When do wrestling fans need to shut up about "potential?"

[Big Sexy]

I'm not talking about saying a new superstar or a guy who is still relatively young has potential. That's fine. But in a lot of threads I keep reading about how guys like Matt Morgan have a ton of potential. That's all well and good, but Morgan is 31 years old and he has been in the business for 8 years.

So my question is this: When do we need to stop talking about someone's potential and actually look at their skill as a professional wrestler to determine whether or not they are good?

 

[Via Armbar]

I'd say it's a combination of the two things you mentioned, age and activeness. You have guys like Morgan or Shelton who have been around for half a decade or more without ever really getting fully over. Sure they were hot young prospects at one point, but their stocks have decreased over time and they never made that jump to the next level.

Sure there are occasions when a wrestler isn't used to their full potential by creative. Jericho was almost completly ignored in WCW, while WWE used him far better as an upper midcarder. Without being booked well, a wrestler with all the potential in the world will still look like garabage. But before that, a wrestler needs that IT factor to start with. That's the basis of potential.

It also comes down to everyones personal definition of potential. Potential for what? Potential to be a future hall of famer and multiple time world champion is different then potential to put on great memorable matches and fueds, even if they're permanently in the midcard.

One of the most recent wrestlers that i can use as an example is Kennedy. His first year in the WWE he was on fire. He was fueding with The Undertaker and a part of the biggest storyline on Smackdown. Alot of people were already calling him a future world champion based off of a couple months of work. He definatly had potential. But there's a ceiling you can hit ont he way up. Some guys break through, some don't. I don't think Kennedy broke through. He was good enough for people to see he had potential, but not good enough to fulfil it. That's my personal opinion and some could say he still has potential, but he's not too young and if he continues the trends he's shown regarding injuries, it's hard to say how long his career will last.

I see potential as a ''maybe'' or a ''could be'' kind of scenario. If you have something about you that gives you potential, that is in no way a gaurentee that you are excellent or even good at what you do. You can have potential without fulfiling it. And i think there is a point when potential becomes unfulfilment and I think that point is when a wrestler hits that ceiling.

 

[Lancer]

I think "potential" is the expectation we place in our head, of what the wrestler should be. It's subjective.

For example, Matt Morgan is viewed by many, myself included, as a "potential" World Heavyweight Title holder. He will have not reached that potential until he has a World Title around his waist.

Everyone has different levels of potential for every superstar. Another example: some say Jack Swagger could potentially be the second coming of Kurt Angle. Of course, there are some that disagree, and they and have labeled Swagger a jobber extraordinaire.

So it varies.

 

[proofinlife]

I'm not talking about saying a new superstar or a guy who is still relatively young has potential. That's fine. But in a lot of threads I keep reading about how guys like Matt Morgan have a ton of potential. That's all well and good, but Morgan is 31 years old and he has been in the business for 8 years.

So my question is this: When do we need to stop talking about someone's potential and actually look at their skill as a professional wrestler to determine whether or not they are good?

Where are star may have potential (and as noted in this thread, the IT factor that is also required for that boost to the top), there are a lot of things that need to be looked at as to how that potential can be achieved.

Now I never watched OVW where Morgan was farmed, but if you watch his early work in WWE, they really capped his potential by making him that near silent destroyer behind Kurt Angle, which didn't suit his personality too well. Fans got used to seeing this, and that gimmick alone damaged what "potential" he may have had with the fans.

I see TNA has a second-wind for him, and the "potential" he has must be used to get himself over (take some classes and learn to work the mic a little better, possibly acting classes as well). If he works hard enough and makes those fans eat him up, management will have no choice but to push him to the stars; he just needs to find that persona and style that gets himself there.

So, in the end, it's not about how much Potential someone has, it's how that wrestler utilizes said potential and betters himself to ensure that he's pushed; if they do it well enough, like I said above, hands will be forced to give them the limelight. This is the whole basis behind getting over, so it's all about how the wrestler taps what he has inside and learns how to use it.