Biggest Flop Ever?

[Paralyzer Z]

I have 2 choices and almost the exact same thing happened to both of them.

1.Umagai I will get this out of the way before anyone jumps down my throat: RIP man. The personal stuff aside his WWE career had flop written all over it. The man was apart of a tag team early in his career in the 3 minute warning. However he was re-packaged in 2006 under the name "Umaga". He was dominant as a monster heel is always, and found himself on top of the world within 6 months of his re-debut. They TRIED SO HARD to make him a top heel, from his feud with John Cena, WM 23 match, and a couple of things in between. It is a shame because the man was really talented but by 2008 had grown irrelevant and passed away the next year with just being a mid-carder on Smackdown. It was not really his fault but WWE decided to stop supporting him after the end of 2007.

2.Bobby Lashley- The man had a Lesnar type physique and was pushed down our throats like hell. Like Umaga he was a monster, only a face or fan Favorite. Like Fatu (Umaga's real last name) he has everything going for him until a certain point where the fire behind him was gone. After his match with Cena being the climax of his push, he was injured and released the following year. It all was just so spontaneous and unexpected, luckily he has made somewhat of a legacy in MMA. Really talented and could have been a modern day powerhouse face, maybe would have taken Orton's place as #2 face by now. We will never know because he seems content on his MMA career.

 

[One to Remember]

I'd pick Shane Douglas, in both his first incarnation about 20 years ago, and his later one as Dean Douglas.

The guy is a perfect example of why a sports entertainment performer has to have more than superior technical wrestling ability to get over in a big way. For years, we've heard old-timers like Bruno Sammartino (as well as a lot of people on this forum) say that great wrestling talent should be enough to put someone over big......but it isn't so, and Shane is one of the best examples.

I went to a house show when Shane was performing as Dean Douglas. As each match was introduced, the performers came down the aisle to enthusiastic response (both booing and cheering). When Douglas came down, people told me that a collective groan went up from the crowd.

His push went nowhere, although the company tried hard to put him over. They let him talk, they let him play with his chalk and blackboard, they tried to manufacture conflicts with other wrestlers.......nothing worked, and one of the biggest efforts to launch a wrestler wound up a total flop.

I think Douglas was involved in politiking and was a casulty of it. I think that there is some merit to what you are saying about him not meshing with WWF fans but this is also the same guy who threw down the NWA title in a very historic moment. ECW showed what he could do, WCW showed that he could atleast hold his own on a larger stage. My question is why the WWF even made him something so divergent from what he started out as? When I think of Douglas I see him as the forerunner to Wade Barrett. He lead stables, formed alliances, shooked the foundation when he needed to or felt something was not right. The WWF should not had tried to erase his revolutionary vigor because that actually was his charisma. His type of charisma involved passion and movement like Fidel Castro's. If he had came with the Radicalz I think he would had been more like Benoit as opposed to Malenko or Guerrero who took different paths and had different futures.

 

[irishwarrior]

Either J-Swag or Drew McIntyre
Swagger was the World Champion about a year ago but now he's doomed to losing to Muppet interferences.
Drew was labelled the Chosen One and won the I-C title. He puts on probably the performance of his life at EC and a month later he's jobbing to Zack Ryder on Superstars. When that happens, you know you've been buried. No offence to Ryder.

 

[Kev Laws]

Surly the biggest flop has to be Kevin Fertig as Mordecai he was built up so much as this massive threat to the Undertaker during April 2004, he beat Scotty 2 Hotty at a PPV and then was pulled from TV in early July because lets face it he was rubbish in the ring.

 

[stephenjpunk317]

I'd have to agree with Lashley. He just didn't seem to have any charisma to him and the fans couldn't get behind him. He was a champion and that didn't put him over.

 

[lilnev2009]

hmm...biggest flop for me would be NXT. When you look at the guys that have come out of NXT other than the first season, they have been complete bust. Add to the fact that the show came on tv for only two seasons and then look at the fact that one of the winners isn't even with the company anymore is pretty bad. I don't even know what happen to that guy that won with R truth and they have a contract for a title match still. But believe me....a close second was goldberg in wwe. Other than spearing the rock and getting his ass whooped by HHH...I really don't remember anything else the guy did

 

[stylin'andprofilin']

Matt Hardy. He had a ton of big pushes, the cruiserweight strap, The ECW(wwe) title. The man had great talent; just could not outgrow the shadow of his brother. Then he goes to TNA and they hype it up, and where does he end up. In jail, without a job. Somehow his brother still has a job.

 

[Purely_Canadien]

I would say Mordecai is up there. Vilified as a possible new UT adversary when he arrived his character fell harder than anyone else in recent memory.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Sgt. Slaughter was probably the biggest flop ever. Designed for one match. Was supposed to draw 100,000 + w Hogan and instead drew 16,000 at Mania.

Seriously?

At one time, Slaughter was almost on par with Hogan for popularity. He got let go by McMahon originally because Slaughter was getting outside merchandising deals like GI Joe, and McMahon felt he couldn't control him like he could Hogan at the time. His feud with the Iron Sheik was the biggest in the country at the time.

Before that, he had a very good career in the territories. Then when he came back to the WWF, he came in as the centerpiece of a white hot angle that only fizzled out because the war ended before Wrestlemania. There was nothing about him that was a flop, let alone the biggest one ever.

Now as for the original question... I'm stepping away from the current day roster, because guys like Swagger are not flops by any stretch. The guy is what he is... a good mid card heel. Just because he was pushed to the World title early and wasn't able to handle it does not mean he's a flop. That's just bad booking. Besides, the guy works in an era where almost everyone can say they're a former World champion. It doesn't mean anything.

No, the biggest flop for me is Tom McGhee. Don't know him? That's because he flopped so bad.

He came to the WWF in the late 80's from the Stampede territory. He had the look like few others did at the time. Vince took one look at him and started envisioning him as his next Hogan or Warrior. He put him in a try out match with Bret Hart and asked Hart to put him over and see what he had. The Hitman being who he is, made him look like a million bucks in that match and Vince was convinced he had his next big thing.

The problem was, McGhee was horrible. He could barely get across the ring without tripping over his own feet. No skill. No coordination. Just a look. He worked the house show circuit with Terry Gibbs leading up to his debut, but Gibbs just wasn't good enough to hide McGhee's deficiencies. The end result was McGhee was let go... never to become anything, let alone the next Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior that Vince McMahon originally had planned.

 

[Bernkastel]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Brock Lesnar yet. Like Bobby Lashley the guy was groomed to be a long term talent like Cena or Orton. Lesnar was only in the WWE for roughly two years before he left at the peak of his career to pursue other endevours. Remember all the lawsuits and the drama and controversies surrounding his departure? Remember how legitimately pissed off the fans were at Wrestlemania? His sudden departure probably felt like a betrayal to them. He wasn't injured and probably easily could have given the WWE five more years of service before leaving to pursue a career in UFC.

 

[Dmbfantomas]

Difference between Lesnar and Lashley is that Lesnar had real success before he left. He was less of a flop, and more of a "should have been more." Lashley never did nearly what he should have done, and left a failure and disappointment.

For me, I gotta go with the CM Punk lead Nexus. I have never heard crowds so dead in my entire life. I don't fault Punk, I don't even fault those other Nexus members. I put it all on how awkwardly booked they were.

 

[Dmbfantomas]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Brock Lesnar yet. Like Bobby Lashley the guy was groomed to be a long term talent like Cena or Orton. Lesnar was only in the WWE for roughly two years before he left at the peak of his career to pursue other endevours. Remember all the lawsuits and the drama and controversies surrounding his departure? Remember how legitimately pissed off the fans were at Wrestlemania? His sudden departure probably felt like a betrayal to them. He wasn't injured and probably easily could have given the WWE five more years of service before leaving to pursue a career in UFC.

Lesnar left to play in the NFL, like he always wanted to do. He didn't want to be a pro-wrestler, he wanted to be a DT for the Vikings. Being a wrestler just seemed like a logical way to make ends meet for Brock, and that's all well and good. I don't fault him for that, just like I can't fault him for leaving. If your heart isn't in it, I wouldn't want you in company anyway.