Most Disappointing Wrestler in History
 

So for our podcast this week, we're going to talk about some of the most disappointing wrestlers in history - guys that for whatever reason just fell short of expectations.

It can be somebody you really thought was going to make it and as it panned out just didn't have the goods, or it can even be a guy you had heard a lot about that didn't live up to the hype for you personally. But I'm curious to hear people's takes on this - the more detail you wish to go into on the expectations and how they fell off the beaten path the better, and as always, we'll read as many of your picks on the show as we can.

So who is it for you, that you see at the most disappointing in history?

I really, really, really want Wade Barrett to be the biggest star in the world, but he just CAN'T stay healthy, it would appear.

Not sure why that's the FIRST name that came to my head, but now we have a dialogue.

disappointing... umm that giant australian guy who undertaker worked with.

Nathan Jones

Sean O'Haire was about to be a mega star, it seemed. What the hell happened there?

David Sammartino was the first name that came to mind.

Owen Hart def fell short of expectations!

Ken Kennedy comes to mind. He seemed to be on the cusp of becoming a mega star but he just kept having bad luck that ruined his rise.

Also think Randy Orton fell short of what he could have been. The dude has had a pretty great career, but I feel like he should have been on the same level as the Rock and Stone Cold by now and instead he's fallen short.

Wade is an interesting one, I still think his peak is ahead of him, but dammit, he's dangerously close to being one of those guys they'll never put faith in because he's "injury prone".

Kennedy is a pretty good shout.

Pretty much anyone WWE has done their ADD-like "give a huge push and then forget about and then repeat the process later" thing with over the past 10 years or so would be a good candidate.

Sheamus, Swagger, Ryback, The Miz, Bray Wyatt (Yeah, they're trying again but the iron was hot when he was the intimidating force who beat Daniel Bryan clean at the Rumble and their recent track record doesn't give me hope that he'll see that level of credibility again.)

Mark Jindrak.

Sid

He had opportunity after opportunity and kept shooting himself in a foot. He could have taken the reigns from Hogan in the WWF. Amazing look, intense promo, charismatic, marginal worker but who cares, so was Hogan. Softball Sid just never did reach his potential.

Lol David was a horrible worker. Good God. Might have the worst in ring psychology I've ever seen.

Any of the Natural Born Thrillers. Not a disappointment in their skill, as they were all capable at the least (Reno), excellent at the top (O'Haire, Sanders, possibly Jindrak). Disappointment in the way they were handled. They came in with a ton of hype as the "next generation" of WCW stars, but WCW died before any of them could have become anything, and the WWF wasn't about to let any of them become stars "up north."

At the very least, O'Haire should have had a couple runs with the IC/US title with his Devil's Advocate gimmick. Jindrak had all the tools other than the ability to talk, so pairing him with one of the early-2000s WWF/E managers like Heyman or Long could have pushed him to a strong upper-midcard run. Mike Sanders never made it out of developmental.

The closest thing to an NBT success story was Chuck Palumbo, but that was entirely the result of his angle with Billy Gunn and Rico. Once he was back on his own, he did the generic bad-ass biker thing for about a week, then was released.

This isn't a matter of them not living up to my own personal hype so much as it is that the hype they were given was never given a chance to pan out.

Chuck Palumbo had a really sweet feud with Jamie Noble. What else could you possibly even dream of?

I friggen LOVED Billy and Chuck lol

Tom Magee belongs on that list

Was very disappointed that UPN screwed Hassan

Big Show?

Should have been a top, top name for over a decade in WWE, but he has just been used to put others over.

For those who say he was no Andre, he didn't have to be. He is charismatic and not a bad actor when he is given something good to work with. Feel like we saw glimpes of it as ECW champ for example, but he should have been a main attraction, multiple time champion (much more than he has been) and a legend in the business.

People might argue that he has done it all, but he could have been so much more of a star. Despite shining brightly a few times in WWE, feel like he could have, and should have been so much more.

I agree. Show should have been a HUGE worldwide draw. He was a product of scatterbrained booking for most of his career though. He was being used as an old guy to put others over on a regular basis before he even reached his peak.

Rob Van Dam. Never watched ECW, but heard so much hype and good things about him.... then he came to WWE and was totally uninteresting and never did a single thing to warrant the response he got and just "coasted on his Heyman created rep" for 10+ years.

Drew McIntyre

Hyped up as being personally handpicked by Vince to become the next "chosen one" and instead barely did anything of not after his initial push and moments with 3MB. Had both Vince and HBK personally helping him but never recovered after the incident with his wife became public.

Not got the faacination with Drew. His matches were always the shits.

Lance storm. His run in wcw was amazing and I think if they gave him a shot he could have been a major star in the wwe in the vein of Bret hart

zack ryder was a bust,

oh you wanted people i thought could make it

konnan

Funny you mention both those guys, as they are both victims of being poorly utilized.

Say what you want about Zack, but he could have been a top-tier star by now had WWE not treated him like TNA treated the Motor City Machine Guns (as in, one of the most over acts in the whole damn company, but they still can't get TV time- who should also be included in this list).

As for K-Dogg, it honestly took hindsight and research to find out how big of a deal the man really was. My initial exposure to him WAS WCW, where he was one of those rotating curtain jerkers on Worldwide alongside Glacier or Jerry Flynn, or get 100% squashed on Nitro. Even when he was getting over because some charisma was allowed to surface, it usually consisted of him cutting a promo talking shit, then getting his ass kicked until his stablemates (nWo, LWO, Wolfpac, Filthy Animals...) come to make the save. Ne never got much of a chance to put on the type of matches he was capable of or be anything more than a Mexican street thug stereotype.

As for my answer, since the first two names that came to mind were already spoken (Nathan Jones and Lance Storm- and addendum to LS, his shit was headed downhill after his hat trick celebration was cut short by Kevin Nash's boot to cut a promo that could have happened any other time in the show, and was the start of the death of Lance's momentum) I would have to say D-Lo Brown. D'Lo (yes, I intentionally did it both ways) is one of those guys who would have benefitted from jumping ship to WCW and coming back to WWE later up the card in a fashion similar to Jeff Jarrett. Instead of getting behind him, he had been constantly relegated to afterthought status. Nation whipping boy, Mark Henry's fitness buddy, fill-in tag partner for one half of the Headbangers... you know, the same direction Kofi Kingston is headed in now!

Ted Jr. The Son Of The Million Dollar Man should have been able to print money.

How about all of the VonErich kids? They had Texas wrestling handed to them on a silver platter, and they blew it up their nose and into their veins.

Kurt Angle

For however high he climbed he still didnt reach his potential...and his lows...so dissapointing.

Runner up: Magnum TA

Very true.... A wee bit more charismatic and maybe even more entertaining in the ring....

His wcw Schlick would have gone sour in the wwe but had he come in and been used as a major player in the invasion he would have gotten over. Instead he fired the first shot then stood in the back.

I think Bobby Jaggers should have been 27 time WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Maybe even 28 time.

Trevor Murdoch actually could have been much more than he was given.

Glacier. Who was not hyped for him? And he was just straight garbage.

<font color=goldenrod>I believe Long did manage Jindrak for a time once both got drafted back to SmackDown in 2004. He was "the Reflection of Perfection"...basically Chris Masters' gimmick before Masters was called up. Then Long turned face and became GM and Jindrak just became another dude in Team Angle.</font>

I still believe that his run as "the Lone Wolf" with the Big Gold Belt was a major influence on "The Game."

Remember thinking Bobby Duncum Jr was going to be money in WCW, no idea why, obviously that didn't pan out.

Test had about 47 chances to be a real big deal. Never worked.

Regal

I think when his main event push got derailed because of his suspension, that was when I stopped being a full time wrestling fan. Sucked even worse when it came out later that it was just an accident on his part.

But yeah, for all intents and purposes, Regal is a guy who should have been a multiple time world champion.

accident how?

He took legal supplements but they had an unlisted ingredient that was on WWE's list of banned substances.

Was in one of Foley's books. Doesn't mention Regal by name, but given the timeframe and how Foley describes the event it's obvious it was Regal.

In the end, it was still Regal's fault for not researching the product more thoroughly, but I do feel for the guy.

Regal also pissed on a stewardess on a plane. So, it wasn't just that drug thing that fucked him.

Jerry Lynn never made it big, and I get why, but it's still disappointing.

Dunno, Nickleback were quite successful.

Cena. Every time you think he's going to do something interesting with his character (not necessarily a heel turn) he reverts straight back to the "HUSTLE. LOYALTY. RESPECT." schtick.

Jeff Hardy?

Never really disappointing in the ring but always seems to fuck it up for himself when he is getting super hot.

Regal's suspension in 2008 really blew his momentum. I was certain he was going to use his power to become the WWE Champion, then drop it to Punk. Around the same time, Brian Kendrick got this sweet repackaging on SmackDown, and he felt like some sort of new age star, but he just couldn't play ball and he eventually became enhancement (again) and released.

Some awesome nominations for you guys here - the podcast is now up, if you wish to listen to us discussing as many of the candidates as we could, from the likes of Ahmed Johnson, Sid and Lex Luger, to misfires such as Sean O'Haire, Mr. Kennedy and Big Show, to some interesting candidates such as Barry Windham and CM Punk. This was a really fun show to do, and as always your picks were discussed!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....gWrestlers.mp3

Have a listen, enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Love listening to these in the morning

Sabu is an interesting.choice. I think people just appreciated the efforts that he'd go to and the things he'd try that you almost overlook the negatives.

Forgot a wrestler that I ment to mention: Simon Diamond. He was so annoying as a heel that I thought for sure he'd get a WWE run. I LOVED Simon Diamond in ECW.

Mordecai is funny. I remember being excited when I saw his vignette, but when he debuted, my first thought was "oh wow look how small he is". That pretty much did it for me.

Quite an interesting take on Mordecai - I think the way they dressed him make him look smaller than he really was too. For a fairly built guy they covered him up quite a bit, and I wasn't a fan of the mesh shirt deal....

Great work as always. I'm finally caught up with these. I'm excited to see what you come up with next!

Mordecai wasn't as huge as the character seemed to be, true. It also didn't help that they ruined his mystique by having him brawl with Hardcore freakin' Holly.

Regal was immediately the first guy to come to mind. He had a dandy career anyhow, but he really could've been so much more. He is almost unrivaled in the ring, he is a great promo man, he was marketable with the snide elitist foreigner gimmick (which has been done a whole lot, but who did it better than Regal?), and he is universally respected throughout the industry. I get the drug thing in 2008 hurt but they really had something special with him in that time and it got thrown away.

Marcus Cor Von just came to mind.

This is a really fun podcast.

Glad you like it man, really appreciate the feedback, and apologies for not getting to BNB - we only had the panel for 2 hours and we were running late so had to cap it off, with frankly an absurd ending....

Out of curiosity, where (in England) are all of you guys from?

We're all based in Shropshire in the Midlands, about an hour about from Birmingham.

I figured you were fairly close to the midlands. I live in Burntwood, Staffordshire. Could hear the accent coming through, one of you more than the others.

Anyhow, keep up the good work. Really enjoy these shows.

No worries whatsoever. BNB is making an appearance on the Survivor Series pre-show, so I'm fairly certain he's about to become a mega star in a few months anyway. :shifty:

Kennedy, Hassan, Maven

Ohhhh yes, how could I forget Hassan? Could have been HUGE.

Dare I say it...Goldberg. Had the physique and aura to be a huge superstar and certainly in WCW he was. Then his streak ended mainly due to a bad booking decision on Kevin Nash's part (Goldberg didn't seem to complain though) and after that he never really hit those heights. Then he went to WWE, beat the Rock in his debut match, won the WHC but then left by WM 20 after a complete shitbag of a match with Lesnar. His WWE stint was hardly memorable and due to a mixture of injuries, bad booking, bad ego which compromised his ability to work with others etc., he never stuck around long enough in the business to establish himself as a true superstar and legend. In a way he is a legend....sort of but only because of that brief highlight in WCW when the company was shit hot compared to WWE/WWF and he was the main attraction. But other than that what were his real stand out moments, career highlights etc?

Goldberg screwed Goldberg.

Shawn "Meat" "Planet" Stasiak.

Stan "The Man"'s son should have had much better.

Stan The Man wasn't that great either. He won the belt on a fluke and lost it quickly. He was transitional.

Matt Hardy during that whole edge /lita thing

And there was a small window in time about the time legacy was breaking up where it looked like Ted was gonna be the guy then favor shifted to Orton.

When is the new episode going up?

New episode will be up this Saturday, was scheduled for last week but a rather unfortunate situation killed taping day for us, but we're recording this weeks tomorrow, so its a sure thing B-)

Still a 1/4 notch better than his son...