GREATEST LETDOWNS IN WRESTLING HISTORY
 

THE TWO THAT COME TO MIND FOR ME ARE

GLACIER NOT ACTUALLY BEING THAT GOOD DESPITE THE AMAZING HYPE.

AND.

MANKIND'S BIG MATCH LOSING STREAK NEAR THE END OF HIS WWE CAREER. IT WAS SUPER SAD SEEING HIM LOSE SO MANY TIMES

HOW ABOUT YOU GUYS?

Roman Reigns.

Ultimo Dragon in WWE.

Bray Wyatt's booking from WM 30 onward.

TNA squandering their amazing roster with dogshit booking and creative.

THAT IS ALMOST /ENDTHREAD LEVEL GOOD. THAT GUY COULD HAVE BEEN A TRIPLE H LEVEL (2000-2009) HEEL

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE HOW BADLY THEY FUCKED UP THEIR INITIAL TELEVISION DEAL AND THE HOGAN/NWO ROSTER.

LETTING AJ AND JOE GO WAS JUST RETARDED.

At one point they had an arguably better roster than WWE.

Obviously the Invasion.

Feel like they were between a rock and hard place on that one. The big stars contracts were tied up, but if they waited, they'd be doing it when the Monday night war heat had really cooled off.

It's easy to look back in hindsight and say yeah, they should have just waited, but in the moment, it's a tough decision to make.

Sure, but it was a big letdown to me as a fan.

Not so much for me, but Bret Hart in WCW must be one of 'em.

For me, at the time, I was only 10 years-old, so wouldn't have known the difference between good booking and shit booking, hell, Hak vs. Kendall Windham in a Kendo Stick match was Wrestlemania main-event quality TV for me. :D

Diesel's Royal Rumble comeback.

Mordecai

WWE 3HR RAW

Cruiser weight division

Christian not getting a push in 2004/2005.

A big deal not being made about Christian coming back to WWE.

Christian losing the world title so quickly and never getting a proper long reign.

Christian quietly retiring with no fanfare or final story.

Rikishi's heel turn.


Yeup. Either they should have waited longer to do it or at least made it into a 2-part story so they could get more of WCW's bigger stars involved later.

Also having too much focus being towards another McMahon family feud.

He probably got a heros retirement party backstage.

Oh, DDP's WWE run.

Jerry Lawler not winning the WWE title in 2011. Mr. Perfect never winning the big one, Austin Aries's wwe run.

Could not agree more. Christian deserved better.

It also still sticks in my craw that they had him drop the WHC to Orton on a random SmackDown! 5 days after winning it.

CM Punk getting squashed by HHH after returning (when he should have been gone from WWE for a year)

Brock Lesnar's initial booking upon his return

The way the Nexus became a nothing faction

Lesnar's 2014-2015 monster reign fizzled into a pretty huge letdown. He beats The Undertaker's streak and squashes Cena for the title. Starts a great "Who can possibly stop this man?" story. He ends up just losing the title without getting "stopped" and the man who finally beats him is... The Undertaker.

Hooray for 50/50 booking! :shifty:

The Higher Power.

Oh, easy one I forgot about even though it was out of their hands...

Muhammad Hassan. Could have been an all-time great heel.

* TNA from the time they got Kurt Angle...then hired Vince Russo the same week.

* "We will get Roman Reigns over as a babyface!" - Vince McMahon, 2015 to present

* The Invasion

Road Warrior Animal as the mystery entrant in the match Sid broke his leg.

For that to be a letdown, you'd have to actually look forward to a wcw main event.

I CAN ONLY EVEN REMEMBER A HANDFUL OF NON-DISSAPOINTING WCW MAIN EVENTS.

GOLDBERG VS. NASH WAS AWFUL.

I'd say Sting's WWE run was a massive letdown

Dolph Ziggler after winning Survivor Series

Sting vs Hogan it was ...ok right up till the end where it just collapsed

I would say Hido Itami but he seems to be finding his feet as a heel.

R-Truth's heel run

Booker T VS Triple H

William Regal after winning KOTR.(next to Booker this one pisses me off the most)

Batistas ring gear when Evolution faced The Shield

Luke Harper

Awesome Kong in WWE

Desmond Wolfe/Nigel McGuinness in TNA

Big Show's initial run

Hogan back in WWE. Other than The Rock match, he once again pushed himself down our throats. How they coulld put the belt on him is beyond me? Also, didn't he beat Lesnar once?

No, he never did, actually. Brock beat him on the August 4, 2002 edition of SmackDown! in their only singles match with each other.

nah Lesnar squashed his ass.

Oh, good. That run was so fucked up I thought that might have been a possibility.

Oh, according they also had a longer match at SummerSlam.

Both times he lost was from passing out of a bearhug. Guess he really didn't want to get pinned.

He wasn't shoved down anyone's throat. he was the most over guy in the company.

I thought Buff Bagwell could have been a whole lot bigger than he was in WCW. Also felt like Benoit was terribly underused in WCW

As far as WWE, Ted Dibiase was so much better than what he actually accomplished. Kerry Von Erich could have been one of the greatest of All Time, but for some reason he got jobbed after a honest IC title run. The Brainbusters should have had a more dominant run. Though they did end Demolitions run. Also, I thought for sure Adam Bomb would be a superstar.

Some current guys.

I'd love to see a storyline of Neville taking on people outside the CW division. And Dolph Ziggler is way too good for the WWE to not know what to do with him.

Regal getting suspended right before his main event push was the exact moment my passion for wrestling started to fade.

ya i forgot Regal

My appreciation for him as grown so much since i saw that Goldeberg match where he shoot wrestled the entire match and brought a fantastic match out of Goldberg in the process lol.

Kennedy...























Kennedy!

Oh, fuck yes. Kennedy should have been mentioned way before now.

Also, Ryback's initial face run.

Nexus seems like a good pick.

Summer of Punk? It started off so hot and seemed to drum up actual interest. Then it turned into a Triple H vs. Kevin Nash feud.

Regal and Kendrick in 2008 cut me deep at the time.

Another good choice for the top of the list.

I'm starting to think we could easily make a "Top 100 Biggest Letdowns" list just from WWE 2001-today and still have the need for honorable mentions.

I like to give you a hard time for being too negative but I think you're understating the let downs.


Realistically we're talking at least 4-5 monthly let downs since 2001.

Retroactively I'm trying to remember the last thing the WWE did right that delivered on what it could have. The Daniel Bryan stuff was laced with lots of ill-will and saw the sacrifice of Batista. Speaking of that guy, WrestleMania 21 might have been one of the best builds to an actual main event that they've done this century. Benoit and Eddie winning at Mania XX might have existed in that realm, but coming out of Mania neither was treated particularly well. Still, I guess you can maybe say that? I mean, you can't fault WWE for what would eventually happen.

Maybe some people feel that way about Braun now?

Nexus springs to mind immediately for me. When that initial attack happened, it had been the first time in years where I was just standing right in front of my TV just thinking "what the FUCK is going on???" As bad as wrestling had felt, stuff like that was the reason I always wanted to keep watching.

Bryan getting released days later gave me a bad omen, but they wrote him off in a way that set up an eventual return and they gave the group so much steam. Them beating the fuck out of Vince was a personal favorite of mine because I was at that show.

Then of course, SummerSlam they cocked up massively by putting Cena over in classic "overcoming the odds" fashion. EVEN STILL - I think the angle could've been salvaged after SummerSlam.

Wade Barrett had a WWE Title opportunity for winning NXT Season 1. His opportunity was wasted in a multi-man match which just made him look stupid. And then when he got a chance later at Survivor Series he got dropped clean as a whistle with Cena being the ref.

The easy story would've been Barrett winning the belt at Survivor Series with Cena actually showing some inner conflict and helping Barrett win despite it killing him inside. Cena in the Nexus actually lasts a while instead of only a few weeks.

Cena wins the Rumble ("accidentally" eliminating Nexus members in the process), Barrett orders him to go to use his WM shot on the World Heavyweight Title so Nexus can take over SmackDown too. Then you get the whole "Batista turning on Evolution" type moment where Cena's all, nah fuck you, I'm coming for the WWE Title.

Cena wins the title and his freedom at WM 27. The next night they can book Cena vs. Rock like they did in real life if they want......Nexus leave Cena laying and Miz cashes in his MITB or something.

I dunno. Bottom line is they couldn't have fucked up that angle worse than they did.

Oh and for the record, while yes Barrett wound up being an injury-prone liability, there was no reason to think this would be the case in 2010/11. He didn't get his first big injury until 2012. Hindsight doesn't change the fact that it was really shit booking.

Speaking of injury, Skip Sheffield would've become a big deal even earlier had he not gotten hurt during Nexus. He looked like a fucking killer during those group beat downs. Granted the name Skip Sheffield was ridiculous and I don't know when they'd change his name to Ryback, but he could've been great as either the "final boss" to get to Barrett or just getting a huge rub as a face when he ends up being the first guy to leave the group on his own accord.

Remember those street fighter vignettes they ran for Barrett before his return? He looked badass. I think it was his first match back when he ran away from a fight like a chicken shit heel, going against everything the vignettes hyped him up as. lol

Almost every heel ends up being ruined by some sort of chicken-shit makeover.

The problem is if heels don't back down they're pretty much just faces. I guess the key is to only have them back down at the right time.

It's all in the delivery. I can buy a heel getting the fuck out of there if the face is somebody we're supposed to buy as a serious threat...or a monster type (Kane, Big Show, etc.)

In Barrett's case though......if memory serves he flew out of the ring to run away from R-Truth. No way should a supposedly badass bareknuckle fighter be openly fleeing from R fucking Truth.

It wouldn't even have been as egregious had they done the whole "tease a fight only for the heel to back out and say NOT TODAY" deal. At least that's a classic way to get heat, allow the fans to boo the heel for ducking the fight but allow the heel to justify that they're not scared, just being smart and picking their spots. Works especially well when it's a case where you actually would think the heel would kick the face's ass anyway. Neville and Enzo just did that recently.

But no, let's have Barrett legit run away from R-Truth. Terrible.

BAD GUYS DON'T BACK DOWN ALL THE TIME IN REAL LIFE. THE TRICK IS NOT TO PUT YOUR HEEL IN A POSITION WHERE THE FANS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO CHEER HIM.

YOU WOULDN'T HAVE 6 FACES BEAT DOWN ONE HEEL BECAUSE IT'D MAKE THEM LOOK SHITTY. I DON'T MIND A HEEL THAT WANTS TO FIGHT.

"The Chosen One" Drew McIntyre

Not every heel needs to back down. A monster heel shouldn't be a chicken shit, for example. If he starts backing down, it kinda defeats the purpose of him being a monster. In Barrett's case, he would have been fine as a heel who could back is shit up because of his street fighting background. Just have him be a dick and start shit with the faces. Even have him cheat once in a while because... why the fuck not?

Yeah, that was it. Fucking abysmal. lol

How do they not think for a second about the character they've built with those vignettes when they book that on his first night back?

Even Vader backed down at certain points.

I'm sure he did at times. Usually when a face was running in with a chair or something. It didn't stop him from becoming a face though. If he was just manning up and showing no fear to Sting, he wouldn't be in danger of turning face.

"I'm going to/This monster I'm managing is going to murder your heroes." is more than enough to make a heel without having to have him back down.

But as proven by Braun, people just cheer that guy.

I agree though.... they can't be standard chicken shits. Or else they're just like everyone else. But there has to be that hell kind of cowardice.

Roman Reigns is not those people's hero...

I DON'T WANT TO GET RID OF THE COWARDLY HEEL. I JUST WANT VARIETY.

RAVEN DID A GOOD "COWARD".

It really helps if you have babyfaces people believe in. A big problem with keeping these guys heel is that you don't have a hero that you want to see overcome them.

Reigns could turn BATB '96 Hogan face just by challenging him.

Yep.

Different times, but Hogan probably would have been cheered if he "turned heel" in the same context today. Reigns would be booed in whatever era.

Well I mean did Diesel get booed? Just didn't draw much but he didn't consistently get booed.

I see Reigns are more of a flop than Diesel, personally. I understand the comparison, but I think Reigns would have gone worse. As presented. There is a bad-ass motherfucker in there, but if he were wearing body armor and being protected like he was the son of the booker, I think he would have been getting more backlash than Hogan was getting circa '96.

I wouldn't call Reigns a flop just yet.

Oh, he'll be a relative star. They're not giving up on him, he's really good, and eventually the product will warp to fit him. His run so far has been though. If you took this Reigns, as he is, back in time it wouldn't work. There's no charisma there to sustain the position.

For me as a kid it would either be the Tatanka heel turn, just never made sense.

Or that Razor never won the big one , he just oozed charisma and knew how to work the ring .

Mark Henry's fake retirement to ambush Cena. "I GOT A LOT MORE LEFT IN MY TANK!!!"

Soon after, he falls into the rotation of three "proud Americans" that Rusev padded his resume against (the other two being Zack Ryder and Jack Thwagger) and is barely seen on TV.

fix'd

Oh, obvious! When King Hippo went from this badass mound of monsterous "I will destroy your heroes!!!" potential to dressing like 80's LL Cool J and dancing to Ernest "The Cat" Miller's theme song with personal cheerleaders. That's the way to kill a career before it starts.

Stepping away from post 2001 and WWE, AND in speaking of Kevin Nash...

That time Nash killed all that time and effort WCW put into building Lance Storm- one of the few times WCW put time and effort into anything- just to cut a wholly unimportant promo.

Its got to be Sting losing to HHH at wrestlemania. There was no reason for that at all

1. Regal failing that drug test when he was king of the ring and RAW GM..he was absolutely brilliant during that time period and that ruined his career.

2. Jack Swagger after his world title run.

3. DDP in WWE.

I was at the RAW where all the doping scandal guys got written off TV. Regal & Umaga stood out the most.

Ultimate Warrior in WCW

I can remember at the time being disappointed. It felt like the end of an era, but when WCW closed I tried to tell myself that it would be great seeing all these guys interact.

Turns out that it was the single worst thing to happen to the wrestling business

THIS!!

bad timing and from all the stories I heard afterward, the guy wasn't really into wrestling anyway. he wanted to be an actor. so i don't even know how far the gimmick would of even went anyway

He was rumored to win the title.

DAMN WRESTLING JIHAD.

How about Tazz? Had about as great a debut as you can, then was virtually a nothing the rest of the way thru?

Really surprised that Daniel Bryan's injury hasn't been brought up. The build that he had to the main event was highly supported and played out well in my opinion. His injury kind of helped his legacy as he didn't have to deal with WWE ruining anything after the fact but was a huge let down to his fans.

Me personally though would be Stings WWE run. Sting is my all time favorite and I still want to see Sting vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania. While I'm glad he finally came to WWE they used a 15 year old story that was irrelevant for today. Very underwhelming in my opinion.

I love Taz. I was a huge mark for him. However, his size and the size of the general roster hurt him.

Second on WWE's use of Tazz, Sting as well. WWE's crap version of ECW.

DDP’s WWE run for me. I was a huge DDP mark during WCW.

I feel like saying Brawl For All for some reason.

Wrestlemania 25 and the lack of it feeling any bigger than any other show.

Ah yes, I had converted my girlfriend to a wrestling fan the year leading up to this show, and I was hyping it up as the biggest spectacle and all that other stuff, and it fell super fucking flat outside of HBK v. Undertaker. What a shame.

2008 was such a hot year, with some cool stuff coming through the pipeline. Regal, Kendrick, Umaga, Edge as a top heel, John Morrison, CM Punk, Fucking Heel Jericho, etc. Then, when you get to 2009 I remember I just didn't care until we got to CM Punk turning heel on Jeff Hardy.

Triple H sprayed his stink on the first half of the year. He just had to beat Orton at WrestleMania, because top babyfaces have to go over at Mania, right? Unless it's 2000, of course.

That fucking pop when he unmasked.

Now?