Wasted Potential......

[Sh0wst0pper]

Several years ago there was a segment on RAW where Jeff Hardy blew an easy win of a match and was standing in the ring frustrated. HBK came down to the ring and proceeded to tell him that the main problem he had with Jeff was WASTED POTENTIAL. This little encounter ended with HBK superkicking Hardy right in the mouth after he tried to rush HBK. Fortunately, Jeff eventually reached his potential and won the WWE championship once and the World Heavyweight title twice. Since then we've all seen guys that we thought would eventually headline ppv's and win multiple word titles but they never came. For example, I thought when Chris Masters first appeared on WWE television that he would go very far. I mean hell, he had the body that Vince gets a hard on for, he was decently athletic, the "Masterlock Challenge" was a decent enough gimmick to get him started and I thought with a little exposure to guys like HHH, HBK and Cena he could eventually get better on the mike to complete the package. Months and years have gone on and the only reason I know he's still in the WWE is because he shows up in lumberjack matches and basically as an extra as needed.

So my question is this: Who would you say through the years never became the star that you thought they had the potential to be?

 

[The Viper Orton]

Well, chris masters had steroids or whatever, and after stopping from using it, he was never that muscular again. For me kane was one for a long time, but he finally did it. And Im actually happy he beat Undertaker 3 times, as this push made him from a jobber to a threat in A WC. I mean 6 months ago or abit more, batista used to beat kane in few minutes just to push him and now look what has kane turned into.

My pick was Mr. Kennedy. He was gold on the mic and decent in the ring. he bragged about beating 5 or 6 or whatever former champions and had a very good match against undertaker. However, I thought in 1 to 2 years, he wouldve held the WHC and we would John Cena vs Mr. Kennedy as the Stone Cold vs Rock of this generation. He was being pushed as Mcmahon illegit son, so he would have the Mcmahon rub (The only one failing after vince's rub is McyIntire and he was never shown), and MITB= WHC. So simply I thought he wouldve gotten the next big push, something as big as Brock Lesnar push on beating rock and hogan etc... and John Cena push of just beating everyone. However, due to injuries (and maybe orton) it never happend. And i'm still scratching my head for this one, as he was just worth it!!

 

[Sh0wst0pper]

I have to agree with you. I've thought for years that as long as Kane has been with the company that he deserved more than a 24 hour run as World Champion only to be beaten by Stone Cold the next night on RAW. His career is kind of mimicking the Undertaker's in that his longevity is evident. He came into the WWE by ripping the door off of the HITC and leaving the Undertaker in a heap. I'm a Taker fan but I have to say I've been loving watching Kane walk away a winner after every encounter with him the last couple of months. I hope he has a very long run with the WHC.

Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Kennedy............Kennedy. He started off like a bull in a china shop. Like you I expected big things from him. It seemed to be only a matter of time. He ran right up the ranks on SmackDown! He even feuded with the Undertaker. Just being in the ring with Taker is a big deal as the WWE locker room will attest. I think he began to nosedive after he was traded to RAW. This is the point when up-and-coming talent really has the opportunity to flourish............although being buried by Randy Orton sure didn't help. His downfall must have began about the the time he won MITB b/c I don't think the WWE has ever taken it off of a winner only to put it on another more established star (Edge).

 

[Pat9010]

I'm thinking Shelton Benjamin or Christian. It would have been nice to have some people with actual in-ring talent in the main event. (besides Jericho and Edge of course)

 

[The Duke]

For me, even though he's passed I always felt like Lance Cade had the tools to become a much bigger star than he ever ended up as. He had the look and decent enough mic skills and with some polish may have become quite the wrestler.

I also always hoped Mark Jindrak could've become a much better wrestler in the US than he was. He's kind of big down there in Mexico which is good but I thought he could have gone far in American wrestling. Had potential, just again needed that polish.

 

[La Parka]

Y'know...I was very surprised, when Carlito didn't turn out to be awesome. He came out, WAY strong, got a win over Cena, and everything! And then, he just started...sucking, and sucking, and sucking.

Man, the dude built heat, but then he just got his ass kicked, what gives? I understand being in an armcast and then getting dissed by the 'Taker, but there should be points where you just reign supreme, man! And Carlito, idk, from what I saw, he wasn't reigning.

Is he doing better now, though? I haven't been watching WWE, lately.

Also: Anyone in WCW who wasn't Goldberg. Seriously.

 

[Sh0wst0pper]

Shelton Benjamin DEFINITELY falls into the category of wasted potential. When Shawn Michaels goes on RAW and says that he is one of the best young talents he's seen in years and that he has a bright future?? WHat more could you possibly need??? I've heard that he was lazy and just got complacent with his position in the company. Clearly he could do pretty much whatever was asked of him in the ring. Former All-American collegiate wrestler. Awesome athletic ability. The only thing that stopped Shelton Benjamin was Shelton Benjamin. It's a shame!

Christian, seemed to shine there for a while once he came back to the WWE from TNA. I think he kinda likes the role of a supporting player b/c one of his main reasons for joining TNA when he did was the lighter travel schedule. I would like to see him in the main even as well.

Carlito, as far as I know was unhappy with is WWE status and asked to be released last year. He, like Shelton, had a reputation for being lazy.

 

[Dyno Kid]

I gotta go with Barry Windham. Yes he was a great worker, yes he was a key member of the Horsemen(maybe the best version of the group), but he should have been sooooo much more ! He had all the talent in the world and should have been one of the greatest ever but it never happened !

 

[ABMorales787]

Carlito. He had a different look that the fans really took into quickly. Just look back at 2005-2006 events and have fun counting all the Carlito lookalikes among the crowd. He was solid in the ring had some OK feuds with John Cena, Big Show and Ric Flair. His best showing had to be in the 2006 New Year's Revolution's Elimination Chamber match. Where he was the last one pinned after he basically manipulated Master's and snuck away from everyone. Then he turned face and little by little the character lost it's appeal and eventually troubles brewed.

 

[Navi]

I have to say that the WWE missed the boat entirely on Elijah Burke. He wasted all that time on ECW getting nowhere and now look at him. TNA totally reinvented him as The Pope D'Angelo Dinero. In TNA he's in the main event picture and he would never have been there in the WWE. Also he's good in the ring and his promo's are fantastic Shame the WWE didn't see his full potential. He's easily more interesting than most of the roster.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am going to go for Rhino/Rhyno

He was the "Rookie Monster" in the last couple of years in TNA, and looked like he could go on to be something special in wrestling as a destructive wrecking machine. He could have been the next Vader. Rhino had a good look, and obviously a devastating finisher that was majorly over with the crowd.

But in WWE, apart from an initial few months where he was given a push, he ended up totally ignored and a jobber to the stars. I was always hoping for RhYno to make his mark as a main eventer but it never happened, and he was eventually fired for smashing a flowerpot in a hotel lobby after a row with his wife.

At least he has managed to win the World Title in TNA, and is part of a big storyline in the EV2.0 faction, but I cannot see him ever being a true main event star in any major company again, which is sad as Rhino should have achieved alot more than he has in the business.

Maybe he would be a star in Japan???

 

[La Parka]

Natural, looking at your sig makes me remember Raven.

What about Raven(TM), you say? Well I'll tell you about Raven. I think on page one someone was complaining about him never getting a push in WCW, and that is frustrating, but he also was midcarder at best in WWF/E. Frankly, I think the man had the charisma to be a -MAJOR- heel in the business, I think he could have been a sincerely dangerous man, but of course, not being created by Vince, it would be ludicrous to assume that such a thing could ever occur, right?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Natural, looking at your sig makes me remember Raven.

What about Raven(TM), you say? Well I'll tell you about Raven. I think on page one someone was complaining about him never getting a push in WCW, and that is frustrating, but he also was midcarder at best in WWF/E. Frankly, I think the man had the charisma to be a -MAJOR- heel in the business, I think he could have been a sincerely dangerous man, but of course, not being created by Vince, it would be ludicrous to assume that such a thing could ever occur, right?

Fuck yeah man, Raven was completely wasted in WWE. When you think about it, he has had a similar sort of career to Rhino. Big star in ECW and World Champion, wasted in WWE and World Champion in TNA. Vince definately dropped the ball on Raven. WWE always place such a big importance on promo skills, and they had the master in their ranks with Raven and they did fuck all with him. He should have utilised far better than he was.

I think his drug problems and attitude are some of the reasons why he didnt achieve more than he has in the business, which is the reason I went for Rhino as my choice. But hell yeah WWE wasted Raven!

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I wanna address some of the mentions so far....

Chris Masters Sorry, no one is going to get over with a Full Nelson as a finisher, rippling muscles or not. His entrance was lame, his character was lame and his finisher opitimised the word LAME! Not surprising how they use him, imo.

Rhino/Rhyno I totally thought they'd make a big deal out of Rhino when he joined WWE. They thrust him into the TLC fued that was going on, and then he was suddenly working with Edge, Christian and Kurt regularly, to the point where those 4 men made up the entire Semi-Final round of the 2001 KOTR! HE went over Kane fairly early in his WWE run, and when the Invasion started, Rhino was hyped as the best they had to offer. HE was after all, the last ECW champion AND he'd barely been with ECW when it folded, so Vince could have made quite a bit out of a young Rhino with his whole career ahead of him, especially as he trimmed down significantly before joining the 'E'.

Then sadly he suffered a neck injury and was gone for a year, and when he came back Creative gave him NOTHING to work with ever again. I mean, he fueded with Benoit over nothing, and then was fired on a WM weekend.

If he hadn't had that neck injury, i think they'd have used him much like they did Beniot or Booker T, with a McMahon backing them, hyping them as the next champion, and establishing a solid upper-mid card guy in the process.

Mr. Kennedy Over about 7 months, Ken Kennedy gained victories over 6 or 7 former World Champions. While doing so, he delivered quality promos night in and night out. He had a 3 month fued with Taker which got him over even more, and then had a title shot at the Royal Rumble in '07, where the majority of the crowd hoped he'd win.

Come WM23 and he wins MiTB, pretty much guaranteeing him a title run, and he announced that he'd wait until WM24 to cash in his contract. Unfortuantely 2 things then happened.

1. Ken himself got injured.
2. Taker got injured, but Taker was the WHC at the time, so they needed to get the belt off of Taker, without him looking weak, and by someone who can actually carry SD as the champion (which obviously wouldn't be Ken, because he was also hurt). So they decided to have Edge challenge Kennedy for the MiTB contract, which he won, and then he immediately cashed in on Taker the same week so Taker could go and have surgery done. Kennedy's push suffered so that Edge could help SD, which in the end he didn't anyway, because he got hurt as well some 5 weeks later, and we had to suffer Khali as the champion.

Ken comes back, they start a fued between him and HBK. He loses most of time, but eventually gets A win on Raw. Not being at a PPV, it doesn't have any real impact in anything. Next time he's given a fued is during Flair's retirement angle where we all know Flair won't lose so Kennedy loses out again. He doesn't win MiTB at WM24, and instead goes on to get suspended due to steroid allegations just as they were going to announce him as McMahon's illegitimate son, so that push died as well.

He comes back from that and they try to start an angle between him and Regal, who just won the 2008 KOTR and was being pushed quite hard, but then Regal gets suspended and that ends as well. Finally, after a couple more injuries to himself and others, Ken Kennedy got the boot from WWE, and is now in TNA as a former champion.

When it comes to Ken, i feel they tried so hard to use him to the best of their ability, but circumstances seemed to get in the way every time they tried with him, and once the other wrestlers started complaining about his ring work, that was it, they gave up on him.

Raven I can remember an interview Terry Funk gave once about Raven. He said something along the lines of 'he manages to put on a great match and suck you into his character, seemingly by doing fuck all in the ring.'

Now i look back on Raven's career and think about the countless smoz endings where his lackeys would run in for him. Ok he'd take a few spots and big bumps here and there, but in terms of his in ring skills, Raven was never super amazing. His promo skills were top notch and always have been, but without the ring skills to back it up, Vince was never going to push Raven, no matter how much we all wanted them to.

Shelton and Carlito As people have said, they were their own worst enemies in the end.

Now for my picks:

Elijah Burke I think i saw him wrestle 2 matches in his entire WWE run. 2 televised matches in about a year. Seemingly they didn't even attempt to use this guy (Ya know, i can't even remember most of the 'New Breed' other than Kevin Thorne and Burke, so who was that other black guy?). Now i'm not saying that i like The Pope or anything, but at least i can tell he's got some skills and is able to portray a character. In WWE i could barely tell he knew how to wrestle.

I doubt he'd have ever been ME material. In fact he'd probably be a little further ahead than Kofi is now, but it's obvious that for some reason, WWE didn't see the point in trying to push him, and in the end it's only to their detriment.

Mohammed Hassan It's kind of shocking no one has mentioned this guy yet. Easily able to draw heat, and not just in the anti-US way, but by delivering decent heel promos, and he had decent skills in the ring. The guy gets fired because of a terrorist attack in the UK. What a shit reason to end someone's career eh? It's not like anyone in the UK would have been outraged by his character, or probably even made a connection between the two.

Christian IMO, Christian has always been as talented as Edge, and yet they don't use him like they use Edge. I'm not saying that he should be getting title reigns or anything, but at least give him the mic once in a while for god sake. The fans like him, he puts on consistently good matches, and he's got some decent mic skills on him as well. So why is he getting the Matt Hardy treatment of 'you lose to anyone that's new' and nothing else?

Anyone involved in the Straight Edge Society Stable What was the point of bringing Joey Mercury back if the group's going to disband before he even does anything after the reveal that the masked guy was him? Why bother repackaging Festus as Luke Gallows if he's never going to make any kind of impact on the roster or to Punk's character? What was the point in having Punk make a stable just to job him out relentlessly? WHAT-WAS-THE-POINT-OF-ALL-THAT?

 

[Evil_Mush]

I concur with Hassan. Pity it was totally out of his hands that WWE decided to make him full-terrorist instead of the moral crusader that his initial vignettes suggested.

Speaking of vignettes prior to debut, I really liked Sean O'Haire's "think about it" promos in the lead up to him coming back around 03/04.
Then he just hung around with Roddy Piper a lot, and nothing happened. I only saw a bit of him in WCW but was very impressed with what I saw wrestling-wise, so it's a shame he just fizzled out.

 

[Wolf Pac]

In a similar thread like this, I've picked guys like Ken Shamrock, Vader, Ahmed Johnson etc. but this time I'll pick someone who people would never think about, Monty Brown. OK the guy's characteristics like him sniffing the air, shaking his head & yelling "Poooounnccee" were ridiculous but the guy was a badass with potential despite the flaws I mentioned. He was one of the best created talents TNA had made and TNA doesnt make a lot of stars. He was like a black Rhino in Ahmed Johnson red attire and I'm pretty sure everyone wanted to see him take the title from Jeff Jarrett instead of a hasbeen like DDP or Kevin Nash or someone who won the title before and what did TNA go & do, put it on AJ yet again, turn Monty into Jarrett's lackey and drop him down the card. I spit on Jeff Jarrett's words when he says TNA is about the new guys but like Kurt Angle mentioned on a recent Impact, he held the guys down cause he was a HHH wannabe.

 

[INDYjon22]

Muhamed Hassan. Not really his fault, but there was a lot of talent wasted there. He had everything, a good look, solid ring skills, and awesome mic abilities, yet an ill timed segment effectively ended his WWE career. He was easily on the fast track to super stardom and it all came to a screeching halt with the fake terrorist attack on Undertaker. What a shame because we will never know how far he could have gone in the business.