Wrestlers Whose Success Came After Their Peak
 

Now I'm not talking about guys who came to our attention later in life, such as DDP.

I'm talking about guys like Scott Steiner who only had major singles success in WCW years after his physical peak. In his earlier years, he was a much better wrestler and athlete, but it wasn't until the roids messed him up that he got a decent mainstream singles push.

Could guys like Scott Steiner have gone on to become legends if they had been heavily pushed earlier in their careers?

Or would someone like Steiner have found himself in the situation Shelton Benjamin was in recently? Pushed out of his tag team too soon, fails to get over, and is depushed back into the tag division.

DISCUSS:

Would HHH fit in this category?

To be honest, Stiener wasn't interesting until he was roided out of his mind. If he was pushed before that he would have been a flop.

As for Shelton, he is just barely likable. Shelton is just so vanilla...well he is techincally black so I guess chocolate, which is failry played out and boring. I mean all of this personality wise. He doesn't bring anything to the table that hasn't been seen a billion times before. If Shelton was white, he would be just another AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Chris Saben, Kazarian, Eric Young, blah blah blah. Sure he has some really flashy moves and working with the right people can put on a hell of a match. The probably is, the only hook he has is that he is black and worked for the right company and the only guy that he is comparible to that is black is Elix Skipper.

JBL
Arguably Flair

Definately Austin here.

I dont think that Triple H would fit. Although his body dramatically changed from when he was in the original DX to when he was in the corporation and became the game, I think that his physical peak came as he was getting the singles success. Steiner was a stud back in his day, but was for some reason ignored. Then when he started to pass his prime, he did what he had to do to stay in that shape. He was lucky and it kind of paid off. I think that Triple H may have been encouraged to enhance his body so he had the "look" to be the next big thing.

In addition to the before mentioned...

Steve Austin unquestionably. His best success was after he was forced to change his style due to career threatening injury.

Arguably Sting.

Jericho could also be considered...

Andre the Giant
Sgt. Slaughter, if you argue that his biggest "success" came w/ his WWE title run

I certainly don't think of Slaughter's joke run as his peak...personally...

I definatly agree about JBL and flair. But Im not too sure about austin. He was in a good place when it came to his physicality when he was getting his big push. I think that the piledriver from owen seriously hurt the longevity of his career and made everything he did after past his physical peek because he was too hurt for physical improovement.

Terry Funk
Mick Foley

How can you argue that Austin of the early 90's wasn't far and away better than Austin in the late 90's. His physical peak definatly came before he was even in WWE. The injury pushed him down further...but that's when he took off...

Sting definatly. Before Hogan came to wcw sting was their kind of flag ship but Flair was their guy in terms of the world title. It took him until he started dressing as the crow to become a big success and now hes still getting that success in tna.

come on. look at Austin during his WCW run. 1998 didn't have the agility, the technical soundness, or the wrestling type style. He was all brawling with a few slick moves (middle rope elbow drop) in there.

Well if your going to make that argument then pretty much every big time legendary wrestler is going to end up in this category. Obviously when austin was younder he was in great physical shape, but I dont think he fairly reached his peak because of the piledriver.

Chris Benoit is another guy who's really only trip on top came after his prime. Not that he wasn't still phenominal, but if you compare to how he was 5 or 6 years earlier, he had started to go down hill slightly.

Rey Mysterio had his most commercially successful year long after he started to slow down. Really anything post-unmasked in WCW was kind of lack luster by comparison.

I think HHH hit his peak furing his first few title reigns, so he was kind of right on time.

That's not true at all. A lot (in fact most) all time greats his their highest career point right as they were reaching their peak in terms of physical performance. And seriously, have you ever seen any of Austin's work around the time of the Hollywood Blondes? He was incredible in the ring. Not that he wasn't awesome to watch during the Attitude Era, but in terms of ability and performance, he simply doesn't come close to early 90's WCW Austin.

See, here is the problem with the argument, wrestlings isn't really about putting on great main event matches. It is about making great mainevent tv. The greatest for most of the greatest wrestlers, the matches are secondary, even for the ones that are phenominal in the ring.

I would argue Sting and Flair because I think they were very popular when they were on top early on. And both were better in ring preformers at that time. With Sting, I don't know if you could say 1997 Sting had so much more success then 1989-1992 Sting.

With Flair, he always been popular, main eventing and consistent, so it's tough to say him

Rey Mysterio: His best matches happened while he was a Cruiserweight in WCW, but after suffering numerous knee injuries, he was forced to tone down his style considerably. WWE's already watered-down style has forced him to tone it down even more, and a couple years later, he wins the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania.


Hulk Hogan: His best days happened in the AWA, long before he became a superstar in the WWF.

I think Eddie Guerrero probably performed better during his earlier years than he did during his WWE title reign.

This is true.

But despite the fact that pro wrestling is obviously more about showmanship and entertainment than it is about actual wrestling, that doesn't negate the fact that every wrestler's physical ability during his career is more-or-less made up of mountains and valleys.

The question is valid, because a wrestler could quite easily be in the "valley" of their career as a "pro wrestler," but they could be on the top of the mountain as far as their popularity and charisma goes.

Steve Austin is a perfect example.

Plus there is the fact that if you push a guy before he has entered his prime or possibly even during his prime, there is nothing for the audience to latch on too. There is not history of matches that point to why he is being pushed. I mean just look at Orton. I'm not sure if he is in his prime yet, but he was pushed way to young and now he has a crappy legacy to work on.

JBL

whom I still maintain sucks

I maintain Skippord sucks.

Austin's a good one

How about Booker T?

Mick Foley became a major player in the twilight of his career. Once Mr. Socko and the whole Hell in A Cell thing hit, and his first title run he was already too broken down to continue. Within a year he was retrired.

Does the vast amount of names that fall into this category make it even more obvious that WWE pushes people too young nowadays? Randy Orton being a prime example.

Or does it just mean that wrestling companies in the past waited too long to push, or just didn't spot early enough, megastar level talent? Possibly losing them some great years at the top.

With Mick Foley, it is almost more of an honorary title run, or 3. He sorta always sucked. Sure he is fairly articulate in text and has a certain likability, but his push and whatever was so artificial even for wrestling standards. He will be a forgotten champion as time goes on. The only reason he will be mentioned in years to come is because he wrestled the greats in Stone Cold and the Rock. If it wasn't for a lack of talent in WWE at the time, I can all but guarantee he wouldn't have been over.

Yes to question one. WWE does push guys too young. Randy is a prime example. Brock is another, but for different reasons (the whole paying dues arguement).

Also, wrestling companies didn't wait to long before striking the provibal iron, they just needed the talent to prove theresevles. No one would have ever predicted JBL to rule has hard as he did back when he was Bradshaw. Stiener hadn't gone crazy and gotten the edge till after he peaked. Sometimes, the only way to find out if someone is going to be good is time testing.

I disagree about Booker, go back to his best of Seven with Benoit in WCW or even later to his World reigns in WCW to see a ltitle charisma.

Booker has come down a long long way.

I do agree about Benoit though, he is slowly dropping which is sad when I think he is still miles ahead the best worker in a WWE ring.

Beniot best worker in WWE? Come on with that.

Foley was a genius when it came to cutting promos and working with other wrestlers too. He had great work ethic and his gimics got over with the fans. Thats why he got the push... but yes his career will only be remembered for hell in the cell

My god, you're stupid.

Zach Gowan :shifty:

After that comment by Skippord, I also maintain this.

The first that came to mind for me was benoit.

His matches in Japan were brilliant.

Others may include:
Sid (who won the title in 1996 i think, but was better (although not good) in 1991)
Davey Boy (I believe was only a main eventer from about 1996, but his est work was early 90's, and by the late 90's in the six pack challenge, he could barely even move)

JBL

The shelf life of a lot of the guys mentioned was very short. The likes of Stone Cold and Foley for example. What I'm wondering is, could they have had decades at the top of the business if they'd been pushed earlier in their careers?

The reason I mentioned Steiner in the first post is because I really believe he could've been great. He could have put on some incredible high-profile matches had he been given the opportunity to break out at a younger age.

There's really no debating Austin. He may not have been in bad shape, but he was on a physical decline due to injury.

DDP and Batista

P.S. I'm basing this on age.