A Push That Was Suddenly Stopped

[The Brain]

We all love it when a new superstar or a superstar who has been treading water is given a push. As it’s happening we imagine the possibilities and wonder if that superstar can make it to the top and become a big time player. Sometimes a push works and sometimes it doesn’t. There are also times when a push suddenly and inexplicably comes to a screeching halt. For this thread I want you to think about a past wrestler who looked like he was about to achieve greatness only to have his star fade before it really got the chance to shine.

For my pick I’m going to take you back to the summer of 1999. A young Stephanie McMahon had recently made her television debut and we all looked at her as the sweet innocent daughter of the evil Mr. McMahon. Stephanie was a good looking young lady and drew the attention of one of the up and coming new stars in the WWF. On an episode of Raw Test formally asked Stephanie McMahon out on a date. She accepted which infuriated her brother Shane. For storyline reasons Vince was off tv at this time so it was up to Shane to do what he thought was best for his baby sister. Along with his childhood friends The Mean Street Posse, Shane attacked Test every chance he got making it clear he was to stay away from Stephanie. Of course this did not deter Test and he and Shane would finally settle it in a love her or leave her match at SummerSlam. The stipulation was if Shane were to win Test would stay away from Stephanie and if Test were to win Shane would stay out of their business. Despite interference from the Posse Test came out the winner and Shane honored the stipulation.

Over the next couple months Shane grew to respect Test and accepted his relationship with Stephanie. When Vince returned to television even he approved of Test for his daughter. Test proposed to Stephanie and they were to be married (in the ring of course and only about four months after their first date). All was good in McMahon land. Now we know it wouldn’t be a true wrestling wedding without some sort of interruption. During the ceremony Triple H appeared and revealed he married a drugged Stephanie a few days earlier in Las Vegas. Stephanie was horrified and Vince, Shane, and Test were furious. You would think this would lead to a major feud between Test and Triple H. You would be wrong as instead we got Vince vs. Triple H at Armageddon. During the match Steph turned on her family and revealed that she was with Triple H all along. She wasn’t drugged during the wedding and knowingly agreed to marry him.

With this betrayal you would think Test would be all set up to gain revenge on Triple H. Once again you would be wrong. Logically Test would be furious at both Triple H and Stephanie and would begin a personal and bitter feud with them. Somehow this never happened. Test looked like he was being groomed to be the next breakout star in the WWF but was completely overshadowed in an angle that should have centered around him. I don’t even remember him getting a match with Triple H. I assume they at least wrestled each other on Raw, but seeing as I’m not even sure it obviously wasn’t anything memorable. Triple H went on to regain the title from The Big Show and feud with Mick Foley and The Rock while Test quickly fell down the card. When we got to WrestleMania Stephanie was escorting world champion Triple H to the ring for the main event while Test was teaming with Albert against Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Let that sink in for a minute. Four months earlier Test was about to be married to Stephanie when Triple H interrupted the ceremony and now he was in a low card tag team filler while Triple H was successfully defending the world title. For some reason Test’s push was dropped and he looked foolish letting Triple H steal his woman and letting Steph betray him without ever doing a thing about it. He would have a decent mid card run but would never reach the heights many assumed he would.

What other examples are there of a superstar on the verge of a major push only to have the rug jerked out from under him? You don’t necessarily have to come up with your own if you simply want to comment on my example.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Brain, this is a great choice and a great thread. Test is absolutely a push that fizzled with no explanation.

I'll go back to Lex Luger in the early 90's. WWE sank so much into the Lex Express, the Intrepid bodyslam, etc. And when the time finally came for Luger to face Yokozuna at Summerslam, he won via count out and didn't get another chance for 9 months, when after co-winning the Royal Rumble, he became the forgotten challenger at Wrestlemania 10. Luger's push went to Bret Hart and Luger went pretty much back to midcard until WCW.

Billy Gunn also comes to mind. The guy is part of a massive tag team with Road Dogg in DX, splits from him, wins KOTR and kicks around the Hardcore title (WTF?) before being fed to The Rock at SummerSlam or Fully Loaded (doesn't matter) and being relegated back to midcard and eventual tag team status. Blah.

 

[vampirek]

Billy Gunn also comes to mind. The guy is part of a massive tag team with Road Dogg in DX, splits from him, wins KOTR and kicks around the Hardcore title (WTF?) before being fed to The Rock at SummerSlam or Fully Loaded (doesn't matter) and being relegated back to midcard and eventual tag team status. Blah.

In otherwords he was a midcarder tag team, who started a singles run still as a midcarder and when his run was 'dropped' ended up as a midcarder and a tag teamer. Basically Billy Gunn was always a midcarder from NAO onwards. However can't believe you forgotten he held the IC title (which was credible at the time) too.

 

[oldschool4ever]

need we look back that far. i see 2 guys currently. namely the " Chosen one" who has been chosen to job lately and ooooo " dashing cody rhodes" with his modern day rick the model martel gimmick. more drew mcintyre than cody but even with cody when he was with orton and dibiase he had more of a push. as for test, he was just another victim of the backstage politicing that was going on in that day and age. i could keep going. look at mark henry. destroyed orton his first night on raw. after that he gets stuck with mvp, evan bourne and last night yoshi tatsu. not to get off topic but lets look at the last month or two. no one has been spotlighted except the john cena story line. on that note kudos to cm punk for trashing A RI's DUI on public tv last night. was the most comical yet real moment of the night

 

[BernacK6]

Vladimir Kozlov at the end of 2008. We has Main Eventing Survivor Series with Triple H, Edge comes back and Kozlov's undefeated streak and momentum comes to an end within 3 months. Now he's a comedy jobber with Santino. I wouldn't call it misuse, because Kozlov lacks alot of the intangibles to be a top-tier player, but how does a guy like this go from Main Eventing an A PPV to nothing in less than 6 months?

 

[King Blitzkonic]

Let's talk a real rug-jerker of the past couple years: Vladimir Kozlov. He comes on Smackdown and destroys the competition, makes it all the way to a title match in a triple threat with Jeff Hardy and HHH. Hardy gets taken out, and instead of a one-on-one, we get to see Edge insert himself into the match. Kozlov doesn't win but he's not the one pinned so he still looks good. Fast forward to Elimination Chamber 2009: Does well but gets eliminated by Taker, still looks good. Gets fed to HBK so HBK can face Taker at Wrestlemania 25 (great match BTW!) and loses to Taker again on SD!.

Gets drafted to ECW, beats up jobbers and doesn't even get an ECW title shot. Since then the most he's done is tag with Santino. If THAT is a push, I'd rather get my walking papers.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I will allude to a more recent push that was stopped rather abruptly and there are rumors as to why

Back last year Kofi Kingston was enjoying the best run of his life. He was gettin' mic-time and working with a top heel in Randy Orton. I remember how it was Roddy Piper versus Randy Orton in MSG. The crowd was electric for the whole affair and when Kofi Kingston interfered and did the Boom Drop on the outside through the table on Orton, the place exploded!

[YOUTUBE]nVwLL9SXeLM[/YOUTUBE]​

Honestly believed that this was the start of something of an upper tier push for the man. But then this happened...

[YOUTUBE]s1KEUuJ9XwM[/YOUTUBE]​

I don't wanna say this is the sole reason why nothing about Kofi's matches hence forth had no sense of fruition on Raw, but it's a guess.

Sad, Kofi's not your regular joe-spot-monkey. He can definitely talk as well. Maybe Smackdown will be a happier hunting ground

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

Actually, keeping on the Gunn topic, I think that many of you are forgetting the other half of the Smoking Gunns, Bart Gunn. After pulling off the upset of the century and taking down the monsterly pushed Oklahoma sweethart, Dr. Death Steve Williams in the Brawl For It All shoot tournament, Gunn was being pushed as being a one punch knockout artist who then was knocking guys out left and right with a punch that could come out anywhere. He had feuds with Bob Holly and Dr. Death and was receiving more tv time than he ever did as part of the Smoking Gunns or as one half of the NEW Midnight Express.

The WWE even put money behind hid push by paying a hefty price to have Erc Butterbean Esch come in to make for a Wrestlemania moment that would surely elevate Bart over Billy in every way shape or form and be a true steal for the WWE accountants. And then it happened. Butterbean knocked out Bart Gunn in a merely embarassig 30 seconds and Gunn was released soon after, halting the WWE's big future plans for him.

 

[byrnside]

Kofi Kingston. I never really liked the guy until he dropped the Jamaican thing and became more real-life Kofi. He was getting a pretty solid push against Legacy and Randy Orton more specifically. He even had that crazy fight on RAW where he Boom Dropped Randy through the table and beat up on the RKO car in the crowd. Everyone was convinced this guy was going to be the next Miz. Of course at the time, the Miz was tagging with Morrison I believe, but you get the idea. They had me really believing in Kofi, I was excited to see where he was headed. But now he's just kind of floundering on the mid card.

 

[TheEraofAwesome]

Great Khali would be one of my pics. 2006-2008, he was a dominant force to be reckoned with. He destroyed Undertaker for fucks sake, took John Cena to the limit, beat Batista, and was the world heavyweight champion. All of a sudden, he went from that to Punjabi Playboy where now he's a comedy act. A world champion to a comedy act? Damn he fell down ten fold.

 

[LSN80]

This is a great thread idea. Im going to go with a more recent example, and use Christian.

Christian returned to WWE with a good bit of fanfare, interrupting current up and comer and the undefeated ECW champion Jack Swagger in early Ferbruary of 2009. He was instrumental in Swagger losing his first match to Finlay, and handed Swagger his second loss the following week. He was granted a title shot at the winner of Finlay/Swagger after No Way Out, and he lost only due to an injured arm. He qualified for the MITB ladder match, and looked in a losing effort. He then earned another title shot at Swagger at Backlash, and went on to win the ECW title, and only carried the brand for its final year. His only hiccups were a loss in a triple threat match at Extreme Rules to Tommy Dreamer, when he quickly regained the title the next month at Judgment Day. He then went on to hold the title for over 8 months, only losing the title on the final episode of ECW in February to Ezekiel Jackson due to tremendous interference.

Christian was then moved to Smackdown, where he was placed in the IC tournament for the title, where he lost in the finals to Kofi Kingston. This match only served as a backdrop for the Kofi/McIntyre storyline, and Christian wound up hosting the Peep Show and teaming with Hornswoggle against Chavo Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler, both whom were buried on the card at the time. Christian had gone from the dominant ECW champion to teaming with Hornswoggle.

He had a nice tease of a feud with Edge, and the two had a good, albeit unsanctioned, Pick your Poison Match on Raw. But Christian wasn't even included in the qualifying matches for the World Title for Fatal Four Way, and he would be off of TV for weeks at at a time, or teaming with Matt Hardy in meaningless matches against Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes. His last "high profile" match was the Money in The Bank Ladder match at the MITB PPV, and he injured his pectoral two months later, and was written off TV at the hands of Alberto Del Rio.

I think WWE massively dropped the ball with Christian. Coming off his impressive title reign on ECW, he was massively over, and could have naturally slid into a main event feud with virtually anyone, as a heel or a face. However, he wound up jobbing to younger wrestlers not half as over as him , and teaming with Hornswoggle of all people for a time. He hasn't come near a title picture, whether it be the IC or the WHC since, which has been a massive waste of his talent and skills.

 

[Ducey13]

I want to talk about Jack Swagger alittle bit. Guy came into ECW and quickly became ECW champion. Next thing you know, he's on raw with the big boys. Now being a mid-carder on Raw is a hard thing to do. But he managed to have some good matches, one in particular with Cena. Next thing you know he's on Superstars losing to Santino. Outta nowhere he wins MITB getting a push I felt was long over due and wins the World Title becoming Top Heel on Smackdown. I personally liked his tenure as World Champion even though he was still coming into his own. He then lost the title to Mysterio and suddenly had a mean streak in him and starting terrorizing Rey Rey and Big Show with his dreaded anklelock. I thought Jack would be one of these new era guys who WWE Creative gives the Title too in order to get "them Over" only to become a star after they lose their first title. Since then I beleive he's been left off all the PPVS as far as individual matches go. He has done some entertaining stuff on Smackdown with his "Daddy" and his "Swagger Soaring Eagle", but he's still wrestling guy like MVP on Superstars. I think a World Champion deserves better than this. So while his push may not have been suddenly stopped, its been majorly slowed down.

 

[Andy 2 Randy]

Well All the obvious ones have already been said (Test, Kozlov, Kofi etc) but im going to say Evan Bourne.
Okay, maybe not the best person to choose, but hear me out.
RAW starts earlier this year with Evan Bourne getting beat down by Edge, which was spurred because off the camera, Evan was saying how he wants a push. Later on Bourne gets put in the main event, and actully beats Sheamus and Edge (albeit with John Cena's help). This, i thought would make Evan a real name on MNR (monday night raw for anyone who had no clue what that meant). So evan gets put in the Raw MITB match, okay, had a 'mini-rivalry' with orton (Shooting StarKO)...then gets reduced to teaming with Mark Henry....yes he's out injured currently, but really, he has to get put back where he was, at least facing people like Sheamus, Morrison and Orton again...I'm Just Sayin...

 

[Mike Diesel]

Ludvig Borga, The guy had an undefeated streak leading to.... I'm just kidding. I agree with the Kofi pick, there's still hope for him, but it seems as if Randy Orton yelling "stupid" at him twice on TV led to something being said backstage (Mr Kennedy pt II?) that crushed his push

 

[Rasha]

How about Raven in WCW? The guy debuted in June of '97 and won the U.S. Championship from DDP just five months later. During that run he had his own "Raven's Rules" matches, his own stable, and was a fixture on Nitro. Then, one night after winning the belt, he was jobbed out to Golberg and then dumped into a feud with Saturn over control of The Flock. It was all downhill from there.

I've never understood why they quit on Raven during that time as he was the kind of alternative flavor that WCW needed to keep its programming fresh. He was obviously popular and easily the best bridge to the ECW audience either of the big companies had up until Vince bought them out. Seems like he just got squeezed out by the NWO stranglehold and the rise of other guys like Goldberg, Benoit, and Jericho. I remember when he was basically trailing along behind Vampiro and ICP during Russo's tenure and thinking what a waste it was.

 

[Junie6]

When I think of a push that was suddenly stopped, I would have to speak of Cryme Tyme. During the summer of '09, Shad and JTG had a very entertaining series of matches with the Hart Dynasty, and dominated it. They then went on to feud with Show and Jericho for the tag titles. Jtg even picked up a pinfall over Jericho. Despite their lost to the champs at Summer Slam, Cryme Tyme, looked poised to be the first black WWE tag team champions since 1983. When Shad got sick in Mexico , and Cryme Tyme had to pull out of Brigging Rights, the team started on a steady decline, ultimately breaking up.

I even saw hope in the break up. I thought that at least one of them would be pushed to an IC title reign. Unfortunately, Shad was taken off tv within weeks of Cryme Tyme's slit, and was released all together two weeks ago, and JTG has become the whiping boy of Drew and Chavo on WWE Super Stars. Poor Gut doesn't even have the cool jacket with his face air brushed on it anymore.

 

[kozzomozzo]

Well seeing how you all named the wwe one how about this one. Lance storm went to wcw for about a year. He somehow eon the united states, the cruiser weight and hardcore titles and even defended all 3 on one Nitro. Sure Wcw was bought shortly after but that still ended like that. He vever did anything significant after those belts.

 

[Trill Co$by]

William Regal is always shafted by this. So many times it looks like he's on the verge of a huge push to the big one and then BOOM! But one that I think is a real shocker is Gregory Helms.

I know people will dog me out and say "Oh there goes OMEGA boy again" but no seriously, when he dropped the Hurricane gimmick and became a heel on Smackdown, he HAD it. He had all the tools to become at least the US champion. He had the look, he had the heat, he had the promos... He just had it. Hell, he was even one of the last three for team RKO vs. team DX at survivor series. I get that he broke his nose, but even when he came back WWE had a huge field to work with. They had nothing but grass for Helms but they let the ball drop.


Another one would have to be Rikishi... you know the guy from the Armageddon HIAC that got sent off the top of that thing into the truck bed? Yeah he was such a believable heel, and like Helms, had all the tools. He was teamed with HHH for a while, given a rivalry with The Rock, and even put into HIAC. He was just the guy that WWE needed as a heel champ at the time, but then out of no where, he just vanished from the M.E. scene and reunited with Too Cool. Why? Were the politics that evil back then?

 

[King Blitzkonic]

Well seeing how you all named the wwe one how about this one. Lance storm went to wcw for about a year. He somehow eon the united states, the cruiser weight and hardcore titles and even defended all 3 on one Nitro. Sure Wcw was bought shortly after but that still ended like that. He vever did anything significant after those belts.

I know... the "Boring!" thing with Austin and dancing Lance Storm just didn't do anything for me. Speaking of great technical wrestlers that got stuck with shitty gimmicks.... DEAN MALENKO. Former US champion in WCW, this guy had one of the greatest cruiserweight feuds in WCW history with Chris Jericho and was and had a brilliant match with Sting in one of his last matches pre-Crow. Gets to WWF, and what do we get? The Iceman becomes the Ladies Man. What a waste of good technical talent.

 

[Dwayne_Jason]

Kofi Kingston is my pick. He was pretty much poised to go on top. Even after the push he was facing Batista and Sheamus (It was a squash, but atleast he was going up against them) hope rose when he won the IC title and went after Drew. For some reason, he's not in the Upper mid- or atleast main event. Smackdown has a giant hole in the Main Event. They're pushing Del Rio but they need more people. Kofi'd be a great pick for Smackdown Main Event.

 

[Calamity-Jim]

I'd say Ted Dibiase Jr.
Sure he isn't exactly "jobbing" on raw and he had a match for the US tittle recently.
But how do you go from being in Legacy and getting a decent push, being in the elimination chamber and wrestlemania feuding with orton with rumors of being the next big star to just fighting goldust over the two dollar tittle?
Sure, Maryse is a nice touch and all, but I hope things get better for him.

 

[SFC]

Gene Snitsky anyone?

They redid his entire package, left him undefeated, and then just abandoned him. They tried to start a program with Cena, but no one was interested.

 

[SillyCheez]

My (recent) pick without a doubt had to be William Regal. Just watch him in the ring, with any kind of worker. He's not overly flashy, but man can he make a match! I can't think of how many times he started to get a push and momentum, then got shot down. The most recent, and probably the most abrupt, was a couple years ago though.

The stretch of him being GM and King of the ring was amazing. Regal was able to stay with HHH for a while, and was even featured in the elimination chamber. He then went on to be win King of the Ring. To those who remember him being GM and KotR for that 1 month period, he was by far the biggest heel on the show. For a month, the show was really revolving around him being the next star. It was amazing television, and everyone knew he was in line to be a major main-event contender for a while. Then BOOM! 60 day suspension, and thats all she wrote on that.

What I wouldn't give to have him come back from his semi-retirement/hiatus now and be the Raw GM.

 

[triple_b2k]

hmm these aren't MAJOR pushes but pushes none the less:

Kevin Thorn - had a pretty cool vampire gimmick. After the group broke up, he was
repackaged but dropped quickly afterwards.

The Spirit Squad - These guys had a large push supporting the McMahon's against DX. They loose a few matches and everyone is dropped (except for Kenny who stayed for a little while). The only one to come out of this okay is Dolph (I don't remember his name in the Spirit Squad).

Bam Bam Biglow - He was choosen to face LT at Wrestlemania. The match recieved a lot of hype. After his loss, he turned face and never did anything with it. He was just a big guy who could do a cartwheel.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Shelton Benjamin.

After all, how much bigger a push can you get in WWE than beating Triple H cleanly? Then, things cooled off and we never really knew why. The main-event angle was quickly dropped, and the next thing we saw was Shelton being accompanied to the ring by his Mother.

From there, he was given the label "The Gold Standard" but was reduced to jobber status.

Strange doings.