Who started out with a bang, and now they're shooting blanks?

[Navi]

There's a great thread about who took awhile to grow on you, this is the flip side of the coin.

Now when all wrestlers start out everyone has an opinion of them right away, either they like them or they don't. Some come out of the gate running, and some stumble a bit. So who in your eyes started out with great expectations, but you've found that maybe they weren't all they were cracked up to be?

I have a couple and Bray Wyatt heads the list. When the Wyatt first debuted I thought great a new faction, very unique and Wyatt's skills on the mic were unsurpassed. I soon saw that Harper was the standout of the group in the ring, Rowan was just sort of there, and Wyatt's skills in the ring weren't the greatest. His claim to fame was his promo's. Nothing has changed, except for the fact that Bray Wyatt has gone downhill faster than the Jamaican bobsled team.

A lot of fans see him as one of the greatest things since sliced bread, for some reason I'm not seeing it. His ring skills are mediocre and his promo's which once were stellar, having now become a long rambling mess. He continues to go on about saving people or scaring people, or whatever, but nothing ever seems to happen. It's a big zero at the end, and I think that is the problem. You get this tremendous build and then the bottom falls out. All talk and no substance. He's really done nothing since Mania, other than a throwaway feud with Ryback, and because of Rusev's injury, he might be in the EC. Other than that, he wasn't even on the PPV. He's a talent in my opinion that they've wasted.

The other I just can't get excited about is Sheamus. When he debuted I was excited because he reminded me of Finley for some reason. The fact that I'm British born helped as well. But soon came to find out while he was good in the ring, he lacked something. Don't know what but just something. No matter how many heel/face turns they've given him, there has always been a spark that isn't igniting somewhere. To me he's rather bland, and I'm not talking about his lack of tan, it's something else.

When he was injured I didn't even realize he was gone, and that's not a good thing. Coming back with the mohawk was interesting, but he's still the same old Sheamus. Doesn't matter how much window dressing they put on him, he's the same wrestler deep down inside. When he yells "Are you entertained", the answer is no Sheamus I'm not. It's going to take more than a haircut and some beads in your beard to get over with me anyway.

So who did you look forward too, and found they were lacking?

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Wade Barret, definately. Back in 2010, I though there's a guy who's going to be a main event player and multiplue times World Champ. But, here we are 5 years later, the most noticable thing in Barrett's career, is still his debut.

I thik he was unfortunate with all those injuries and also a victim of bad booking decisions.

 

[TootsieBear]

I know I'll get a lot of heat for this opinion, but here it goes... In my opinion Wade Barrett is a great perform; who's gimmick is perfect. However, WWE continues to misuse him and this results in his career not going anywhere at the moment.

When WWE debuted the King of the Ring again, I was hoping Barrett would be one of the winners. To my surprise he won. But they rushed the event, and instead of having a great story which an awesome character could develop, Barrett won the event too quickly. That way he never could develop King Barrett naturally.

 

[AustinHartLesnarHBKTaz80]

MOHAMMED HASSAN.

What a great heel he was. He killed it on the mic, he had good in ring skills, he had the charisma, he was an interesting character----he was on tap to become a great top of the card heel.

Too bad outside events and a controversial angle derailed his shot at superstardom.

Wonder if he would ever consider reviving his character and go one more time?

 

[OYDK]

Called both of your picks before I opened the thread... I spend too much time on this site...

Back on topic:

Alberto Del Rio: Thought he was so good when he first debuted against Mysterio, and I knew it was just a matter of time before he was wearing the belt. He was a guy I was really excited about out of the gate, but soon after his first title reign I realized he wasn't going to evolve all that much. After a year or so, he started to get on my nerves because everything was so cookie cutter; from his matches to his promos to his gimmick. After another year I was burnt out on Del Rio. Wasn't too upset when he left the company to be honest.

Ryback: Thought he was great when he debuted. Sure all of his matches were squashes and he didn't say anything, but the guy had an unprecedented amount of intensity and presence and he got over naturally. We hadn't seen a beast like Ryback in some time, arguably since Goldberg. After a while, the Creative team seemed to drop the ball on him by not allowing him to break through the glass ceiling and turning him heel soon after. He was never able to regain his momentum after that.

 

[Prince Vee]

The first name that came up to my mind is Cody Rhodes. I enjoyed his feud with Randy Orton when Randy played the Legend killer gimmick. But I just don't know what happened with him. He never got over the crowd or seemed to be a contender to push. Maybe its the WWE creative's fault.

Every time when he takes a new gimmick it looks fascinating but nothing helps in the end. Dashing Cody? Cody feuding with Damien Sandow over the MITB? Stardust?

The second name is Bo-Dallas. He was a heel magnet there in NXT. When he eliminated Wade Barrett at the Royal Rumble event, I thought it's gonna be great to see a young rookie fighting over the title.

When he re-debuted as the Inspiring Bo-Dallas I really wonder where he can go with that. But now he looks ugly, unshaped and like a piece of crap. And his promos aren't good anymore.

Cheers!!

 

[wrestler36]

even though it was a corny gimmick, I thought Brodus Clay was set to due some big things, either as an IC/US champ as a face or a monster heel battling the likes of Cena. He bought into Funkasaurus and played the dancing gimmick well and started off pretty hot but once he started losing it was all over. I was hoping for a fresh start with his heel turn, but no luck. He had the size and charisma, I'm disappointed that they had nothing for him.

Sylvester Terkay (sp?). He didn't last too long, but he could've been built up to how Brock Lesnar is now. He was a mountain of a man with legit fighting credentials but just like Dan Severn, he didn't click with the crowd. Too bad, because this guy was a monster and under the right tutelage (Heyman), he could've been awesome.

Mr. Kennedy - pretty hot from the get go. Definitely had the charisma to outdo his rather, vanilla look. But untimely injuries and, I guess, somewhat of a reputation did him in faster than anyone expected. He was supposed to be McMahon's son, he won MITB, but bad luck followed him.

--someone mentioned Wyatt earlier. Dude's been on the main roster for only two years and he's had Cena and Undertaker paired with him at Wrestlemania. That's anything but falling off the face of the earth.

 

[Navi]

Called both of your picks before I opened the thread... I spend too much time on this site...

Yes it's really no secret of how I feel about the two of them is it? In saying that though I think Wyatt could be saved it creative can kick it up a notch.

He's been in feuds with the top of the roster, and been let down each time. Unfortunately as many times as you can blame the WWE creative team, part of the blame has to shift to him. Look at Ambrose, he's lost more feuds than Wyatt has, but he's still up there, he's on TV each week and he's in one of the top matches at the upcoming PPV. Wyatt got into the EC as a result of an injury.

Sheamus is just boring, I think anyway.

Oh and I expected bigger things with Barrett as well, but he's been the unfortunate victim of injuries, and right now the WWE is probably not willing to push him as much as they should. They don't want another Daniel Bryan on their hands.

 

[Hem]

I think Sin Cara tops my list. The guy had a lot of buzz when he was coming into the industry and since I hadn't seen his work before I expected a lot of good things. He debuted by making a run in to save someone. Thats a pretty good debut but time went on, he lost his luster and now I care more about Kalisto then I do him.


Jack Swagger was also a prominent star in ECW and is a former world champion. However thats the not the time he got the hottest. After winning the ECW and WHC, Swagger was just treading water for some years. Then he became a real American - Career Revival. Then he joined forces with Cesaro - They were RED HOT!. Now Swagger just fiddles around, has no feud and isn't even in the IC EC match which R Truth got into..

 

[yourdamnluck]

Cris Masters had a great thing going before he jobbed out to Shawn.
I was a big fan of RVD he started great, had his ups and downs and now he's out.
Mordecai-sadly this buddy jobbed out to rey mysterio.
Wyatt-He has only himself to blame. He screwed up at mania but he'll be up at the top soon.
P.S. Stop mentioning barret here he is in upper mid card and more over than most of the roster and he is The King.

 

[MartialHorror]

Bray Wyatt...to a point. When I got back into wrestling, I was introduced to him through his Daniel Bryan feud and it was pretty awesome. It goes better than the Wyatts fought Shield and then...Cena happened.

I like Bray's promos, but I like them in small dosages. When he challenged Cena, they gave him way too much talking time and he ended up getting so boring. Over time, what began as compelling ended up being tedious. There was a time when I thought his rambling meant something, but he's just as enigmatic as he was a year ago and I've come to the conclusion that there's no substance to it. I'm still curious as to why he thinks Ryback is in his way, when Ryback (the character) seems to have no ambitions outside of being 'fed'.

Maybe Ryback keeps cutting him in the lunch line?

The Ascension probably is worse though. I kept hearing about how amazing these guys were and how they could save the division. The rumors surrounding them sounded awesome, like when it was thought that after the Uso's conquered the Wyatts, they would be fed to the Ascension. And then they arrived...and it was horrible. Horrible in every way. Local Jobber squashing is stupid and doesn't work anymore- if it ever worked to begin with. The announcers buried them. The audience didn't care. Their match with the New Age Outlaws was weak and even worse, their limitations as performers became apparent as Billy Gunn stole the show from them.

Since then, I've seen more of them on NXT and while good workers, they're...er, what is the word I'm looking for? They're the straight men of wrestling...bad way of wording, but there is nothing about their style that stands out as athletic, skilled or unique. But they can bring those elements out of more colorful teams like the Lucha Dragons. This is perfectly acceptable, but they were booked really well in NXT. They need that same booking to get over, which they didn't get.

And then they lost to the Prime Time Players, one of whom was Titus 'Will he ever win a match?' O'Neil. The Ascension has been a major flop on the main roster. At least WWE seems to have consistent faith in Bray and every in once awhile, he will get a remarkable moment. I cringe whenever I see the Ascension now.

RVD is a minor case. I was a big mark when I watched wrestling back in the Attitude Era. But I got bored of him during his last run. Not sure if it's really his fault though as WWE just had him there for the sake of being there.

P.S. Stop mentioning barret here he is in upper mid card and more over than most of the roster and he is The King.
sendpm.gif

I love Barrett, but I don't think this is true. Honestly, I find Barrett to be a little awkward right now because it seems like audiences are barely reacting to him. I've enjoyed his "King" based promos, but those mild boos tend to deflate them.

 

[Woodstuff]

I thought Carlito was gonna be a big deal when he won the IC title (in his debut match, I think?). Not saying he didn't achieve some success, because he obviously did (IC/US/Tag Team Title wins, almost winning an Elimination Chamber match). But I expected him to be a bigger star than he was.

Same with MVP. He was built up so much before his debut, and went on to have a decent run with the comany (US Title, feuds with Undertaker and Kane). But he never won the big one, and wasn't ever seen as a true main 'vent playa.

I don't get people that say Bray Wyatt is stale and his in-ring work is sub-par. In two years, he's fought Cena and 'taker at Wrestlemania and kept himself in the shuffle with very few actual PPV wins. That says more for his ability than if the guy was "shoved down our throats" every week.

 

[Navi]

I don't get people that say Bray Wyatt is stale and his in-ring work is sub-par. In two years, he's fought Cena and 'taker at Wrestlemania and kept himself in the shuffle with very few actual PPV wins. That says more for his ability than if the guy was "shoved down our throats" every week.

I see what you're saying, but did it get him anywhere? He seems to be in the same place he was when he first started, maybe worse. They needs heels on this roster since turning Orton, and he's not being used. His brother Bo Dallas, who I'm not a fan of either since the beginning is in a feud with Neville. Wyatt has had nothing happening other than a few promo's and a couple of matches with Ryback. Now that's disappeared as well.

Don't know if they know what to do with him, or not, but it's hurting him and making him look irrelevant. It's almost like he's a part time player now. I see the results from the Live shows, and he isn't at most of them either, where he used to do all the tours.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Going all the way back to the 80's for my pick, I choose Billy Jack Haynes.

Having read of his success in the Pacific Northwest territories, I looked forward to his coming to WWE. The guy was built.... muscular, yet not musclebound. He had the ability to move smoothly around the ring and the agility to execute whatever maneuvers were needed to become a success.

Problem was, he was about as unimaginative a performer as I've ever seen; he used formulaic tactics to grind out matches, never taking to the air or surprising us with moves we didn't expect.

Had he not been capable of the good stuff, it would have been easy to take him for what he was, but it seemed he should have had more on the ball than he showed. He accomplished so little in WWE that I was relieved to see him go after a couple non-distinguished years.

It was disappointing, because the man looked fierce.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

In recent times then it has to probably be Ryback and Dolph Ziggler as the ones who started off strong and now are in bad spots (Ziggler should be used more effectively). Over the years there have been loads of people debut on WWF/WWE shows, with promise and then fall flat; these include Vader, Goldust (1995 era), Tazz (2000), RVD (2001), Sin Cara 2011), Sheamus, Ken Kennedy and Lashley.

 

[MartialHorror]

Oh yeah, during the Invasion saga there was that team of...er, Brian something and the guy I always knew as Wrath from WcW. Kronik, I think? As I was a big Wrath fan and thought they looked intense, I was eager to see them take on the Undertaker and Kane.

I didn't see the PPV until much later, but they had vanished mysteriously afterwards and their match was considered terrible. When I saw it, I agreed.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

There are probably quite a few but some just seem to stand out more.

Sin Cara - The original Sin Cara, known originally as Mistico, was one of the biggest stars in Mexico and acquiring him was hyped by WWE and praised by the dirt sheets as a triumph. Vince was hoping Sin Cara would ultimately be the replacement for the aging and slowing down Rey Mysterio, but I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with this guy. While some want to blame it all on the "WWE style", there's one flaw with the argument: it wasn't the "WWE style" that caused Sin Cara to botch every other Lucha style move he performed, he did that all on his own. He was hailed by dirt sheets and various sites as this incredible in-ring guy with all these super agile and flashy moves but, to me, those moves just don't look nearly as impressive when they're botched and Sin Cara botched FAR too much. The fact that he barely understood any English didn't really help things either. I just wasn't at all impressed by the guy and strikes me a genuine example of someone who was sort of adopted as an "indy darling" by a number of fans who's hype far exceeded his payoff.

Wade Barrett - While I'm still a huge fan of the guy, he's someone who just hasn't been able to get his feet in under him and this is due to a combination of sustaining injury and a consistent lack of coherent booking. The first appearance of Nexus was an epic moment in Raw's history, it's still among the most entertaining and impactful endings to a wrestling TV show I can recall. Looking back at Nexus, after Bryan was released, Barrett was the only one in the group to demonstrate charisma and personality while the rest of them were mostly just there for back up. It's a shame that Nexus was ultimately sacrificed on Cena's altar, Barrett especially. When Barrett suffered a dislocated elbow a few years back, it took him out of WrestleMania and it's alleged that the MITB match would make its return to WM with Barrett penciled to win and, in all honesty, his career has never really been the same. Last year, he suffered a dislocated shoulder and was on the shelf for months and his time as Intercontinental Champion has been pretty atrocious; I can't think of very many who've gotten less out of being Intercontinental Champion than poor Wade Barrett. Now that he's King of the Ring, which is sort of a tongue-in-cheek gimmick really, he looks to be back to losing some steam after starting out pretty strongly as he's jobbed out to Ryback and, worst of all, R-Truth over the course of this week. It's like whenever Barrett takes a couple of steps forward, piss poor booking choices cause him to take three steps back.

Ryback - Back in late 2012 into the first few months of 2013, it looked as though Ryback may have been the next big thing. He has a great look, is genuinely very strong and has a lot of intensity; had WWE not promised The Rock that he'd be the one to end CM Punk's 434 day run as WWE Champion, MAYBE Ryback could've been the guy. Then again, there's no guarantee as there were a lot of complaints from both other wrestlers and management about the guy. Punk was injured during a bout with Ryback that required surgery, which endangered Vince's main event plans for the 2013 Royal Rumble with Rock vs. Punk, and there were a number of other complaints and accusations from other wrestlers that Ryback was sloppy, too stiff and reckless. Allegedly, management asked him to improve himself in these areas, but it didn't come about at the time. Ryback also garnered a ton of heat backstage as he reportedly treated fans like crap at meet & greet and autograph sessions; it was also reported that the guy didn't like talking to local media affiliates, whether it be on television or radio, to hype WWE, to plug an upcoming show, etc. and that it was like pulling teeth to get him to do so. It seemed like he was enjoying the big push and the perks that come with it but that he had no real interest in doing the extra work required if you wanna be a top guy. For a while, there was a ton of speculation and guessing about when he'd be future endeavored because he had so much heat on him.

 

[FromGlasgow]

Sylvester Terkay (sp?). He didn't last too long, but he could've been built up to how Brock Lesnar is now. He was a mountain of a man with legit fighting credentials but just like Dan Severn, he didn't click with the crowd. Too bad, because this guy was a monster and under the right tutelage (Heyman), he could've been awesome.

I had forgotten about this guy I thought he had a lot of potential as a main event guy, I agree having him as a new Brock style character from the start would of been so much better, It seemed to make no sense using him as Elijah Burkes corner man I didn't get that pairing at all they were completely different characters and I think it ruined any chance the guy ever had.

Others I enjoyed watching in the Mexican companies were Alberto Del Rio and Mystico but once both got to the WWE I never really seen anything memorable or particuarly enjoyable from either, Possibly due to the wrestlers themselves or maybe restraints the WWE put on them for their matches I don't know.

 

[ohwhatarush]

sheamus the guy just doesnt have "it",he says "are you not entertained?" well i can answer that sheamus, not many are

 

[SmattyG]

From the current roster I'd have to pick Jack Swagger. He has the look, the move set, the amateur background, and can work as a heel or face. OK so his promos aren't fantastic, but I still feel he can once again be a top cad player if given a chance.

From recent years I'd go with Vladimir Kozlov. The guy got a clean win over The Undertaker!! He later had tea parties with Santino. Enough said.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Jack Swagger for me.

The guy looked like he had alot of potential, a pretty cool gimmick "The All-American American" and was given a good push on ECW, and astonishingly winning the Money In The Bank briefcase and cashing in to become the World Heavyweight Champion, which completely bombed.

Swagger was only a mid-carder when he won the briefcase, and if WWE had faith in him that he'd become a legitimate main event talent, they should have started building him up before he won the briefcase, or at least let him carry it for a few months before cashing in, giving him big wins and making him into a true star....instead they just threw the World Title on him and no-one bought into him as a believable Champion.

Apart from a pretty good run in The Real Americans tag-team, Swagger has drifted around the lower mid-card ever since.