Angles/Gimmicks that could have drawn big money and didnt
 

Lets all share ideas of Angles/Gimmicks that we think made it big but never got a chance to make the money they could have.

My first example? The Brood.

To this day very popular. Great talent. WAS OVER. Fans were digging them. Great entrance. Great looks. Great wrestlers.

I think had they really pushed the Brood first as Teag Team champs, then more they could have at the time made ALOT of money.

In the end 2/3 made it huge. But I never stop thinking they dropped the ball on big money with a Face brood...

Totally agreed on the Brood. Personally, I think that Ron Simmons could have done something. His work in the Nation was good, and his work with the APA is untouchable for what it was, but he was a former World Champion in WCW, and a powerhouse fellow. I think they could have done something more with him in the mid-late 90's as a singles wrestler.

Ugh Fixed the title.

Am I new to the internet?

I am a big Simmons mark. The problem with him is when? I think he rebounded the best he could from a weak Farooq debut and maybe could have had a good run as a heel champ leading the Nation. Only the Rock outshined him immediately. After that, with the APA, he was on his last legs.

I truly think if the Rock wasnt as amazing as he is, Farooq could have been a legit main eventer with the nation backing him.

Would it beat WCW? Not saying that.

The Union. Mankind, Big Show and Shamrock were all pretty over. Test not so much but the stable never really did a whole lot.

Manu.

This samoan monster could've been a bigger hit than Rikishi and Umaga combined.

Yet WWE just fired him.

Test got big after, but yeah, had they pushed them on a strong Corporation they could have done the first successful Big Heel vs Big Face stable war I can remember

Better than 4Horseman/Sting vs J Tex

LOL. The troll work on TPWW has hit a high point. pintint is masterfully done,

That Said, J Tex could have been an all time deal if they didnt kill it so quick,

Mordecai.

Jesus, I was anxious to see him debut. Had hoped he would be a counterpart to Taker and be "that guy" after Taker left.

Nope.

I looooooooooved Mordecai as well, such a shame he couldn't get over.

Kenzo Suzuki, what happened to him?

OMG I loved him too. It seems all the characters I fall in love with dissappear. :(

Yeah, the D&D demographic doesn't really spend a lot on wrestling attire.

WCW Invasion.

One way : Eric bischoff should have been brought in a GM of Smackdown, staged a coup of some sort and converted Smackdown into WCW Nitro. We could have had a staged war between the two brands for years.

So any ideas : Eric trying to steal talent from Raw, People turning heel by jumping ship to the "other" company.

Once a year there could have been a cross promotional PPV to blow off the year long cross promotional feuds.

"Wildcat" Chris Harris/Braden Walker could have been more than just a joke if WWE played their cards right.

If he were a bit taller I would agree. He was kinda on the short side.

I have been watching lots of old WCW lately, and DDP comes to mind.

Watch WCW from 96-00' and every other gimmick that wasnt NWO was pretty good.

NWO was amazing

Sean O'Haire, but I'm not telling you something that you don't already know....

Test himself I thought could have/should have been a bigger star. He had the look certainly, and there's definitely been worse in-ring performers cluttering up main event scenes before and after him. Perhaps stick him with a mouthpiece and I would have easily bought into him as a top-line, world title carrying headliner.

DDP should have been a power player in the WWE. Should have won the WCW title much earlier as well.

That wasn't WWE's fault. Dude was fat and out of shape when they called him up. Chris Harris' downfall is all on him. No one else.

Had they done the logical thing and had Test feud with HHH after the wedding, rather than pairing him with Shane, Test could have been huge. I feel like that moment was when Test's downfall began.

True, Harris came to the WWE looking like he spent the past 3 months on a non stop all you can eat buffet spree.
And I liked Harris in TNA...

That is how you make a new star. Very good point. Could have elevated him to a top level but never got behind him.

I thin kthe Invasion is sucha given that I dont even see the need to mention it. Obviously it should have been huge and was a complete fuck up. It was at that point I think Vince really lost contact with his audience and hasnt connected since.

First thing that came to mind, pretty much the same with 90% of the WCW talent the brought in though.

Yeah. He really should have been leading the Invasion with Booker T. Instead he was a foot note.

The Nexus.

Should have lasted until Mania accumulating in a Barret vs Cena match but instead became a joke within a few weeks of their debut. Same for the Punk version when it went against Orton since that one also didn't last till Mania.


New Blood vs Millionaire Club.

In theory the New Blood should have been the ones getting cheered and become the future stars of WCW but horrible booking and direction basically killed them from ever getting over besides Kidman I think.

and if KIDMAN is your most over member, somebody fucked up.

Yep, agree with you there.

Exactly this.

Stop fighting over Loopydate's penis. You can take turns fellating him.

Agree with Test, Agree with The Brood, Sean O'Haire's gimmick was underrated, Loved Mordecai too bad he didn't last long. Nexus was awesome til Cena treated them like jobbers few months later.

I don't get all the test love. He was pretty average.

The Brood had a guy designated as their leader and they had a good talker. The big issue with the Brood was that the leader and the talker were two different people.

That said, I would have bought the SHIT out of a "The Freaks Come Out at Night" shirt.

I thought Simon Dean would at least have a mid card title run. Loved that gimmick. Was gutted when he just disappeared.

He had a great look with the long hair. Was alot better in the ring than people give him credit for. And the angle was pretty hot with the marriage and then HHH "stealing" Stephanie.

Could have been a big fucking angle and elevated Test to the top.

I think its less of a "Man we love Test and wish he had a better run" and more of a "Man, that could have been a big angle" mentality.

so basically you have a Hoss, not bad in the ring, good look. You had a top Heel. You had a Hot angle. And somehow all that came from it was Test facing Shane and sticking in the mid card, and annoying Stephanie. Typical HHH/MacMahon "spotlight" stealing.

Test was the first person to hit HHH's class ceiling

Right, but they could have gotten by as a face stable for a nice little run selling some merch and then turned Gangrel on Edge and Christian. Essentially the same thing they did, but keep the brood together longer before splitting them.

MVP should have been drafted to Raw in 2007/08. He was a big heel, he was over, and had just won over a lot of the doubters with some epic battles with Benoit. Instead they left him on Smackdown, turned him face and then drafted him to Raw. By then all his momentum was dead and so was his career. Guy could have been big.

I LOVED Test towards the end of his first run and was pretty geeked to see him in ECW. Him and Knox were a bad ass tag team.

Every WCW guy who game in after the invasion and was fed to Trips.

Still think Steiner/Goldberg should of been bigger deals than they were.

Still disappointed that Taz was relegated to the Hardcore Division when his talent, mic work and attitude could have placed him in the mid to upper-mid card. ECW Taz was one of my all time favorites and as soon as he came in and got beat by HHH it was over.

Loved the Brood. I never liked Test, everytime he came on it was very meh to me.

You pretty much said it for me. He was over because of the angle. Not because of his individual talent. He wasn't bad. Certainly intercontinental champion worthy, but he lacked the charisma, and personality to be a top guy. While good in the ring, he wasn't near good enough to make up for the previous mentioned problems.

I thought the whole "Testicles" thing was silly, stupid, and forced.

Who is the biggest money making rassler in Japan in terms of most yen made? Is it Giant Bernard (jap albert) or Stan Hansen or Bobby Jaggers?

Col. Debeers racist gimmick in the AWA. If he were promoted as a face he would have probably been the biggest star in wrestling.

That's easy. It's Brad Armstrong.

They're dropping the ball right now by not hiring Bobby Eaton to lead them into a new era.

He has so much to offer.

Fair. though he wouldnt be the first guy to ever get over on angle and opponent alone. Maybe he grows into it. Maybe not. But I dont think he veer should have been a top guy, but could have had a nice program at the top and gotten some big matches out of him. Some guys just need the chance to run with the ball to ever break free.

Stan Hansen

Raven in the WWE.

He'd been in Federation earlier in his career, but never with his Raven character. They brought him in and immediately put him into a feud with fellow ex-ECW star Tazz, which wasn't a horrible idea, but certainly a waste of talent of both men. If they had pushed Raven as a main event star and given him his loyal following in the Flock, Raven always had the mic skills and in-ring skill to be a big time player.

Raven was too much of a dopehead to ever give a meaningful push. He peaked in WCW and would have achieved more if it wasn't for him being an arrogant jackass.

Fucking LOVED Col. Debeers. He should have been huge, dammit.

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lol. Incredible.

Feel like Raven is a bit overrated.

I don't. The biggest problem with WWE Raven was that he wasn't put in a position to do anything of note: you know, be that psychologcal heel in a meaningful feud (could have had some "mind games" shit with Taker, for example) or even just some straight up matches. Instead, he was relegated to the requisite "bring a shopping cart full of random shit to throw in the ring" Hardcore matches that Vince seemed to think made up the entirety of ECW.

Also, as to the subject of Taz(z): even well before the HHH potential goldmine in the champion vs champion match... he was white hot ON HIS SUPPOSED SURPRISE DEBUT! You have the whole arena going "WE WANT TAZZ!" during Angle's promo, and the place going monkeyshit when the Red Hook Midget comes out and goes over Kurt freakin' Angle. Then, suddenly, he's on Heat duty... meanwhile, they tried to build Rodney Mack up: basically a black Tazz, at the same time they're burying the real one. Would be like (hypothetically- I'm using some anacronisims) if they pushed a debuting Jack Swagger as a major player now on RAW while still having Kurt under contract and jobbing out on NXT.

Haha it was a trick question. The correct answer is Vader. I looked it up on Japrasslershavemostgoodworkrate.jp

Rodney Mack was well after Tazz was retired and announcing. And Rodney was nothing like Tazz...Not sure at all what you are getting at here.

Tazz - Suplex Machine with Submission Finisher.

Rodney Mack - Angry Black man going after the white authority.

Two Years apart.

Basically the same thing.

Raven was very good at times, but the boat sailed on him years before.

His gimmick in 1996 was great in a post grunge world where he was basically a Heel Kurt Cobain in ECW. In WCW they rehashed it. By 2000 he was completely stale.

WHAT ABOUT ME? WHAT ABOUT RAVEN? gets old after 5 years of no character development.

Though I dug his look when he went blonde and wore a kilt.

He was doing good stuff on Heat, the Seven sins stuff from what I remember, but pretty much everyone from ECW was lumped into the same jobber/mid card slot regardless of ability or overness.

Plus Raven is great :p

Raven was great from 96 to 98.

Then he was stale bread.

I liked Tazz, but as soon as he left ECW he was on borrowed time. He is a product of Heyman and ECW. You saw the same thing with Raven, Sandman, Douglas etc.

Leave Heyman and the thing giving you success and the flaws show and its all over.

Sandman was never going to be as big anywhere but ECW, his gimmick wasn't going to be allowed to work anywhere else and take away his entrance and you're left with a drunk guy swinging a cane. Taz and Raven coulda been used better, most guys being brought incould of been, feel like they really dropped the ball with Rhino though, last holder of the ECW title and they didn't make use of it, could of been a nice gimmick if they let him go over a few higher ups.

Yeah, I hear you.

Good Performer + Proper Booking = Strong Showing

Good Performer + Improper Booking = Mediocre Showing

Tazz was very limited in alot of ways.

His in your face threats and violence was going to be toned down i nthe WWE (no Fuck the World Champion)

He was a goddamn midget. Thats all you can say. He wasnt big enough to translate his style onto the bigger WWE wrestlers.

He had flaws, but Heyman worked around them, like with most of his misfit toys. Vince didnt care to even try that.

WWE is notorious for that.

Instead of taking a circle piece and trying to find a circle hole to go through, they present a square hole and if you can fit through it, Good Luck in your future en-devours.

Right to Censor was awesome, looked a threat at first but meh in the end.

Rhino is another good example. The guy was a monster in ECW - if they had translated that into his stint in the WWE he could have been a big player. The problem is that he was an ECW/Paul Heyman guy and he wasn't the right height or weight for them to ever consider him anything more than a mid-card player. The fact is that Rhino had the in-ring skill, the look and the intensity in the ring to be a major player, but they just let it slip by without ever cashing in.

The same thing goes for Sandman. If they had let him do his thing in the WWE like he did his thing in ECW, he would've gotten over huge. If ECW had the money to buy the rights to use "Enter Sandman", there's no excuse for WWE not buying the license to use it as well. Remember that his entrance into the WWE world was before the PG-Era, so having him come through the crowd drinking beer and caning himself in the face would've been acceptable. Imagine a gigantic audience screaming the lyrics to "Enter SAndman" as he made his way to the ring. It could've been an awesome mid-card attraction at the very least.

I'm not sure ECW did buy the rights to Enter Sandman, or any of the well-known songs they used for themes actually. Pretty sure I read somewhere that they just used them and were just small enough to stay under the radar and get away with not being sued.

Sandman is a different beast, though. I can see them not "risking" the investment in him aside from the cigs and the self-mutilation, or even the personal issues that would absolutely prevent him from EVER being anywhere near a top draw for WWE...I mean, if a little weed stopped RVD from being champion, then Sandman... nevermind. Sandman's job was to get the crowd pumped and present the "everyman". WWE already had presented that in spades with Steve Austin in his prime.

Also, it was part of the whole feeling of ECW for the crowd to sing along and witness Sandman's 5 minute entrance (was awesome to get it again at the original One Night Stand, even though it apparently has been overdubbed on the DVD release), or have New Jack's theme play the whole time he's in the ring pelting people with random bullshit weaponry. With WWE crowds, not only would that would have "gotten old" like R-Truth's rapping entrance (even if you liked it or not, you have to admit it was pretty damn over when he first returned), but he would have been relegated to jobber entrance status everywhere except for PPVs just from it being too damn long for their format. Sure, they could take some TV time away from some backstage skit going nowhere... but we know that doesn't happen even at the expense of possibly adding another match somewhere. They'll drop a match before they drop a setup.

Add into that the fact that he was about as limited as a new-age Honky Tonk Man, but it could be hidden a lot better in the ECW roster than WWE. Could Sandman have been "bigger" in WWE? Yeah, but honestly, I'm surprised he lasted even as long as he did just to do the beating up of the random SyFy spoof jobbers.

The entire ECWWE brand should have been bigger, a completely seperate entity that was allowed to be pushed as an alternative and even a competitor to Raw/Smackdown on occasion, there are/were so many PPVs that catered to the interpromotional feuds that it would have filled enough air time without any serious booking issues. The first few shows drew ratings that weren't far off Raw, the roster was fairly diverse and it gave guys somewhere to make a name for themselves before the draft and older guys somewhere to rejuvenate themselves like the original ECW did, it's a pity it got sanititized and killed off really.

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Would’ve probably been multi-time world champ, but then 7/7/5 happened, and people bitched (about a fucking fake-ass wrestling character no less...)

Just ran through the topic quickly to see if this has been mentioned. I didn't see it but easily the saddest waste as far as potential money maker I can think of...

http://wiki.ytmnd.com/images/c/ce/Hassan.jpg

Would easily be my favorite heel of all time if it hadn't been forced to end so abruptly. The character was perfect and he pulled it off flawlessly.

Was mentioned in the last post of the 2nd page.

I don't know if Hassan would have been a success or not. I want to say that he would have been, but I often think that he was too complex of a character for the writers to actually handle once he actually debuted.

I think he definitely would have been main event material for a bit, and then his character would flounder and he would wallow in mid-card status. Until a big face turn down the line where he embraces America again.

Would have been "cool" to eventually see Hassan turn face vs Daivari, after Daivari becomes more "radical" and Hassan would be all "It's guys like you that give us a bad name!"

I think once the controversy started, if they could have managed to keep the character alive, he would have been a ridiculous heel draw. The gimmick was pretty cool at first but at that point it became ingenious. It took the "anti-American" thing to a new level and didn't go comic book style with it. The guy actually made good points and made the fans booing him and chanting "USA" out to be ignorant while still being whiny enough to be a legit heel.

That promo he cut about the USA Today article saying he had "Arabs in ski masks" come out to attack The Undertaker was awesome.

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It's so crazy to me to think that a guy this talented who had a perfect character was forced to just quit wrestling. I seriously think Hassan staying could have single-handedly altered the direction of the company. He had that much potential.

lol. Seriously awesome watching the crowd chant "USA". Like they aren't even listening to what he says. Makes no sense. :lol:

Hassan in the Royal Rumble is probably one of my top ten Rumble moments. Maybe even top five. I dunno.

Kinda like the dudes who kept telling him to go back where he came from.

Muhammad Hassan, good call.

This immediate came to mind would have been a great feud for Taker late in his carreer but no they had to pull the plug on it.

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I had this random weird thought the other day about how much I would love to see Raven return to the WWE and complete some sort of "Masterpiece." I've never been a massive fan of the dude (not a detractor, either -- never really seen his stuff), but the character he could play would be interesting enough for a feud with someone like Dolph Ziggler, given that Raven were in shape and hadn't burned all his bridges with the WWE.

Could you imagine the dark and mysterious Raven going after the young, blonde-haired talent with a rocket strapped to his back? Even if Raven just played a face manager making life hard for Dolph.

Hade Vansen never even debuted. I'm not sure what happened there. The dirt sheets said that the idea was scrapped and that they had nothing left for Vansen so they released him -- but that makes little sense. The idea of someone unknown coming out of nowhere to challenge The Undertaker is a pretty intriguing storyline. Someone that has been training since they first saw The Undertaker to take him down at WrestleMania. Could be an amazing heel gimmick.

Amazing?

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

I'm pretty sure it does. Yep, it does.

Remember something about his height being a big reason and Vince either didn't know what they had planned for him or never saw the guy before until meeting him in person shortly after the promo was done.

How do you go from "We're gonna have this guy debut in a program with The Undertaker" to "Meh, we don't want this guy anywhere on our roster" in one month? That's still so fucking bizarre to me.

How does Vince McMahon not meet a guy in person before they bring him up to the main roster and do film video packages building to a feud with the fucking UNDERTAKER?

Yeah, I don't know if I buy that. As out of touch with stuff outside the company as Vince seems I think within "his world" he seems like he'd be aware of every little minor thing that's going on.

I don't even remember that promo or that guy, but I haven't watched SmackDown! regularly since Triple H was on it and even then it was only for HHH.

I think Triple H was on Smackdown when that promo happened.