10 Next Big Things In Wrestling That Totally Flopped

WhatCulture

WWE had such high hopes for these aspiring stars, but then the bell rang.

Transcript

00:00I do not like the word flopped. I've ruined the video already, but it's true.

00:04The machine can always get behind you and something clicks. I mean, technically Steve

00:08Austin was a so-called flop when he joined the then WWF. I think that turned out alright.

00:13So let us just switch it to those who are still waiting to find their wings even after WWE tried.

00:19I believe in you though, damn it. And I am Simon Miller and let's go.

00:23Number 10, Austin Theory. I mean, you can hear me talk about this on my ups and downs reviews.

00:27We just need to treat Austin Theory a little bit differently.

00:31I get that he's easy to hate because he's a looker and carved out of stone.

00:35But do you remember what he did on NXT? That's the theory I want on the main roster.

00:40Just a bit of a lovable goof. I think Triple H realizes this because he was pulling the

00:44NXT strings then. And we have teased turning Austin for what feels like years now.

00:49I think when we try properly, it's going to work. If nothing else, none of this was really his fault

00:54because when it was time to go hard, what did we do? We told Theory his story. It was all about a

01:00giant gold egg. It's not a joke either. That is what we chose to do. Pray tell why this failed to

01:07catch on. So sure, it's fair to say round one was not as expected. That US title run wasn't great.

01:13But I believe, like Bo Dallas, watch this space. Number 9, Wardlow. It just doesn't make sense.

01:20I would say on at least two occasions, we were good to go with Wardlow and we didn't follow

01:25through. I don't want to speculate because I don't know, but it is weird. These days, he's not even

01:30on TV. Now, this could be an injury, but it still makes it all very sad. Wardlow felt like a guy who

01:36could offer something different for AEW, but it was such a stop-start push. I'm not sure anyone felt

01:42like they could truly get behind him. I suppose we fell into a pattern because Wardlow went from group

01:47to group to group. And every time it was ready to hit, we just didn't. After a while, it is boy

01:52that cried wolf. You stopped believing in it. I think you can get one more proper push with Ward,

01:58but you have to go all the way. If not, maybe it's time to let him go and try elsewhere. I mean,

02:03I think somebody can definitely use this guy. Number 8, Alberto Del Rio. So it is not easy to talk

02:10about Alberto Del Rio. Go on Google. That is a horrible story. The truth is, though,

02:16when WWE brought him in, they wanted Del Rio to be their new Mexican babyface. Given he had size,

02:22management were even more excited. You know the deal. My Mysterio is too small. So stupid.

02:28Every time we did try this, however, it did not work. Alberto was never accepted as a good guy,

02:34and while his heel run was alright, it wasn't at the level those in charge wanted. And we got rid of

02:40Ricardo Rodriguez, which was an integral part of the act. We did it all wrong. Del Rio was also the

02:45dude that used his money in the bank briefcase to stop CM Punk's title reign in 2011. That was

02:51really dumb. Nobody should have done that. The less said about we the people the better, and yeah,

02:57WWE honestly thought Alberto would be a WrestleMania main eventer. He was not. Number 7, Sin Cara.

03:05So it always sounds like there was some political warfare when it came to the debut of Sin Cara.

03:10He was touted as Triple H's first major signing as he took over his talent relations role.

03:15Maybe, just maybe, Vince McMahon wanted to make his life more difficult. Sin Cara himself allegedly

03:20didn't help as he walked around backstage like a star. You know how that goes in wrestling. You just

03:26irk others and put a target on your back. It then got worse because, be it nerves or whatever,

03:31Sin made one too many mistakes in the ring. Even on his first match, he tripped during his entrance.

03:36WWE has always been notorious for holding that against you if other factors are at play.

03:41There were attempts to sort this in the sense that the former Mr. Ko was teamed with Rey Mysterio for a

03:46while, which I assume was meant to be a passing of the torch moment. But before long they cut their

03:51losses, got rid of Mr. Ko, and put Hunako in his place. Don't worry about Mr. Ko though,

03:56because he did fine. He went back to Mexico and continued to be a megastar.

04:016. Nathan Jones

04:03Too much, too soon. That is the story here. You can find this narrative constantly throughout the

04:09years too, so it's amazing Vince McMahon didn't learn. Just because somebody is massive doesn't

04:14mean they need to be on the main roster instantly. The rumors have always said management would try and

04:18hijack dudes from the boss because they knew what would happen otherwise. I suppose Nathan

04:23Jones was just too gargantuan. Vince saw the 8x10s and here came the big push.

04:28The issue was, Jones wasn't ready to be on the main roster and even the powers of the B figured

04:33that one out. WrestleMania 19's proposed tag team match of The Undertaker and Nathan

04:38saw Jones get pulled at the last minute and for a good while all he did was run it.

04:42Soon the big Australian fell out with the travel schedule too, and I would assume when you can feel

04:47the tide turning you just check out. That's exactly what happened. With more time who knows what the

04:53story would be today, although if you do care, Nathan Jones went on to have a pretty decent career

04:58in Hollywood. That is not too shabby. 5. Ronda Rousey

05:03Now I would say the jury is still out on this one. It all depends how you look at it. Ronda herself has

05:08talked about how she would have preferred the Logan Paul treatment when it came to her matches

05:13in the sense she would be allowed to rehearse beforehand. The difference was Rousey was basically

05:18a full timer for a while and there's no time for a run through when you're on the road making towns.

05:23It's why the super pros called it in the ring when they had to. It's a very demanding industry.

05:28Her first run was pretty good and that Mania debut was awesome and even the weird Becky Lynch

05:33Charlotte Flair triple threat was fine. We just overcooked the pudding and the finish didn't work.

05:38It was when Ronda returned for round 2 that it never really re-clicked. Rousey pitched idea after

05:44idea to those in charge who clearly saw things differently, therefore the on-screen fallout felt

05:49off. I mean just go and listen to any Ronda interview about this. She was not happy.

05:54I still think she brought new eyes to the WWE so you can't say it was a total bust. Just feels like

06:00she needed to be approached in a certain way and that didn't happen, which I kinda get. She wasn't

06:05an experienced wrestler with years of reps under her belt. There's also the whole should she have

06:09been a good guy or should she have been a bad guy discussion. What a wild time this was. Before

06:16Jack Swagger. WWE must have done something right with Jack Swagger. I love the guy. This was way back

06:22in 2011 when I was already doing wrestling podcasts. I would get behind him every single week. He was

06:29slightly goofy but it worked. Swagger made himself stand out. The problem was after he won the Money

06:34the Bank briefcase at Mania 26 and cashed it in to become the world champion, he was never actually

06:40pushed like a world champion. That old chestnut. Instead, like many before him, Jack was given what

06:45was considered the secondary major title and therefore lost this allure. If you want fans to believe in

06:51somebody as the guy, you have to treat them like the guy. That's basic mathematics. We've already

06:57mentioned the We The People stuff as Swagger was caught up in that tool and just in case you did

07:02miss it, it was not good. Jim Ross was certainly somebody high on this man but yeah, he only had

07:06an okay run in WWE and there really was a time when it felt like we were going to make a proper go at it,

07:13we didn't. Number 3, Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy, sorry.

07:17So this one was good to go. Not only was Ken Kennedy going to get the push but everybody

07:21was behind this. He could work, he could talk, he was over. Let's get it on. Vince McMahon was

07:27impressed too and got the Money in the Bank briefcase on him and at one point he was going

07:31to be Vince's son. That would have been a stupid storyline but hey, it does mean you're going to

07:36be focused on quite heavily. And then, man, it all went bad. Soon after getting the magic case,

07:42Kennedy got injured and lost it to Edge when we learned that this was an error. His shoulder

07:48was not as bad as first thought. Whoops. As soon as that was done, he was caught up in a wellness

07:53policy suspension and then he ran afoul of John Cena and Randy Orson. Apparently they thought he

07:58was unsafe in the ring. This was 2009 and I suppose a telling off from the main eventers was enough for

08:04WWE to change their mind and Kenneth was let go. This really was crazy. We all thought he was going to be

08:11the champ. He did have a decent run in TNA but let's be honest, when he was doing that,

08:16most assumed Kennedy would be headlining WrestleMania. Oh, it could have been.

08:21Number 2, Vladimir Kozlov. This was so weird. It was 2008. For some reason,

08:28WWE thought it was 1987. I'm just not sure fans en masse wanted to see angry foreign heel,

08:34especially as it felt so cliched. Kozlov was also thrust into the spot with no real push. It was almost

08:40like Vince McMahon was searching for new ideas. They panicked and picked an old one instead.

08:45Vladimir got all the help too as he even defeated The Undertaker on SmackDown and that never happened.

08:50He also had a proper war with Triple H over the world title but again, that lacked heat as the

08:55crowd didn't really care. WWE soon gave up on this with Vlad being moved into a comedy gimmick with

09:00Santino Marella and hey, it was quite funny. It was also a huge 180 shift. With hindsight,

09:07I think WWE saw Kozlov as an Ivan Drago figure but again, we were long past that.

09:13Rocky IV was released in 1985 so we were 23 years too late.

09:18Number 1, Gable Steveson. I mean, we likely shouldn't have called him the next Kurt Angle.

09:24That bar is way too high. Gable Steveson did arrive in WWE as a wrestling Olympic gold medalist and look,

09:31in that field he was amazing. Many called him one of the best of all time.

09:35It's why WWE and UFC wanted to sign him up and why when WWE got him he was put in NXT,

09:41but on a mega deal, they wanted to make this work. It didn't.

09:45There is no real reason either. If you want to bring Angle back into the mix,

09:49he wasn't the greatest rookie ever just because of what he could do inside the ring.

09:53Kurt figured out character and sports entertainment within what felt like a week. That's why he rose so

09:59quickly. It never seemed like Gable had the same light bulb moment,

10:02plus his work didn't have the same personality as Angle's. Again, we should not have made this

10:07comparison. Before he even made it to the main roster, he was let go and the word was Steveson,

10:12just didn't get it. Which is fine, I understand. Pro wrestling isn't for everyone, but that's the

10:18whole point. Know any other wrestlers that got a big push and it didn't really work out? Make sure

10:22you let us know in the comments below before you like the video, share the video, and why not

10:26subscribe? Then click the video on the screen so I can regale you with more wrestling trivia,

10:31but otherwise, my friends, you take care and I will speak to you again soon.

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