The supposed future of WWE

[Tim]

No, this is not a thread about who you think will be the future of the WWE. Rather a thread about those people who have been touted as the future of the WWE or one of its brands by either the WWE itself, or the IWC.

The idea for this thread was because I just starting thinking about the New Breed, and what happened to them. I remember back in January 2007 or so, Vince Mcmahon appeared on ECW, and proclaimed the New Breed to be the future of ECW. Now they had a pretty good feud with the ECW Originals, that went for about three months. Now where are they now?

Matt Striker did nothing, and then became the ECW announcer recently. Marcus Cor Von just left the WWE straight afterwards. Kevin Thorn went solo without Ariel for awhile, but still didn't get anywhere, and got sent down to developmental after a while. And Elijah Burke sort of flickered in and out of the Main event for a few months, then was just taken off TV and eventually released. So much for the future of ECW.

Who else can people think of that were touted the future of the WWE?

 

[klunderbunker]

It's very rare that you can predict who will be the next big things in the company. Look at about 11 years ago. Kane comes in and absolutely destroys two guys named Mick and Jake Harvey or soemthing like that. We all know that Kane is now the king of the WWE and those two never ammounted to anything right? Austin was a no name, HHH was a guy with a seemingly going nowhere gimmick, Cena was another musclehead rookie, and HBK was a tag team jobber. There is next to no way of knowing who was coming next down the pipe to be a big star. It all depends on the way they work and how the audience responds to them. By declaring people as the next big things, WWE backs themselves into a corner. It's like saying "You will love/hate these people because we say so." Other than Hogan, I can't think of a single time where that's worked.

 

[OIL]

It's very rare that you can predict who will be the next big things in the company. Look at about 11 years ago. Kane comes in and absolutely destroys two guys named Mick and Jake Harvey or soemthing like that. We all know that Kane is now the king of the WWE and those two never ammounted to anything right? Austin was a no name, HHH was a guy with a seemingly going nowhere gimmick, Cena was another musclehead rookie, and HBK was a tag team jobber. There is next to no way of knowing who was coming next down the pipe to be a big star. It all depends on the way they work and how the audience responds to them. By declaring people as the next big things, WWE backs themselves into a corner. It's like saying "You will love/hate these people because we say so." Other than Hogan, I can't think of a single time where that's worked.

I guess you could say it worked with Brock Lesnar to a degree. The WWE procclaimed him 'The Next Big Thing', and thought he would be the future of the WWE. For the time that he was with the WWE, I would say it worked. He became WWE Champion within 5 months, think about it, 5 months. That is ridiciously short, and just showed how much faith they had in him and the talent he had to go with his tag line. Then, look to his match against The Rock at SummerSlam. I know the crowd knew The Rock was going to leave anyway, but they were right behind Lesnar throughout that match, and the WWE fans still adore him to this day, adoring his athleticism and desire during his time with the WWE.

 

[J Fine]

Personally I'm done waiting for Shelton. He had his chance years ago when he became a singles wrestler and I actually thought that he would be a solid main event wrestler. After his momma graced us with her presence and I started fast forwarding his matches, I knew that his opportunity came and went. He's a stale U.S. champion right now and his gimmick is boring. If he gets a main event push, it will backfire and he'll end up in a worse position than he's in now. I do not have high expectations for him.

The rebirth of ECW was a great idea at first, and then when I realized that the originals wanted nothing to do with it and it was actually nothing like the old ECW, I lost faith in the entire product. ECW has become the new HEAT, simply put. The only difference is a name and it's on Tuesdays instead of Sundays. I think ECW was the supposed future of the WWE, and it could've been had it been done correctly. The biggest problem now is that every other new guy thats brought in is supposed to be "the next big thing," and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any new guy be that "next big thing" since Randy Orton. They did things right with Hardy and Edge, but it just seems like new guys don't have a shot and the only foreseeable future lives in the mid carders from the attitude era.

 

[Tenta]

Some of the minds that are coming off the top of my head right now:

Brock Lesnar (Already stated, his nickname WAS "The Next Big Thing")
Ahmed Johnson (A big guy that was, at one point, going to be the first black WWF champion)
Matt Morgan (Huge guy, Vince wanted to push him to the moon)
Nathan Jones (Oh dear God. Vince was praying this guy was going to work, and he was just HORRENDOUS )
Bobby Lashley (Former Army Ranger, former collegiate wrestler, chiseled big guy. Vince's wet dream of a wrestler.)
The Warlord (Vince tried so much with this guy, but there's only so much that could have been done)
Test (Had the look, but just couldn't put it all together, for whatever reason)
Lex Luger (How many times was the phrase "The next Hogan floated around"?)


At the end of the day, there's a VERY large correlation shared by all of these wrestlers: Big, muscular guys that tended to have little to no talent in the ring, and couldn't speak to save their lives. All of these folks matches, for the most part, definitely made you want to this........

And yet these matches were still just horrendous to watch

 

[Slyfox696]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Miiiiiissssssssttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr Keeeeeeennnnnnnnneeeeeeeedddddddddyyyyyyyyy!








Kennedy


After all, a year or two ago, all I read on the IWC was how great he was, so talented, and how he was going to be the man that made the business take off. And here we are today, the guy sucks as a wrestler, has no mic skills, can't work a competent match, and hasn't even been on TV for months. Not only that, he blew his biggest chance ever with the McMahon illegitimate son storyline because he violated the Wellness Policy.

And, on top of all that, he's never even won a title and held it for a significant amount of time. He held the US title for about a month, and that's been it.


For someone who is the "Future", he sure does suck.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

this thread is a fine example of the incredible small attention span of the modern day wreslting fan, and their incredible lack of paitence, and its laughable. Does anyone remember how long HBK was around before he became the man with the boyhood dream?? How long Bret Hart was around before he became the Best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be?? How long Triple H was around before he became The Game?? Stone Cold before he stated what Austin 3:16 meant??


All of your are talking about guys who JUST came on the scene in the last 3 years or so!!! People need time. Even a guy like Shelton hasnt been around, pushed, or given the character development to truly succeed yet. Kennedy has had what, a fucking year total of active roster time?? For fucks sake guys, you cant call them FAILURES yet. Even guys like Thorne, Dykstra, and Elijah Burke may be coming back sometime in the future, after honing their skills.

The only guy I can think of is Lesnar. and the reason that didnt work out was nothing to do with the WWE. And they were right to ipredict that he was going to carry the company for years and years.

 

[NSL]

I'll go with Goldberg...Although he wasn't called the "future" of WWE, they put a lot of stock into him, and got no return. The best thing about Goldberg, was Gillberg.

I can agree with whoever said Test. He started out on a hot streak, and we'll all remember him for "I love my Test-icles".

It may be a reach, but I'll go with 1-2-3 Kid/Syxx/X-Pac, because even though he may have been a good mid-carder, he never quite made it to the top level. He had a huge match Razor, and had a good run with DX and the tag team with Kane, but no one ever considered him a threat for a major title...