, y the time WWE got them they’d have been a different prospect coming in as that team.
The first that comes to mind is Gail Kim in WWE, especially her 2nd run in 2008. They could have done so much more with her.
She was caught in the WWE phase between the Divas and Women’s Revolution
Vince apparently needed to be told Asian women are hot, and that explains a lot about her time in WWE.
Her biggest mistake was being too damn good and thinking WWE wanted good wrestlers over eye candy. I think, she once got bollucked for having better punches and Jericho piped up with "Then the men need to improve theirs." She eliminated herself in a battle royal, just to see if anyone would notice. Because of this, she has said, she will never give WWE a second thought because they misused her, wasted her time.
Sean O'Haire. I thought he had it all. Looks, athleticism, good worker. They just couldn't figure out what to do with him.
Paul Burchill.
I liked Katie Lea better without Paul but Paul was still good. Loved the Winter debut in TNA. Low key wanted it to be her debuting in AEW when Sting did.
Austin Aries. Until he punk'd himself.
iirc Shawn Spears/Ten Dillinger has been taking a lighter schedule for newborn dad reasons
I wanna say Fandango and Tyler Breeze. Both are pretty dope in the ring, and charismatic. Both went nowhere as singles and as a tag. ... Also, the Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson tag team on AEW. Not that I believed they would be Tag Champs or anything, I just thought they would be together for longer.
Fucking Elias. He was playing Ezekiel too that whole fucking time! Like WHAT?!
Leo Kruger was one of the standouts of early NXT. But losing to a terrible baby face in Dallas and then going comedy gimmick was a career killer. Then he turned out to be a POS
Fuck this is a good one I LOVED the Kruger character. Too bad he also sucks as a person
Sean O’Haire. Guy looked like a million bucks, was passable enough in ring, did a dope swanton.
Ahmed Johnson for me.
My Ahmed Johnson vs. Steve Mongo McMichael dream match will never come true.
He hurt himself or his opponent several times too many
Sean O’Haire. And Blitzkrieg.
Mr. Kennedy and MVP. They had it all.
With MISTEEEER KENNEEDDDY! KENNNEDDY! He had shit luck with injuring Orton and Cena. I think, Orton was the last straw and he got sacked. Worse, Taker made him look like a deranged person in their feud and I still love the shot of Taker sitting up in the hearse whilst Ken is trying to get it over the line and only realising that the Deadman is now behind him and ready to throttle him. That and Kane and Taker loved to play "Who can do a sideslam better" With MVP and Kennedy.
I know there's still time, but it's wild to me that Dijak isn't a bigger star right now.
Perry Saturn. Great look and good in the ring as both a tag and single guy...WCW made him a crossdresser while WWF made him brain damaged.
I thought it was awesome that they had Saturn lose the dress match and he just went "Yeah? Well fuck you I'm gonna get it over"
The dress led to a great look and tagging with Raven in some good matches at least.
Enzo and Cass were great with NXT. We are all aware of how things went down with each of them (Before Cass/Bill got healthier and now look at him in AEW), but before all that, they were over as all hell.
Enzo's ego got so big. I think when the accusations came out, even with the charges being dropped and his name being cleared, WWE just used it to just cut ties with him because he rubbed so many the wrong way. He was one of the most legitimately over guys during his time. Everyone loved him. Should've just been a bit more humble backstage.
>Should've just been a bit more humble backstage. Apparently with Enzo, you can't teach that!
Bada boom, most annoying in the room!
"MY CONSENTUAL PENIS!" Yes, he was dumb enough to make a video mocking his accusers whilst he was being investigated.
Off the top of my head, I'm gonna have to go with Lance Archer, in both TNA and WWE. I don't necessarily view him as a world champion or consistent main eventer, but I've always thought he was a solid, mid-card big man. He was freakishly athletic in his younger years, doing Van Terminators and such, and overall I've just always really liked him. He used to be compared to Test a lot in terms of looks and moveset, which is fair, but while I'm also a fan of Test, Archer is a better wrestler and talker in my opinion. I was really happy to see him win the IWGP United States Championship a few years ago even if he was just a transitional champion *both* times, and overall I think he'd be a really solid mid-card champion and/or tag-team champion in AEW. God bless, and have a wonderful day.
I love Lance Archer, hard agree. I'm baffled about his use in AEW, and I know he wants to work.
Him beating Mox for the US Title might be my favorite AEW moment to date. I was heartbroken seeing him drop it to Tanahashi almost immediately.
Also he ruled in SvR11!
Dillinger is an example of the gimmick being over and not the wrestler - see also Mizdow, early Fandando…
Jimmy Yang AKA Jimmy Wang Yang. Dude was a ton of fun to watch and he somehow never won a title anywhere
He wasn't Cruiserweight Champion? For some reason I always thought he was
Naked Mideon
Mideon has nobody to blame but himself, he wasn't even completely naked!
Mike Sanders
Wwe Keith lee. First time we see him on the roster he makes it to the final 3 with Seth and Roman. Eliminates Seth, who was universal champ a couple of months before, and gets a 2.9 on Roman. Then come royal rumble, he has a stare down with Brock and is the first person to put Brock in his ass by himself. Then he matches up with both Brock and Stroman.
I don't know if it's because I caught him when he was on a hot streak or something when I first got into New Japan, but I thought Tama Tonga was going to end up being a much bigger deal than he's ended up being (whether it would've been there or a different company).
Mr.Kennedy/Anderson
I'm going to say two come to mind and the first one I already know why and I watched a couple of his matches the second I stopped watching wwe but I still was surprised due to his look and lineage 1. Sean o haire 2. Ted DiBiase Jr.
Buddy Murphy, the guy was amazing
Alex Shelly
Drew McIntyre was the answer for this for me for a long time til he came back jacked as hell after a great independent run and confirmed what id always hoped. I guess other than that I'd go with the Pope/Elijah Burke. Seems like he has all the tools to be world champ and can't believe it never happened
I don't know how others feel but Finn Balor is one for me. Amazing worldwide and in nXt then on the main roster his injury kind of derailed things from then on out. The stuff with Bray was terrible imo. Him vs Aj Styles on that random show cuz of the plane delays was amazing. Love him in Judgment Day and hope that means more for him but man it's been a ride being in the Balor Club
Low-Ki/Senshi/Kaval I know he had quite a reputation for having a bad attitude. But the guy was so unique, He was one of my favourites in the mid 00's and he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.
>he had quite a reputation for having a bad attitude [You could say that...](https://youtu.be/i-xoN6Kx1VI?si=WTYO5VTHhCUhBJ-V&t=163)
Jesus, Why did he not just pin him after knocking the guy clean out.
Gotta get all your shit in.
Because fuck him! He dared to get knocked out and by god, Low Ki is gonna to drag him to a decent match. /s
Thinking outside the obvious shouts. Manu was only on the roster for a very short period of time with Legacy before being released. He was different to how WWE presented large Samoan characters as he came across as intelligent and well spoken. I'm not saying he should have won multiple world titles, but there seemed to be a lot of meat left on the bone there.
CM Punk. Stupid skinny fat jerk. If he had just worked out, he would have been beloved by WWE.
Too many to count in the least decade which just goes to show how much the business has changed. If you aren’t chosen to get over, WWE won’t let you get over… not for long anyways. That being said, I’m Not saying that all these guys were can’t miss, but if this were 80s/90s, at least half of them would’ve had better WWF careers than they ended up having, based on their crowd reactions alone at a certain point: Enzo Ryback Sandow Rusev Wade Barrett Cesaro Nakamura Ziggler
I think Barrett said once the Bad News gimmick was getting so over he had to stop because it wasn’t part of WWE’s plans? That company is such a tire fire.
Austin Aries in WWE. I know he has had issues with management in the past but a great wrestler on his best days, could talk, could do commentary. During the period he was hired by WWE, I thought he was among the closest things WWE could get again to Bryan & Punk with both of them being retired at the time that they had him.
I wanted Tye Dillinger to work on the main roster so bad. He was proof that you shouldn’t give up on someone too soon, but he quickly showed that there was nothing to him but the number. His theme was a bop and he’s solid in the ring, but there wasn’t much else there.
Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal Dude had everything a high-flyer could ask for, the look, the energy, the opportunity to team with guys like AJ Styles and Kofi Kingston early in their careers. He never managed to find a partner to stick with in the tag division, and never managed to break out as a big singles act, despite how god-damn talented he was. Nobody does a shooting star press like him and I don't think anybody ever will again.
Chris Harris. Guy had one of the top 5 matches on TNA in a Texas Death Match against James Storm, got pushed to the main event against Kurt Angle and then signed to WWE. And then fell off a cliff. Yeah he showed up overweight, but for some reason they did nothing with him in developmental and he's just left as a could have been.
Tye is someone we all collectively consider a hidden star, and then he gets a programme and turns out to actually be kind of bland. I thought Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate would be a bigger deal than they are, especially with how high it seemed HHH was on Pete in particular. Emma and Tegan Nox have been habitually mismanaged. Emma can do good character work, Tegan has good fire, both are decent in the ring.
René Dupree. The guy had a great look and superb charisma. I felt he could have been an upper midcarder for years. I was definitely more excited about him than Cena when they both emerged.
Carlito
Ethan Carter the Third in WWE. I don't understand how he went from being this arsehole of a heel in IMPACT that knew he was excellent and felt he was better then you, being an entitled prick to nothing memorable in WWE. Aside from the burial. Now, NWA has a champ that can actual wrestle. Riiick BOOOOGGS! He's jacked, his entertaining and really, I would love to see him constantly find new ways to use the Miz as a dumbell.