Most Underrated Wrestler on the Roster?

[It's Damn Real!]

We obviously are all well aware of the talent in TNA like Styles, Joe, Angle, etc. etc., but something that's far less discussed is the potential in the underutilized, or in this case, the underrated. That's what this thread is for.

TNA currently house contracts for a number of talents that a larger portion of wrestling fans consider upper-tier talent, but for one reason or another, the wrestlers aren't featured as prominently, job regularly or simply never get the crack the fans feel they deserve at making a higher-end run on television – the question is, who do you think is the most underrated of these types?

Who has the most potential you think TNA management is blind for not seeing? Who has main event written all over them (in invisible ink)? Who's the draw creative simply hasn't (or can't) market properly?

I want to know your opinions on this, but please don't make my job any more difficult than it already is – please provide a reason behind your post so I don't have to warn/infract anyone.

 

[TheNextBigThingF5]

The most underrated wrestler to me hands down is Kazarian. This guy before he was fired was a championship contender he has incredible moves and reminds me of an alternative Jeff Hardy

 

[Ferbian]

There's one guy that jumps to mind instantly. It might not be because he's underrated, but he's certainly not utilized the way that TNA could benefit from using this guy. Even WWE failed to use this guy to the full potential that he has.

The guy I'm talking about is: Matt Morgan. He is pretty decent in the ring from what I've seen, he's able to hang with the top guys in the likes of Kurt Angle, he has shown that in a feud with him.

And most importantly, he has the it factor. At least I'm very caught up in him, with a decent in-ring ability, pretty decent on the microphone and a great body to make it work. I'm surprised he was released by WWE. And that TNA has not utilized the fact that he could very well be the future of the company. He might not be "the man", the guy to pull the ratings and all that. But he is definitely one that is very much deserving of being at the top. To have at least a feud for the championship.

 

[ANKHOR_MAN3]

I was just watching TNA today and I think it is Brutus Magnus. The guy cuts great promos and his wrestling ability is very good as well. Also Desmond Wolfe this guy is a ring technician like the british kurt angle. And he also cuts a good promo. Both of these guys could definitely be used better. Hell brutus has been back for a while when is his fued with Rob Terry going to happen? Oh yeah they gave the belt to AJ styles oh my mistake. Instead of doing that they should have gave AJ the HVT title, I mean what is RVD really doing with it? I believe Rob Terry can be decent too, he needs to study under Kevin Nash to really help him flurish and sell himself

 

[nightmare]

im going with the pope.

he gets a great pop from the crowd everytime. he has definately improved on the mic since leaving wwe. and has the ability to get the fans out of their seat like few others in tna. i really liked him in wwe as elijah burke & couldnt wait for him to appear on tna b\c of the great match ups i could see him in.

his matches are always entertaining to watch & if wasnt for injury he might have had his big push already. that hurt him a little bit, but his match back with angle was great & his match earlier in the year against aj was fantastic imo. hes going to be around for a while in tna & if they are smart, will let him fly with the title if not atleast a good run with the x-division strap.

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

I think that right now my answer right now for the most underutilized guy in Tna is no other then Desmond Wolfe I think he's good on the mic and very good in the ring. The guy has a great potential and I believe he is a future World Champion but right now he is underutilized

 

[Jack-Hammer]

For me, it's easily Desmond Wolfe. Even though TNA has really put the kaibosh on his push over the course of this year, Wolfe is someone that pretty much has it all. He's got the look, he's got the charisma, he's got the mic skills and he's got the in-ring ability.

I know that Wolfe has essentially been relegated to jobber status in 2010 and it's a shame. I think one reason why a lot of TNA fans still care about the guy is that, despite the shitty booking on the part of TNA, the guy's talent is there on open display. The fans know it's there. In my view, he's among the best overall wrestlers currently on the TNA roster.

 

[ANKHOR_MAN3]

im going with the pope.

he gets a great pop from the crowd everytime. he has definately improved on the mic since leaving wwe. and has the ability to get the fans out of their seat like few others in tna. i really liked him in wwe as elijah burke & couldnt wait for him to appear on tna b\c of the great match ups i could see him in.

his matches are always entertaining to watch & if wasnt for injury he might have had his big push already. that hurt him a little bit, but his match back with angle was great & his match earlier in the year against aj was fantastic imo. hes going to be around for a while in tna & if they are smart, will let him fly with the title if not atleast a good run with the x-division strap.

I have to cosign on this one. I could just imagine the promos he would do as champion. Finally the pope has secured that final piece of gold. Pure genius

 

[pun2003hh]

I don't think a comparison can be made. It is Desmond Wolfe. A guy who came into TNA the best possible way, like a house of fire. He came in, introduced himself to the top worker in the company, then immediately attacked him, and spent the next three months in a brutal feud. But ever since the Hogan regime took over, he has been emphasized as a minor player used to elevate other stars.

Not even taking his time in ROH into account, in a short time he proved he was very entertaining on the mic, gifted and intense in the ring, and unlike many others in TNA, he knows how to use ring psychology to its fullest. In a company where it is easier for a smaller framed wrestler to get over, I think Wolfe's talent has not been tapped by TNA.

 

[Judah's Lion]

of the superstars already mentioned:

Kaz -- i would say he's not so under-rated if only because he's lacking in the mic skills. being in a stable with Flair will hopefully help him in this area because it's kinda hard to get over in a big way if you're lacking in this area. Shelton Benjamin, anyone?

Morgan -- maybe. he does have a pretty good look as a big guy, pretty good on the mic and pretty good in the ring. but, it's just pretty good all the way around. i think he's an upper mid-card guy mainly and shouldn't be pushed too far. at least not yet. maybe in a year or two. here's another guy that could improve greatly underneath either Flair or Nash. he'd be a great fit for the Fortune stable, but i think Nash would be a tremendous mentor possibility for this guy.

Brutus -- hard to say. honestly, i've not seen him enough to weigh in. so maybe that's the point. maybe i'm not seeing him enough when i should.

Pope -- his injury slowed his push, but otherwise he is getting pretty over pretty quickly. just stay healthy and he should be in the upper mid-card to main event scene to stay. he's great on the mic and great in the ring and has a good look and gimmick to go with it.

Wolfe -- very arguably the most under-rated guy on this roster. he can flat out go in the ring and he's good on the mic and he has a good look. i think his gimmick would be better suited as a "lone wolfe" character, no pun intended. almost like an old school Bad News Brown; a heel that didn't associate with any faces or even other heels. just was a loner and a total "i'll beat the crap out of you when i want to" kind of attitude.

and one that i'll mention, even though we haven't seen him for months, he's still listed on the roster page, and that's Christopher Daniels. for the life of me, i'll never understand his back-to-back PPV booking; challenging for the WHC in one month and jobbing to Sean Morley the next. this guy has had incredible matches and feuds with AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, among many others, and yet this is the only guy that people in creative and booking seem to forget of those elite home-grown three.

 

[Optimist Prime]

I'd have to also go with Kazarian on this one. He kind of reminds me of a cross hybrid of Scott Hall and Rick Martel. So maybe that's why I give him more of a chance? I'm not sure. I absolutely hated his "Suicide" gimmick. Thought it was a waste. Reminded me of the flop gimmick Wrath and Mortis used to put on but with an even worse name.

Anyway, I think Kazarian can be a bonified heel if used properly...but he doesn't really get used properly in my opinion. Anybody that can remind someone of a cross between Scott Hall and Rick Martel already has the chance to be a great heel in the business.

They just have to use him better!!

 

[PhD]

I'll chip in my two cents for Wolfe. As others have noted, his ring work is simply brilliant; fast, technical, creative. While Angle has good matches with everyone, his matches with Wolfe were barnburners. Even if he weren't as good as he is on the stick, his ring work alone is good enough to rate him as most underrated. The fact that he gets about 15 seconds of talk time after a 10-minute Ric Flair imitation by Jay Lethal, a guy whose push boggles my mind, is just criminal

 

[kissfan85]

I loved Suicide.
He had the best music.

I like Jay Lethal a lot, I know it's supposed to be a huge storyline being up against Ric Flair, but I just think it's a waist of time.
What does Jay prove by beating him? He can fight a senior citizen and win?

Flair was good, Flair was the best but he's just a decrepit old man now...
Jay needs to be in a feud with someone who will get him somewhere.
I don't see what fighting people who are well in to there retired days are gonna get him.
Besides air time.

 

[@smarkmouth]

I'd like to preface my post by saying that I am a fan of all the aforementioned wrestlers. I'm just going to play counterpoint and stew the conversation up with reasons not to push some of these guys.

Since Elijah Burke came to TNA, he successfully shook off all WWE residue on him. I didn't even realize that he was the Pope until I re-watched the ECW Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 24 and saw the double knee attack. His gimmick is a huge success, and yeah, the fans love it. What I will say is that they tried with him, and then he was injured. I'm guessing this fueled TNA's decision to put him on the backburner. On the bright side to this decision, they haven't ruined him yet. He hasn't been turned into an upper card jobber, like so many other names on the list, so far.

For example, Matt Morgan? Seriously, who is this guy feuding with? Is it Hernandez? Samoa Joe? Anderson? It seems every week or two we get a teaser of a feud for this guy, and then they pull the plug on it(exception, Hernandez). He should have kept the tag titles by himself ALA Samoa Joe, for at least a little while. In fact, that would have been a great program for him and Joe. Not a main event program, but a feud between two singles wrestlers for the tag titles? With numerous angry tag teams as lumberjacks? Yeah, that'd of been fun!

(But I am happy with MCMG vs Beer Money right now)

As ruined as I feel Wolfe has been, his mic skills are strong enough that he's one or two angry promos and two solid wins away from credibility. I'm sure they could continue him down this losing streak and he could be successful in returning to the main event scene. I don't want his downward slope to continue, but if anyone could recover, it would be Wolfe.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

While I certainly consider guys like Kazarian, Pope and Morgan to be underrated, for me, the answer is crystal clear – the most underrated talent on the TNA roster is actually James Storm.

He's been there from day one (irrelevant, but a nice compliment to my statement) and on a roster overly affluent with baby-faces, who better than Storm to help establish the power of heels again? Storm has been a tag-team wrestler for most of his career, and for most of his career he's been very successful at it (AMW, Beer Money, Inc.), but does no one remember how successful he was as a singles wrestler when AMW first split up? Does no one remember that fucking brutal match between him and Chris Harris at Sacrifice 2007 in that Texas Death Match?

I realize Storm may not have won any singles titles or feuded with main event stars like Angle, but IMO he's absolutely chock full of the ability to, and the ability to do so well.

As much as I enjoy BMI, and as much as I enjoy Storm as a tag-team wrestler, like Scott Steiner before him, sometimes splitting the team can create an even bigger star, and an even bigger star is exactly what I see in Storm once it happens.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I think I love ^ because he brought up James Storm. I think James has incredible amounts of charisma and he can mesh well with any style.

I also think Kevin Nash has always under-appreciated. He always makes me laugh and he is believable in the ring. The guy is 7ft tall, so of course he isn't going to do monkey flips and flips and other stuff that give the IWC a boner. If he did, what would the smaller guys do?

Jarrett may have been overused, but I think he is and has always been one of their best wrestlers. He can strike, he knows when to brawl or when to go hardcore, he sells everything like the best/shocking/worst thing ever.

I just I am gonna break the mold and name a Knockout:

Personally, I think Lacey is criminally underrated. She has more personality than Sarita, Hamada, and Taylor Wilde combined times 50 plus 1. She always have a quick one-liner that is genuinely funny. She isn't the best "technical" wrestler, but man when she does her spots, they are awesome and make you laugh. I really think if they tweak her wrestling style to take advantage of her build (which is amazing that she tall without being a stick lol). I think people are just hard on her because she is a third generation and she breaks the mold of not basing her matches around what her father did. Plus, she wasn't raised in wrestling like the other wrestlers with rasstlin' daddies.

 

[shattered dreams]

I have always thought James Storm possessed a lot of potential as well. His mic work is definitely underrated and he is quite good at getting a reaction from the crowd throughout matches. He also has a decent amount of size, seems to be a solid worker and has a good character. It would be nice to see him get a Steiner or JBL push eventually. I think he could absolutely pull off a great heel run at the top. The matches between storm and roode would be fun as well.

If we are talking about who TNA management underrates then it is Wolfe by a landslide for obvious reasons but we do not know the whole story on him.

If we are talking who the IWC underrates then I am going to pick Abyss simply because there is no way he is as bad as people make him out to be. The american made thing became quite bad but he is not doing that anymore and that was not his fault. He has size, mic skills, solid power moves, good finisher, crazy hardcore spots and he is a at least average in the ring. Why everyone tries to treat him like the least common denominator is beyond me.

 

[Whatsinaname696]

Sorry bout your damn luck... BMI and MCMG, granted it seems they may be starting to get the push as the top tag teams that they CLEARLY are, and I also agree with IDR that Storm (as well as the other three imo) could go it on his own and still be a top contender, that being said at least till some more great tag teams come up I would prefer they all stay with the team, as their respective teams are the two best tag teams in wrestling since.... well prolly over a decade imo opinion anyway, and the matches they put on against each other.... they could have a best of 30 tourny and I'd be happy as hell to watch it

 

[Reddannihilation]

James Storm, Robert Roode, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. Ignoring how over the MCMG's and Beer Money are, all 4 of these guys are exactly what I look for in wrestlers. Each one can talk, each one can wrestle and each one can play the perfect face and the perfect heel. James Storm has the perfect "classic" heel demeanour, his gruff voice, his stiff in ring style, he's arguably a perfect brawler with all the right moves to make him a believable threat, on top of that his cowboy gimmick is a perfect modernisation of a once stereotypical wrestling character. All the way from the hat to the use of a beer bottle as his signature foreign object. On the flipside Storm has utilized a face style similar to Steve Austin, with the whole "trust no one, out for himself" attitude, it's worked rather well, not to mention his "sorry, about your damn luck" line is one of the better catchphrases in recent years.

Robert Roode can play the malicious psycho to a T. A few years ago he hand cuffed Eric Young and belted him with a chair over and over again. Roode's got excellent mic. skill and comes off as a genuinely destructive and hateful person. At the same time he can appeal as a typical face, although his heel character is infinitely better, he can play both, has the mic. skill and in ring skill to pull of excellent matches and is more than deserving of a main event run sometime in the near future.

Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are both two of the few smaller guys who have broken the mould, both of these guys can talk. They've got characters, one moment they can be cocky faces, the next they're arrogant heels. One of the most popular tag teams in recent years but they're both deserving of legit singles pushes.

I definitely think these four are the most underrated wrestlers in TNA. As much as I love tag team wrestling, all of these guys deserve singles pushes and are actually a lot better than many of the guys who've had singles pushes.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

One thing I like about TNA, is that is seams to me that if a talent is really good and deserves to be pushed, they'll generally make a spot for him. It doesn't happen ALL the time, but I feel like they use their mid-card talent wisely, and wouldn't let guys like Ron Killings and John Morrison sit around not being involved in great feuds. I immediately want to say guys like Desmond Wolfe or Hernandez, but just because they aren't the most hot thing right now, doesn't mean they haven't been pushed before. So I'm going to go...with Brian Kendrick. But I don't hold anything against TNA, because NOBODY has been able to push BK. Maybe its his size and look, but...look at the success Drew McIntyre has been having on Smackdown. They're about the same size and shape. BK was huge in Londrick, one of the best tag teams of all time in my opinion. But by his self...all on his own...nobody seems to care. He's a good talent, he is just (for one reason or another) impossible to get over as a singles star.

 

[gd]

Hmmm, certainly not some of the choices previously chosen by some of the choosers in this here thread. Kaz is fucking shit, Morgan is god awful in the ring, Storm is boring on his own, Wolfe certainly isn't underrated considering every other thread on here is about how much he kicks ass.

I'd have to go with the Pope here. Most of his PPV matches have been enjoyable this year, especially those with Wolfe and AJ. He's quite charismatic and can really get the crowd going behind him. Also, he's a pimp. That's cool, right? If it wasn't for the injury, who knows where he'd be right now. No one's talking about him, but they certainly should be.

Also, Rob Terry is much better than people give him credit for.

 

[youngbullzeye]

I think that MCMG are sometimes underrated not by the IWC but other fans i also think as IDR says that spliting up a tag team can make bigger stars (but that dosent mean TNA should split every tag team to see if they find someone like that) i've always been a fan of Shelly since his papparrazi shit with Nash he good on the mic to sabin has also grown on me since he started tagging with Shelly i see them as contenders for the X division title and then hopefully a TNA title run and also that Shelly goes back as a heel i like him as a face to but like him more as a heel

 

[bigbadwolf2010]

I think Magnus is.
He is very good on the mic and has incredible amounts of potential. He's also very young; only 22.

 

[marklouis]

I'm gonna go with 2 tag teams who are in the middle of a great series of matches- MCMG & Beer Money. I know-how can they be underrated when they are feuding for the tag titles? Well, anyone one of the 4 could be a star as a singles wrestler. I especially think Roode could be a big time heel, maybe even world champion. But, I am very happy that they have been given so much air time for their tag team title series, because the first 2 matches have been great.

 

[LegendKiller716]

Just for the record, i disagree with everybody that is saying beer money or MCMG are underrated. They are tag teams, TNA is doing the right thing keeping teams together. I wish WWE would do this and stop breaking teams up.

Any who... My answer is.....HAMADA. She is very underrated. She is probably the best in ring performer out of all the knock outs, but she isn't being pushed because she no longer fits the TNA knock out mold (blonde with fake boobs or WWE reject). TNA needs to go back to what got the KO division over in the beginning, good wrestling.

As for male superstars, i'll choose Brian Kendrick. This guy is a great in ring talent, he can cut great promos if given the chance, and he is over with the crowd. I would love for TNA to give him the X-division title. I also think him and Nash should team up in the future, it would be like the old days of HBK and Diesel.