Who will have the most successful career?

[MCMG]

The World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank match featured 7 guys who have are all young and have immense potential. Ambrose is the youngest (27) and Barrett the oldest (32). Therefore they all have a long-time to make an impact. While the “all-stars” match included former world champions and the current top guys in the company, this match was generally about the future.

So, out of the seven, who will go on to become the biggest star? Effectively which of the seven will have the live up to their potential.

Jack Swagger – Former World champion and was in a world-tile match as recently as WrestleMania. His DUI has derailed his push that came after Zeb Coulter was introduced. He is now in a tag-team with Cesaro and I’m interested to see how that goes. His ring-work his fantastic but he definitely needs Coulter to speak on his behalf.

Cesaro – He had a very impressive US title reign where his matches were outstanding. His problem, like Swagger, is that he isn’t great when on the microphone; hence, Zeb getting involved.

Cody Rhodes – He has been around for a long time but still in his 20’s. In his various gimmicks he has proven that he has talent. I really hope that his face turn brings him success but I have my doubts. He is likely to be lost in the very competitive shuffle.

Damien Sandow – Mr. Money in the Bank. Almost guaranteed to be a future world champion which is well deserved. We all know his mic-work is unique and very good, he is also capable of decent matches.

Fandnago – the new gimmick has, so far, given him success. Johnny Curtis needed repackaging to be a star and this has helped. Defeating Chris Jericho at WM29 was great for him and he has put on some good matches since then. My only worry is that I doubt “Fandango” will become a world champion.

Dean Ambrose- I think the Shield has had a very strong 9 months and Ambrose being the singles star suggests he has the greater backing. They have attacked The Undertaker, The Rock, Cena, Y2J and others suggesting that the WWE are fully behind this stable and Ambrose. Admittedly, I hadn’t seen much of him prior to the WWE but his promos have been impressive as have his matches.

Wade Barrett- Another, similar to Rhodes, who has really struggled to make the leap. He has been on the periphery since his debut with Nexus but it seems the WWE are reluctant to pull the trigger. I desperately wanted him to win the MITB because he clearly has the talent needed to be a success.

It is difficult to gauge how the WWE will use each guy but I reckon Ambrose has the greatest future. The involvement with the big names of the WWE at such a young age certainly helps his cause. The way he speaks is very unique and I think that will help him become a top star.

Sandow will become a world champ but that doesn’t always equate to a successful career after –Swagger for example. Indeed some, like The Miz, actually regress after winning the big one so it will be interesting to see how he is developed.

If it were up to me Rhodes and Barrett would be future world champs but the WWE may have other ideas. I fear that they never get the chance. Swagger may get another title reign but I have my doubts. Cesaro and Fandango will be mid-card champions at best.

 

[Jackc13]

Swagger - Decent wrestler but lacks the mic skills WWE want from modern superstars 7/10

Cesaro - Brilliant wrestler who can pull of some simply stunning moves but again his problem lies on the mic 7.5/10

Rhodes - Decent wrestler been here, there and everywhere in his career so far would like to see him settle into a solid face persona 7/10

Sandow - I love him on the mic and really like his intellectual chracter suits him very wrestler, also a pretty decent wrestler 8/10

Fandango - A good wrestler but the Fandango gimmick becomes a little same old same old 6/10 if he changed gimmicks 7.5/10

Ambrose - Very good on the mic and i love his persona, all mysterious and a beat freaky also a good wrestler 9/10

Barrett - Good wrestler with average mic skills i always feel a solid manager could push this guy to the next level, some have said Regal but I don't know? 7.5/10

To answer which is most likely to be champion id put them in this order with most likely at the top:

• Sandow
• Ambrose
• Cesaro
• Rhodes
• Barrett
• Swagger
• Fandango

 

[2Sweet_4Life]

Seriously couldn't see any of these guys being stars apart from Ambrose.
Sandow could be the level Y2J was from 99-05. A good entertaining heel who can fill in main events when they need him but will be used in upper mid-card fueds.
As for the other 5- Fandango is quickly becoming a joke gimmick.
Cesaro just doesn't have 'it' nor does Barrett.
I expect Swagger to be released in a year.
As for Rhodes he could be like a modern day Christian/Booker T/RVD-an upper mid-card guy who does the odd main event.

 

[H33LTurn]

These are all guys who have a tremendous amount of talent. Unfortunately for them, creative has failed to point them in the right direction, resulting in their current state.

Swagger: A talented amateur wrestler with a tremendous look. Unfortunately after two different characters and various reigns as world champion it doesnt look like theres much WWE can do to get him over. Plus his recent run ins with the law probably doesnt give him much of a vote of confidence amongst management. I'd say once his legal troubles are taken care of, WWE will try one last time to get him over, and when that fails, he'll be relegated to the midcard. I call this the Chris Masters syndrome. Athletically sound, tremendous look, but not being able to get over coupled with the use of illegal substances can really do a number on ones career.

Cesaro: In all honesty I love his character and hes one person I wouldnt mind seeing on my TV for a couple more years. His US title reign did last a bit too long and more than anything hurt him in the long run. Rumor has it that management doesnt see much in him. The foreigner gimmick does run its course and hopefully WWE knows how to execute this new stable with Zeb Coulter. Unfortunately I dont see him going past the midcard.

Rhodes: For his age he really does carry himself like a veteran of the sport. Sound in the ring and on the mic, Cody is almost destined for a bright future in the WWE if he can escape the trappings of the comedy character. Lets hope he drops the silliness and the mustache in this new rivalry with Sandow.

Barrett: He's one of those cases where WWE missed their mark early on. In my opinion he should have won the WWE Championship during the Nexus angle, and had he done so he wouldn't be in the midcard limbo hes in now. He's had a couple of successful IC title runs but unless something changes drastically I dont see Barrett having an recent success.

Fandango: I'm not a huge fan of comedy gimmicks like his but it looks like they're going to legitimize his run. He had a huge win at Mania but unless the character changes at some point he wont be at the top of the business. Hes definitely someone to keep an eye on though.

Sandow: To be blunt he wasnt my first pick for MITB winner and hes not that high on my list of top current stars. That being said, winning the briefcase is a great vote of confidence so you can believe that the upper brass appreciates his style and has basically guaranteed him a spot at the top of the company. Again, hes not someone who I think deserves it but it all remains to be seen.

 

[Dirk]

I'm horrible at this. I called Clay to have the biggest career out of him, Ryback and Tensai.

Jack Swagger – He fucking blew it. Got two huge pushes, wasn't ready for the first one and pissed away the second. His gimmick got pretty old, pretty fast as well.

Cesaro – Out of all these guys, Cesaro's probably the worst on the mic. It's not his accent, it's how he speaks without any emotion and how when he does emphasize something, it'd be the wrong word in the sentence. A manager or a trash-talking tag partner would fix this.

Cody Rhodes – This guy's 28? What??? Damn! Compared to the other 28-year-olds, he has a LOT of polish and arguably a more lasting name value (all I'm saying is the kiddies have short memories). If he sticks with Vince (or Paul), I'm sure he'll be WWE champ at least once in the ten-plus years he still has in the tank.

Damien Sandow – If I think he's not athletic, that's on him, not me, because he hasn't shown what he can do, because of the gimmick. Current finisher is fine as a signature, but he needs something more impactful or a submission. Still a bit shocked by his MitB-win, but he's great on the mic and props to him for wearing those robes in what I'm assuming is scorching heat. A virtually guaranteed future WHC, but then again, who isn't?

Fandango – Johnny Curtis, the most generic of the generic on his season on NXT, surprised us all when he debuted the way he did. He was always good in the ring, but he was so fucking boring everywhere else and had no personality. So what happened? They GAVE him one and he fucking owned it.

Dean Ambrose - I'm going to give this guy's dick a break, but it's fairly obvious that this guy's going places.

Wade Barrett - People say it's his booking, but I don't know. I'm not a fan of his wrestling style at all (except for his impressive Winds Of Change), but I think if they gave him Sheamus (because Miz can't put anybody over), they can both knock the shit out of each other (with Barrett winning a few). He has a great look and plays the bullying villain very well. He's a few years older than the rest, but will make a great IC champ.

So who'll have the biggest career?
1) Ambrose, because of the faith shown
2) Sandow, because he's a WHC
3) Rhodes, because of his polish and name
4) Barrett, but his booking could improve this

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Personally, I think Rhodes & Barrett could be great top level guys for WWE. Cody Rhodes is still a young man at only 28 years of age, he's been on the main roster for 6 years, he's NEVER gotten into any trouble that I'm aware of, he works hard & does his best in anything that he's given and he's worked hard to get fans into him as a heel. His career has been hotter at times than it is now, but that's just the nature of wrestling. That's how it is with the careers of every wrestler. I think WWE will elevate Cody Rhodes into the main event picture at some point. He's been far too reliable not to be given a shot at some point. I'm guessing that WWE is going to turn Cody Rhodes face, or already kind of has, given his strong performance at MITB and his attack on Damien Sandow after Sandow's match on Raw. This could be a good opportunity to begin working on turning Rhodes into a strong babyface.

I'm still a fan of Wade Barrett but I'm thinking that the bloom is off the rose as far as WWE officials are concerned. Barrett only turns 33 next month but WWE has done such an impressive job of burying Wade Barrett this year that I can't help but feel that they're no longer as high on him as they were a few years back. The IC title has been a kiss of death to Barrett's momentum. When he first won the IC title from Kofi Kingston over 2 years ago, a lot of people were excited. Then, WWE started to job him out right & left, specifically to Ezekiel Jackson. People's sense of hope returned when Barrett won the title for the second time on December 29 of last year. Barrett was doing quite well for the first month but started going downhill again the night after the Royal Rumble when he lost clean to Bo Dallas. It kept on a downward spiral through WrestleMania and on through Payback when the title was dropped to Curtis Axel. At this point, I'd be happy if Barrett was made part of a strong tag team as a means of building up momentum for a good long while before maybe trying a main event run.

As far as Sandow goes, it's too early for me to tell at this point. Sandow lost his first match since winning the MITB contract this past Monday to Christian. It's not a strategy that I think WWE should employ, especially as it's a strategy that they've done far too often with MITB winners. Sandow, along with Rhodes, has been jobbed out to bigger stars in singles matches and to other tag teams over the past few months. If anything, Sandow needs momentum built because he has virtually none to strip away

As of right now, I think that Dean Ambrose has the best shot of having the best career. The Shield as a whole have had a very strong run in WWE over the past 8 or 9 months. Ambrose has been a really good US champ in my opinion, thus far, and I'm expecting that he'll possibly have a couple of high profile feuds over the next several months. It looked as though he was about to enter into a feud with Christian but I think that's been put on hold if the group's attack on Mark Henry is an indication. I could see Ambrose ultimately defending the title against Henry at SummerSlam or WWE could start off with giving Henry a couple of partners to take on The Shield in a six man tag match at the event before formally embarking on a quest to take the US title from Ambrose afterward. If Ambrose survives as champion in his feud against Henry, then I can see WWE reigniting Ambrose's feud with Christian. If a six man tag winds up being in the forecast, then it makes sense to team Henry up with The Usos as they've been into it with Rollins & Reigns for a little bit.

Ambrose has been consistently entertaining in the ring or on the mic. He knows how to tell a great story during his matches, has a strong understanding of in-ring psychology and uses it often. He's also really good at conveying a message with his body language and very expressive facial expressions. He's just 27 years old and Triple H is extremely high on him, which can only be a good thing as Triple H continues to gain power within the company.

As far as Cesaro goes, I think he'll mostly be a mainstay in the mid-card & tag team scenes. Cesaro's not that great on the mic though, in my opinion, he's done the absolute best he can given the rather limited character he's been portraying, so there's something to be said for that. Cesaro is great inside the ring, he's one of the most reliable stars on the roster when it comes to consistently high match quality. He's been labeled as "boring" by some WWE officials, reportedly, while others think there's long term money in the guy. I think it's possible that we MIGHT see Cesaro elevated to a main event run, especially if Triple H formally takes control of WWE sometime in the next 1 to 2 years, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Cesaro can be a great mid-card and tag team asset, one I think people will very much rally around if he's ever turned babyface or if he's able to get a different sort of character.

Jack Swagger has had his day and it's passed. Swagger had the misfortune of having his first World Heavyweight Championship push stopped right in the middle of things. He frequently lost non-title matches to Rey Mysterio or John Morrison before dropping it to Mysterio after a pretty lackluster 82 day run. He spent most of the next 3 years jobbing out left & right before finally being repackaged and given a great mouthpiece in Zeb Coulter. If I'm not mistaken, he was penciled to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Del Rio but ultimately screwed himself. He gets arrested for a DUI after a SmackDown! taping in Mississippi back in late February, essentially sabotaging the biggest push of his career. Getting behind the wheel of a car while drunk shows a huge lack of personal responsibility and common sense, I can only imagine what Coulter himself was thinking & feeling as his 16 year old granddaughter was killed by a drunk driver only 6 months earlier. Swagger certainly lost the trust of WWE officials and that can be extremely difficult to earn back.

Fandango has been pretty surprising, in a pleasant way. I didn't have much faith in this character but Johnny Curtis has worked his ass off to get it over. It's different than anything else going right now and fans are responding after seeing how much effort he's put into it. I don't think that Fandango is going to get a huge push right now though. Allegedly, he was penciled to win the IC title at Payback but was put on the shelf for about a month after suffering a concussion. WWE takes concussions extremely seriously, with damn good reason, so they MIGHT be a little uncertain when it comes to Fandango in the long run. After all, he'd only been wrestling on the main roster for a few months before getting a concussion and, unless I'm mistaken, this isn't the first concussion he's had. I think WWE is going to wait a while and generally keep him floating around for a bit in order to gauge how he might do in terms of his character and being able to stay healthy in the long run.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Of the people you mention, I believe Damien Sandow will have the most successful career, especially now that they've broken him out of the pack by giving him the MITB briefcase. His "intellectual" gimmick is the type that can last a very long time because there are so many things that can be done with it. Naturally, he'd have to alter it if he ever turns face, yet the fact he comes off half the time as if playing it for laughs might lend itself to being a good guy, too.

Meanwhile, he's a solid ring worker, plays off others better than most performers.....and seems to generate a fan reaction to what he does; sort of like a male Vickie Guerrero without the "fingers on a blackboard" quality she possesses.

Interestingly, I'm up in the air about Johnny (Fandango) Curtis' future. From the beginning, his gimmick seemed one designed only for short duration ......after all, how long is a dance routine going to be a useful way of getting across? Curtis waited a long time for Creative to find something for him.....and they came up with a whopper. Good for him.

What happens after Fandango exits, stage left? Of the mid-carders, it seems only Cody Rhodes was deemed worthy of multiple gimmicks (from disfigured to dashing, and so on). If they don't come up with another winner for Curtis, he probably becomes another version of Curt Hawkins......which ain't a good place to be.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

Damien Sandow is being fast-tracked to stardom. Rightfully so. It reminds me a lot of Sheamus when he entered the WWE. They are obviously both "HHH guys" with similar lineages, etc.

His mic skills are unrivaled right now. He can be hilarious without being a weak jobber/joke. He can be devious. Versatility is the key.

IMO this guy will be a face superstar within 2 years. I don't think he will win the WHC. I think Rhodes will cost him the belt somehow and those two will have a great feud establishing them both as up-and-comers.

Rhodes is the most complete when it comes to in-ring and mic skills combined IMO. I really hope the face turn works for him. He deserves success. I'd like to see him feud with Axel after/before the Sandow situation.

Ambrose has the most raw talent and "unknown" factor. Being so young it will take a bit for him to realize that potential. He could easily be the biggest star out of this group but he's got a long way too go. Both other guys in the "Shield" stand just as good a chance to break out as he does.

Cesaro - Great in-ring worker that I really hope does not get buried. Probably won't amount to much more than a mid-card guy but his ability is off the charts IMO

Fandango - The Gimmick makes him almost useless. I haven't seen anything in the ring to be encouraged by either. His match with Orton on RAW was his best showing so far which ain't saying much.

Swagger - Useless POS. Really hope he gets popped for something else so they get rid of him. No one in the league I despise more.

Barrett - They've already ruined him. Change entrance music again dude. I do like his in-ring work and don't think he's as bad on the mic as some people make him out to be.

 

[TheHierophant11]

This is a fantastic conversation! My thoughts:

Sandow: It seems like WWE is going to attempt pushing him finally. They have a habit of pushing wrestlers far too soon (Alberto Del Rio), so it's good to see that they've been taking their time with some of the guys (Ziggler and now Sandow). I honestly don't see Sandow as being "The Guy" for WWE at any time.

Ambrose: Ambrose is easily my favorite "newcomer" followed very closely by Bray Wyatt. As much as I love Ambrose, I see him as the next "CM Punk." He'll be incredibly over (he sort of is now), but WWE won't ever FULLY put him as top dog. Wyatt and Ambrose are the 2 whose futures I'm most excited to see unfold, however.

Cesaro: I love this guy, but they'll never use him properly. If memory serves, he talked about retiring in the next couple of years. I just don't see him as a big player in WWE's future (I hope I'm 100% wrong).

Rhodes: I don't trust this current "push." To me, it always seems like he's about to get a big push... then nothing. While he's talented and improved massively on the mic, he won't be the most successful out of this bunch. I'm sure he'll hold the WHC once or twice, but never have a proper run.

Barrett: About 2 years ago, I would have said Barrett will be the most successful newcomer. Now? I'm afraid he'll live in purgatory (mid-card) for the rest of his career (again, I hope I'm 100% wrong).

Swagger: WWE... no... Dutch Mantell made me care about Swagger during WrestleMania season. That excitement has faded, as has any chance of Swagger being top dog of anything in his career. He's "Kurt Angle Lite," same moves with half the talent and none of the charisma.

Fandango: Oddly, I do believe Fandango will be the biggest success out of these guys. I believe this because people have fun with Fandango. His character is fun and funny, he puts on great matches, and is generally VERY talented. There will come a time when he will blow people's minds in 1 match or 1 promo. From that time forward, he will be a huge star. Now, I'm not saying "Fandango" will be successful. No, he'll need to shed that character eventually and go with a more grounded character. The only thing standing in his way is his apparent susceptibility to concussions...