Most Disappointing Wrestlers in History

[Jimmy Redman]

Disappointing to me personally because of wasted potential as a worker:

 

HHH and Kurt Angle. Guys who have shown me glimpses of utter greatness, but who too often fall short due to their terrible ideas of how to be a great wrestler. For Hunter it's bloated NWA Champ cosplaying without showing ass, and for Angle its spotfu.

 

Disappointing because they never became as big a star as I thought they should:

 

Mr Kennedy and MVP in WWE. After the Class of 2005, those two looked like the next sure fire prospects to be elevated to main events. Kennedy was well on his way until he got injured and lost MITB, and somehow never recovered. His unpopularity/backstage issues probably did him in. MVP was done by the drug tester incident. It still annoys me when I see Kennedy in 2005-06 or MVP in 2007 and think about how far they should have gone, and how they both ended up screwed.

[Tim Evans]

Austin Idol. If he had a run in WWF or JCP, I think he would have been a bigger star. Instead he stayed in the south and no showed himself out of a job.

[Dylan Waco]

I hate it, but I think the answer is probably Barry Windham. It's an odd thing for me to say, because at his absolute best I thought he was an outstanding worker, I'd rate him among the best tag team wrestlers of all time, and I could easily see him rating in my top thirty in ring performers of all time. Having said that, he was someone with the look, pedigree, versatility and skill set of a major star, and instead he peaked as an upper mid-carder and even in that role never truly realized his full potential as a star.

[Bierschwale]

Another guy I'd point to is Alex Wright. Under different circumstances, his career might have been very different.

 

Exactly who I thought, especially when it's put in "What could have been..." terms. He was an excellent TV worker before he even turned 20.

[KrisZ]

The New Breed also fall into this category as Champion & Royal were a couple of Dusty's favs but injuries and drugs killed them.

[clintthecrippler]

Joke Answer: Maunakea Mossman. I read his name in All Japan results for two years in PWI. Then I finally got my hands on a tape and was disappointed that it was just some dude and not a guy doing a "Moss Man" gimmick.

 

Real answer: Tazz in WWE. To this day I am still a big fan of his ECW run and still ponder what if the Radicalz never came over from WCW immediately. It seemed like once a year after 2001 they would tease something badass from him in a promo, the fans would get amped, and the someone like Stone Cold would squash him in under two minutes. Though long-term money and health wise the commentary gig probably ended up being a better outcome for him.

[anotherspammer]

If we are talking about guys that seemed destined for bigger/longer runs, I have to agree with the Ahmed Johnson pick. I wasn't watching wrestling around 95/96, but my brother did and between what I oversaw while he was watching plus whatever WWF game was on the playstation around that time, I always assumed Johnson had a WWF Title run. It wasn't until like 2000 that I realized he wasn't a former champ.

[C.S.]

Whoever said Muhammad Hassan, good call. The WWE really botched that one - turning a potentially sophisticated storyline into yet another simple-minded foreign heel angle - but when the mindset is "it's just rasslin'," that's what happens.

 

Another one: Matt Hardy. He was on fire with his "Matt Hardy: Version 1" character, his MFer (Mattitude Follower), Matt Facts, etc. For a time, he was a far more interesting character and wrestler than his brother Jeff ever was. Matt was one of the more creative wrestlers ever, really. Unfortunately, he was a political causality of the Edge/Lita bullshit. Edge's career soared, but Matt and Lita were never the same after that.

 

I'll add Jeff Jarrett and Brian Christopher: Both of them were played up as big deals in PWI. They were the "indie darlings" of their day. Christopher was a fun tag wrestler in WWF, but never the major heel the mags led us to believe he could be. Most of Jarrett's time in both the WWF and WCW was a disappointment, but I personally thought he was really on fire during that short period where Debra managed him in the WWF, Owen was his tag team partner, and after that when he was playing a chauvinistic asshole in that feud against Chyna. (It was certainly Chyna's best feud!) His heel character was at its apex then, and he was one of the highlights of the show IMO. He flat out didn't work when he was pushed down everyone's throats as a WCW main eventer who had "stroke" with the "powers that be" and all of that other nonsense. But he didn't really come in with his chauvinistic WWF character either, which was a huge mistake. Instead, he morphed into something a lot blander while being pushed a lot harder. It was a recipe for disaster.

[Gregor]

La Fiera is in a lot of ways Mexico's Barry Windham - natural wrestler, very good at an early age, extremely graceful without looking soft. At age 23 he looked like a superstar in the making, and, although he was a pretty big name, he ended up having a fragmented career with intermittent spurts of greatness. That's more than most guys are able to produce, but his career still doesn't feel complete.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The answer will always be Siva Afi. Never was there greater disappointment then that night at MSG. The lights went down, Snuka's music hit, and then...Finkel: "FROM THE ISLE OF FIJI..." *fans go nuts*

Finkel: "...SUPERFLY..." *fans wetting themselves*

Finkel: "...AFI!" *fans die a million collective deaths*anks

with thanks to Pete

[pantherwagner]

Jose will get this one.

 

Hijo del Rayo de Jalisco Jr. aka Hombre sin Nombre aka Rayman seemed to be on the fast track to stardom in 2001 putting on great performances basically setting the template for MIstico 3 years later but his Uncle Rayo de Jalisco Jr. had a falling out with his nephew and he was pretty much politically blackballed but he didn't help himself either by not performing at the level he was at and was eventually banished to Guadalajara and now to random indies.

 

That's a very good one.

 

Also 20 years ago the guy that many thought would be the new tecnico young star of the promotion was Mascara Magica but he was eventually surpassed by Mr. Niebla and even more by Shocker.

 

During many years EMLL/CMLL was on a constant search for "the next Lizmark". They found Atlantis but after him there were several flops like Mogur (possibly the biggest flop ever in the history of EMLL) and Angel Azteca, who was a great performer but didn't have a lot of charisma and was caught in a transition period to a new era where the old formula was pretty much thrown away and Konnan, Octagon and Vampiro showed up almost at the same time.

[pantherwagner]

La Fiera is in a lot of ways Mexico's Barry Windham - natural wrestler, very good at an early age, extremely graceful without looking soft. At age 23 he looked like a superstar in the making, and, although he was a pretty big name, he ended up having a fragmented career with intermittent spurts of greatness. That's more than most guys are able to produce, but his career still doesn't feel complete.

 

Him and Jerry Estrada were in the run for the "next Sangre Chicana" tag : only smaller and faster. Neither panned out the way it should have though both had very decent careers. Jerry had a better career, as far as output goes, because he had the fortunate (or unfortunate?) talent of being a world class performer while being complete fucked up on drugs and alcohol.

[Mr. Lacelle]

My pick is Paul Orndorff, I love him to death but I just wish he had the matches he should have been having. He had a great crispness to his moves and great intensity but no great matches. I like his stuff with Piper & Foley but he seems like a guy that should have countless great performances & it's just not there.

[cheapshot]

Tom Magee for his look, he looked a million dollars.

 

For people who had talent though, but didn't fully achieve I'd go with Pillman.

[Matt D]

Rey Bucanero looked like he was about to break out in the 2006 CMLL I watched. That really didn't happen.

[C.S.]

I don't know if I agree with Pillman. He did very well for himself in WCW and would've been a major player in the WWF if not for injury. Even if he had fully healed, he died before anything could really happen. Ditto for Owen. I hesitate to label them "disappointments" when death put a stop to their natural career trajectory. The only disappointment here is that they unfortunately died before their time.

[Bierschwale]

If Owen survived and stayed at a high level into the brand split era, what's more likely: him being part of the SmackDown core and getting upper card runs, possibly with WWE title programs, or him having a slightly more dignified version of the Lance Storm role on RAW?

 

The natural pessimist in me assumes the latter.

[Bierschwale]

I just realized the insanity that is us talking about a Hart family member in the thread for "most disappointing wrestlers ever" and it not being Teddy.

[Jesse Ewiak]

If Owen survived and stayed at a high level into the brand split era, what's more likely: him being part of the SmackDown core and getting upper card runs, possibly with WWE title programs, or him having a slightly more dignified version of the Lance Storm role on RAW?

 

The natural pessimist in me assumes the latter.

 

Despite the claims he was about to retire, I do think Owen would've hung around for the initial Radicalz run, but I doubt he would've lasted to the SD 6 Era.

 

As for most disappointing, for possible talent being ran over by bad booking leading to somebody giving up, I have to go with Shelton Benjamin. Great look, athletic, was having great matches according to most people, but got banished to midcard hell and lost all motivation.

 

Now, I'm surprised nobody said this, but let's be honest here, the real answer in the past decade is Brock Lesnar. We missed the peak of his career from 2004 on.

[ajtroma]

I'd go with Brian Christopher

[Blehschmidt]

I honestly expected huge things from Paul Burchill.

 

I remember hearing the hype about him when he was in England. I remember people being amazed at a guy his size pulling off the C4. Then the fed signed him, and the reviews in OVW were all positive. Then he came to TV and despite all odds the pirate gimmick got over....and then.......nothing.

[Sidebottom]

If Owen survived and stayed at a high level into the brand split era, what's more likely: him being part of the SmackDown core and getting upper card runs, possibly with WWE title programs, or him having a slightly more dignified version of the Lance Storm role on RAW?

 

The natural pessimist in me assumes the latter.

 

I have a lot of love for Owen Hart, but anybody who talks about him missing his opportunity for a world title run in the late 90's are deluded if you think of the climate at the time of his death and afterwards. Owen's peak as a star was 1994 / 1995 with a fine 1997 also. He simply wasn't the same in 1998/1999 on his own merits, forgetting about the influx of talent that came in and shone.

[BillThompson]

Eh, I think you're selling his 1998 very short. He was a key player in his ability to get a lot out of guys who were really green. Edge and Ken Shamrock were put in with Owen because he dragged something good out of them when they had very little to offer. Owen could still go in the ring, his main problem was a lack of a compelling story. You stick him in the ring come 2000+ with the influx of better workers and give his character interesting stories and direction and he's be a top player again.

[khawk20]

For an older old-school pick, Chris Taylor is one to consider. Big name-brand Olympic Wrestler that went to Verne Gagne's training camp and was seen by Verne as someone who could be really big, and was promoted as such with TV appearances on talk shows like The Mike Douglas Show, for example. He went through Verne's camp the same year as Sgt. Slaughter, and was a focal point of the special piece that has aired on some AWA specials on "The Barn", where Verne trained his wrestlers. I don't know what the purpose of that piece was when it was done, but I suspect it probably aired as an add-on piece on some local news affiliates. Just a guess, but it isn't the kind of fare that would have made a regular ASW broadcast.

 

He also got Pro Wrestling onto Network TV back in the mid-70's when ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcast tape of a match between him and Mad Dog Vachon. That sort of thing was a pretty big deal and shows the potential that Verne and Billy Robinson thought this guy had as a breakout star (along with the other promotional pieces I noted above).

 

He never had the kind of career projected for him before his untimely death. I'm not sure what the root cause of that is, but his overall lack of impact on the game makes him a real disappointment for the ages in the "What should have been" category.

[funkdoc]

I don't know if I agree with Pillman. He did very well for himself in WCW and would've been a major player in the WWF if not for injury. Even if he had fully healed, he died before anything could really happen.

 

i think people refer more to his initial babyface period when he was real hot and they didn't capitalize. you can see this as early as '89 with their start-stop push of him, and again in '92 when he had the liger match and they followed up by bringing in a new boss who banned top-rope moves. there is also the argument that he was always miscast as flyin' brian, as he was more of an intense fighting babyface. still, probably not quite the best pick for this thread.