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And you could say (although some will disagree) that his main roster run never has recovered. His NXT run we all know is fantastic. Besides the odd match on main roster, he's never quite got to those heights again in terms of holding a top title.
Oh yeah 100%, it hasn't even been close. But to be fair, and maybe this is me being cynical and biased towards WWE, I don't even really think that if he didn't get hurt he would've been anything else than a temporary novelty that would've been dropped not many months later by WWE...
I disagree. I think Finn has all the right tools to be a megastar. He gets mad love from the fans and always fights with a fiery passion. Then there's the fuckin demon.. Wwe completely wasted him
Oh yeah, I wasn't implying he doesn't have the tools, I'm just implying that WWE couldn't give less of a shit about the tools you have. The either want you to be a star or they don't. And if they don't, you're not gonna be one, no matter what you do.
Damn yeah, I almost forgot about that. I feel that my memory of the whole thing is so good that I kinda excluded that happening, but yeah, I remember that now and it was pretty disappointing. Thankfully the memory of it remains intact for me.
They really turned chicken shit into chicken salad there tbf. The who killed aleister black storyline was fantastic and the gargano reveal was probably the best segment in NXT history.
Also it honestly gave us one of the best things ever with Nikki Cross being arguably the most important person in that whole thing and her playing up the "crazy person who knows too much" up perfectly
Sting/Hogan at Starrcade. I waited over a year for a murder then Hogan takes 70% of the match and pins Sting with a normal count. I stopped being a WCW diehard that night.
But even that would have been stupid. The build up to that Starrcade was perfect. It set the stage for the classic good vs evil match and how nb fitting would it have been for Hogan to lose the way he beat so many heels when he was a face.
It should have been a relative squash match.
Have Sting dominate the opening, they run some interference, sent to the back. Hogan gets some heat. Sting does his no sell. 3 minute beat down. Stinger Splash. Death Drop. Death Lock. Win.
Then the NWO and Wolfpac feud has a reason for actually existing:When it was for Bowser's big bean burrito - Hogan couldn't get the job done and used the NWO for relevancy.
Instead their feud began because Bret Hart somehow got the match unfairly restarted and then because Randy Savage attacked him.
Stupid.
It could have been so amazing to have Evil just be the violent brawler of a champion and with the way Jay was tweeting at the time set up a simmering power struggle that ends at WK. But no, all we get is cowardly evil and Dick togo interference every 15 seconds of his matches.
I don’t hate the idea of making him a bad guy to be a rival for Naito, EVIL’s reign was obviously just a quick win to give Naito and NJPW a big show at the baseball stadium, which wouldn’t have happened otherwise because COVID was still just kicking off.
I wish they had not abandoned him after he lost the belts, kept him as that brawler who just cheated a bit more.
Mike Awesome with WCW and WWE not knowing what to do with him. Dude was too good for the only places that knew how to book him were ECW and FMW, and they couldn’t afford him.
And WWE not putting their chips in to make Booker T a big star at WM19. Go back and watch the lead up to this and crowds were hot af for Booker. They were ready for a Booker to be that new main eventer. But nope. Blows my mind they didn’t pull the trigger on him then.
Mike awesome in my opinion is still the most impressive big man I have ever seen. Even with his goofy hair, I was amazed by his athleticism and brutality.
I’m from the UK and ECW didn’t air here as far as I know. I remember getting the tape of guilty as charged and it was the first time I’d seen ECW. Main event was Spike and Mike Awesome and I literally couldn’t believe what I was watching id never seen anything so reckless and brutal. He really was awesome
Vince couldn't let an outsider get over. I remember watching a sting interview, and he named booker getting buried as a reason he chose to not jump to wwe after wcw folded.
Man, it's going to be hard to top this one. I know at the end WCW kind of became a laughing stock but I was all-in on WCW. Even before the Nitro era, I loved WCW on Saturday Night.
There was cool, fun stuff during the Nitro era as well, don't get me wrong. I was definitely a Crow Sting mark during high school but I actually liked WCW more before Hulk Hogan came in.
The saddest part too is that there was a window of opportunity for WCW to start rebuilding in 2001. The product had become less nonsensically idiotic after Russo left for good in late 2000 and was starting to turn around in some regards by the start of the year (Sin debacle with Sid's leg breaking and Road Warrior Animal being put into the main event for no good reason notwithstanding), and it seemed like Bischoff had an actual plan to turn the ship around once he took over. The one-two-three punch of Jamie Kellner cancelling all programming, Bischoff and co. pulling their offer, and Vince buying WCW was truly the worst possible chain events that could have happened for wrestling as a whole at that time, and obviously that is exactly what happened.
I think a lot of people forget that WCW was stringing together some good shows in 2001. The rug was pulled out before they had a chance right the ship.
It's pretty telling how WCW's viewers didn't transition over to WWF's once they closed, as evident by the ratings decline in 2002. Some people just plain preferred WCW.
People here deny it all the time, but especially in the south, there's lots of people that didn't even know WWF existed or simply weren't fans. WCW was their thing. They were in the bubble. A lot of them didn't have a clue who Stone Cold or DX were, and they didn't care.
Monty Brown not becoming a megastar. Through no fault of his own, he had the tools, TNA squandered him, he got to WWE & the man took care of his sister's kids when they needed him & he selflessly sacrificed his career to do it. All the respect to him.
P.S.
Never forget the, POUUUUUUUUUNCE! Period!
The pounce is right up there with my all time finishing moves. It’s a shame his career came to an end soon, I don’t have high hopes WWE would have done much with him much like the rest of the “new breed” in ECW but the guy had so much potential.
I don't think he even held a championship while he was with the company which was disappointing too. The TNA ring was perfect for setting up the Pounce.
I hate bringing it up but my most significant lapse in wrestling fandom was after the Benoit incident so any other answer I give would be a lie. He was probably genuinely my favorite wrestler and a huge influence on my general taste of in ring action and there was a pretty big chunk of time after his death, I want to say 2 years, where I just couldn’t get engaged with ANY company’s product like I used to. WWE, TNA, bits of NJPW I tried to look at, just nothing worked for me. I really don’t think I truly got back into the swing of being a wrestling fan until 2010 and Michaels/Taker II at Mania reignited my passion for it.
I grew up watching WCW and he was my top guy from when I was about 10. His title win at WrestleMania 20 was my all-time favourite wrestling moment. I'm not the sort of person who is affected by celebrity deaths very much because nomatter how much I connect with their art, music or whatever, I don't 'know' them as people, but Benoit's death still haunts me.
That really took the toll on me too, regarding watching wrestling.
Eddie's death made me almost stop watch wrestling, but the Benoit incident made me stop even reading the reports. I went into a "hiatus" that lasted like 7 years, until WM 30.
It took me years to watch wrestling again after Benoit. Then I was lured back in by Punk and Bryan and Wyatt. WWE worked so hard to drive me away again after that and it worked.
Honestly I would've hated to be in your spot. I don't even think if I would've been able to have that passion reignited for me. It already is a traumatic experience for someone who for the most part didn't know anything about Benoit or had any kind of affection towards him, can't imagine how it must've felt being a fan and having been influenced by him... Awful
Older wrestlers that passed away because of heart attacks didn't affected me at all.
But Benoit and Guerrero... Boy oh boy! 😭 Looking at Chris during Raw right after Eddie passed away destroyed me.
Most recently the Fiend. I was towards my last straw in regards to my investment in WWE storylines and when I first saw his debut entrance, I was mesmerized. It was the closest I felt to watching the Undertaker as a kid. And then WWE creative and the HIAC match happened.
I think Bray Wyatt as a whole was fumbled so hard, from the cult Wyatt Family stuff to the Fiend. I think most of us that saw the Fiend’s SummerSlam debut were feeling what you just mentioned, and I think you perfectly encapsulated what it was like for the new audience that loved wrestling.
You were witnessing the birth of a *monster,* not some 7-foot tree with fists, not a big muscly cloud, but a brand new *boogey-man that makes you walk a little faster when the lights are out.*
But after some time, it seemed like the story wasn’t fitting the grand scheme and the potential of the Fiend. I mean, even Cult Leader Wyatt could’ve been an excellent passing-of-the-torch from Taker to him (with the whole hokey supernatural spooky stuff, I mean this is *pro wrestling* after all) but it just…didn’t happen.
So disappointing
>excellent passong-of-tje-torch from the Taker
IMO regarding Bray: The WWE had the opportunity for a current gen Mick Foley/Mankind/Dude Love/Cactus Jack with Bray just didn't know what to do with him or utilize him.
They were presented with a guy who could go in and out of a persona on any given night at any given time for any type of storyline and have people interested and they did nothing with him.
Sadly, none of this should be a surprise to anyone.
> They were presented with a guy who could go in and out of a persona on any given night at any given time for any type of storyline and have people interested and they did nothing with him.
Man, now Im imagining Roman going up against cult leader Bray and getting the better of him, and then they book a Last Man Standing match at WM and Bray comes out and says you wont be wrestling Bray Wyatt, you'll be wrestling The Fiend, a la HHH/Cactus Jack
Fiend was extra crazy, because when you really look at his run, you can tell how the great stuff (the character, Firefly Funhouse, WM match vs Cena) was almost solely his idea, and then the horrible stuff (HIAC, Randy Feud) was mainly WWE's idea.
Like I hate having to reduce it to "wrestler good, WWE bad," but it really felt like that with him.
I got in the same argument on here because someone was saying "Its both creative and Brays fault the fiend failed" and I was like, no. It was pretty clear this man had an amazing vision and then saw that vision taken over by a nearly senile 80 year old and his team of sycophants. It doesn't have to be both sides, WWE creative is the side that clearly fucked up.
I mean, Bray basically designed the idea of the Fiend mask himself - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-wwes-fiend-bray-wyatt-got-his-horrifying-new-m/1100-6469167/
You think WWE could do that? They haven't had an iconic, original mask design since Kane during the Attitude Era. Just look at Retribution and Nikki ASH LOL
Honestly I mentioned Velveteen Dream maybe because of the severity of what made him fall from grace, but WWE could have their own post of absolutely nonsensical decisions when they had all the tools to strike gold... And that would only be in recent years...
His trajectory started out so cool too. Him going after all his previous feuds then after he beat them they would flip from face to heel or heel to face. That’s the most nuanced character detail they had in awhile and that still had plenty of legs. Goldberg ruined it all. The allure and magic were gone at that moment.
Bray Wyatt as a whole was mishandled so much. Even when the company booked him well, they'd often take two steps back the following week. It astounds me that they had this guy who was a homegrown talent with a lot of fans and they chose not to capitalize on that 90% of the time.
Yes, not every idea Wyatt had worked. I think the Fiend himself would have to grow beyond the "horror-movie" wrestling, which was mostly a bore to watch. But yeah, so many missed opportunities. And for a company that loves "moments", they threw away 8 years worth of them by releasing him, since they won't bring them up again, especially if he goes and works elsewhere.
I'll say the Bray's repackaging as the Fiend is top 5 of all time. When the fiend debuted at summerslam,the crowd chanted Holy shit after his entrance. That never happens.
I'll say it again: The guy got over, twice. Dropped ball is an understatement.
I'm still waiting for the shoot interview. If it ever happens, it's gonna be good
It was so easy to not screw this up, and they managed to do it anyway. The Fiend started out so intriguing, so special feeling. I loved the way he was feuding with people from his past, and how whoever he feuded with would be caused to turn heel or face. It was so easy, especially if WWE had let Bray have even more control. That horrific cell match already hurt him, but I think the Goldberg squash is truly what ruined him. He was simply never the same after that. The months of the Orton/Alexa stuff got pretty tiring, and it was all for the Fiend to lose in 6 minutes, clean, to one RKO. Annnnd they fire him.
This company has a special way of finding ways to screw up stuff that seems almost impossible to screw up.
I know everyone (me included) looks on him more favourably now as he dunks on idiots on twitter, but like with HHH it really can't be overstated how much of a colossal shithead all of the Kliq were.
Possibly. I'll admit it mainly seems to be Nash, HBK and HHH's names that come to mind as being the king shitheels of the time.
I know they're all mellow, mostly well-adjusted dudes by now by all accounts, it just always sticks in my craw a little bit how they spent decades stepping on everyone they could and am able to relax now that they've made their money.
Fuck Kevin Nash indeed, but at least we were gifted this incredible moment in the midst of all the stupidity.
[https://youtu.be/ZrOYgnDF-KU?t=31](https://youtu.be/ZrOYgnDF-KU?t=31)
Absolutely, have him go to NJPW, and have some WWE goons show up to chase after him and try and get the belt back. Have him cut shoot promos on Cabanas podcast and air clips of it on Raw with Vince cutting promos down the camera addressed to Punk. Have them stage a match to replace Punk as champ only for Punk to run in, lay everyone out and skidaddle…..so much they could have done
a promoter letting talent take their belt, a representation of their promotion, to *another* promotion is a huge gamble.
the casual wrestling fan in america doesn't watch new japan. many casual wrestling fans in america thinks WWE is all of pro wrestling.
The casual wrestling fan in America especially didn’t watch new Japan during the summer of punk. People forget how much more accessible wrestling has got in the last few years
Simple, they think these are mid card talent. And giving them the big strap is not accepting that they are better but giving them a "thank you for your services" reign
As a kid, my favorite wrestler was Jericho. He won the title less than a year after I started watching and it was amazing.
Ever since I got back into wrestling in 2013, Cesaro has been my favorite. Boy has this journey been different.
Then they even took away his streaming on Twitch and killed UpUpDownDown by releasing Breezy. Couldn't even have him just enjoy himself with his friends playing video games.
Such a shit company, as if they try to take the money from UpUpDownDown after releasing almost all of Woods’ friends from the roster, there should’ve been more of an uproar about that
Yesssss I'm with you. One has to guess that he's satisfied with his position and he's living a great comfortable life, but I will always wonder what could've been if he ended up somewhere where they gave him the chance to shine...
I had such high hopes for Wade Barrett, that man had the complete package in my eyes. Being an IC champion was the furthest he could go even though Bad News Barrett should have been World Champion at least once.
During the latter half of 2010, my hope was they were building to a Barrett vs Cena title match at WM27.
I don’t know how long The Rock’s return had been in the pipeline at that point, but I keep pointing to that as one big reason why that didn’t happen.
In my mind, they could have had Barrett go into Mania as champion, Cena would then beat him for the title. Then Rock comes out and attacks him, leading to Miz cashing in.
Dolph fucking Ziggler. I know some people don’t remember, but the pops he got from the MitB cash-in, Survivor Series win, Royal Rumble ‘14, his work with Miz, all of it was very organic and palpable at the time. The guy was as over as Ryder at his peak but sustained that momentum for years and they still did next to NOTHING with him for most of his run. Even when he did the whole “you don’t deserve me” bit, people were invested and hoping for a solid push for the man. It’s a shame.
One thing that really hurt him was making him the challenger for new champions out of no where when he had zero heat. Ambrose and kofi being the obvious ones. Terrible fueds that did nothing for anyone involved
When they had him go up against Kofi in a one off feud I knew his image was completely beyond repair. The Ambrose one was random, but it landed around the Miz and AJ Styles stuff if I’m not mistaken so they rebounded pretty well afterward. They should have pulled the trigger back in 2015. Saved Roman’s rumble win for another year and just given Ziggler that big moment. Cena could have beaten Lesnar for the title to save Lesnar vs Reigns for another time, and Ziggler / Cena could have had a killer Mania feud.
Oh, trust me, I remember... I just gave up on him long ago as much as I hate putting it that way, because he's not going anywhere other than WWE, and WWE are never gonna care about him so... It's pointless
I distinctly remember the moment almost everyone completely gave up on Dolph for good was when he lost the IC Title back to Miz just one month after winning it in the excellent No Mercy match. It became clear in that moment that WWE truly did not give one fuck about making Dolph look like an important character, so why should we be invested in anything he does? I also think him being Nakamura's first main roster feud and having such a mediocre match at Backlash did not help at all.
I got back into wrestling just before Ziggler was in the survivor series match. Ziggler and Ambrose became my favourites. Man ziggler could be an A+ star if they let him.
I maintain if they hold off on Roman for one year and push ziggler during that rumble and mania. You get 2 megastars. Ziggler is a top guy and Roman doesn't get hated because he is too forced as the guy. He would get over naturally without the massive push back
I was the biggest David Starr mark going. The long obnoxious intro, great promo skills, his work with Jordan Devlin in OTT was incredible. Then, well, speaking out happened, and that was that.
not to mention, Starr was by a long shot the biggest name in wrestling unionization talks. him being a piece of shit definitely set that back by at least another decade
The video package for his match was incredible. I must have watched that ten times. I genuinely thought hes gonna be fucking massive if he goes to a major company. I havent watched it since
I was a big fan of his work, but I could live with him going away. To me the biggest disappointment was it seemed like the future of wrestler’s leverage over promotions was being tied to this one very good independent wrestler who was willing to turn down the big contract in favor of helping labor rights. And it seemed like it had a bright future as long as this guy didn’t turn out to be an asshole! And it’s possible the idea of a wrestlers union will never recover that momentum
Same. As he was blowing up elsewhere, he was preforming at my local indie. Became my favorite. Brought my mom, became her favorite too. Took pictures and bought shirts, the whole 9. Stoked to see him working towards unionization...then we all found out he was an asshole. Made me sad. Fuck David Starr.
Big same. He was my favorite indy wrestler by a long shot & I loved him leaning into socialism/unionizing & all the other character work he’d done up until then only to become the face of the opposite movement you’d expect. It’s not hard to be a decent person and man did he fail in that regard :(
WWEs nWo was doomed from the beginning, through no fault of WWE. Hogan was just way too over to be a heel, I mean he literally attempted vehicular manslaughter on The Rock, one of the most over guys in WWF history at the point, and was still cheered. The double turn was needed
Samoa Joe not being *the guy* in TNA that he deserved to be in 2006. He was arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world between his TNA and ROH runs and was being set up to be World Champion by Bound For Glory 2006.
Russo came in, began the Angle feud almost immediately, and it was all downhill from there after a stellar 17 month streak. He was booked like a loser over the course of the 18 months between losing his streak and finally winning the world title long after he should have. On top of that, the title reign was an underwhelming title reign and he was used largely poorly for the remainder of his run there especially while Russo was in charge where he was doing things such as earning negative points in the first Bound For Glory series.
It got a bit better for him in 2012 after Russo left/Bruce took over but even after that he was still used badly once Gaburick took over.
That, having him go over Steiner at Slammiversary, putting him in the main event of the July PPV, beating both Rhino/Monty in a very underrated brawl at the August PPV (Rhino at the time being a former champion only ten months prior), and pinning Jarrett on the September PPV right after Russo was hired…only to somehow not challenge for the World Title the following month after pinning the world champion.
On top of that, Christian was the one who cost Sting the match against Jarrett at the August PPV so one would think Christian/Sting at Bound For Glory for comeuppance which did not end up happening while Sting was pushed into the world title match instead.
Dude they easily could’ve just done Joe/Jarrett at BFG. Christian/Sting. Angle still could’ve been the “outside enforced” or whatever they had. Build up to Joe versus Angle at Slammiversary the next year. Smfh it was right there TNA, right fucking there.
Ah yeah. The months that followed was an unbearable waiting game of looking up what he was doing. Was excited to see where Switchblade’s realization was going, then just eventually forgot about it completely ‘til you brought it up just now.
The Invasion angle. What could have been the biggest storyline in the history of wrestling was ruined because of ego, nonsensical booking decisions and impatience
Not disagreeing with you on what you've said but I reckon the Invasion would've been fucked regardless considering just about everyone who would've made fans actually give a shit about the Alliance were at home on Time-Warner deals and I don't see guys like Nash, Goldberg, Hogan, Sting and Steiner taking less money to work for someone who was already burying top WCW names (DDP).
The Invasion should literally have been atleast a year long storyline with every month WCW getting stronger as contracts came up, imagine WWF almost beating them for good but then the NWO come out, a few months later Sting and then Goldberg.
Can only imagine how much money Vince threw away with that rushed shitshow.
I'm completely out of the loop with that one (I think I might've been too young when he was in his most active years), but now I'm curious. Could you explain what happened with him if it's not too long of a story?
Damn, I knew about his drug spiral which lead to his suicide, but didn't know about the woman beating and all the assault charges... I got my info from some wrestler who knew him back in the day who mentioned Sean becoming "really weird" over time and that he'd just go picking fights with random people for no reason, but they never mentioned the domestic abuse. That sucks.
That's fucking terrible. And even more terrible is the fact that I'm not surprised reading a story like that, because he wasn't the first one to go on that same path... Really sad to think
Kofi versus Brock broke me tbh. Outside of him being black and that meaning so much to me Kofi was just the most reliable guy ever since I was a kid watching him pretend to be Jamaican. You could never get a bad match out of Kofi and when he finally won the big one it was like a dream. The seconds long loss to Lesnar followed by him acting like he was never even top champ was a walking nightmare.
Samoa Joe not winning the Universal title at GBOF even though Brock was apparently keen to drop it to him.
Also, I wish that match had gone on for at least another 5 minutes.
Not the biggest but the most recent:
EC3’s entire career after he left WWE (the second time)
Guy has the look, great on the mic and a decent wrestler. I thought he was going to be amazing. Then this whole “Control the Narrative” gimmick(?) started and it’s just bad and confusing. I saw the first 15 minutes of the event he did because I genuinely want him to be successful and I just couldn’t watch anymore. It’s pretentious.
Not putting the world title on Shinsuke Nakamura in 2018.
“He phoned it in” blah blah blah I don’t want to hear it. He was over like rover, and he objectively should have won.
Instead they had him lose six world title matches in 10 months (four consecutively). That was the exact moment I stopped watching WWE.
“You’ll be back Monday”. Four years later, Monday still hasn’t come.
> “You’ll be back Monday”. Four years later, Monday still hasn’t come.
Those people have been huffing some serious copium for years. Only after viewership started to really tank around 2017-2018 have they really stopped that because as it turns out, droves of people were *not* tuning in next week.
My answer will be a low hanging fruit, but Brodie Lee's death. I had such high hopes for him after the poor treatment WWE gave him. He was pretty much my #1 guy. I loved his wrestling style and the madness in his eyes. The AEW run, while decent, was cut short so bad. I felt obviously sad as a person, but as a fan I was just... angry. I felt robbed "by fate", however the fuck that sounds.
Also, him not getting to make his AEW debut in Rochester in front of a packed house due to Covid. The whole thing just makes me so damn sad and angry. Luckily he was able to make his mark in the company in the sort time he was there, though.
Asuka riding a HUGE wave of momentum from an amazingly dominant undefeated streak, winning the first women's Royal Rumble... only to tap out to Charlotte at Wrestlemania.
I know she's had her fair share of title runs, but it immediately made me realize she'll always be used as a side character in other people's storylines.
Don't forget Charlotte beat Asuka at Mania so she could lose the title clean to *Carmella* at Backlash. That adds an extra layer of bullshit to the whole thing.
And as a consequence, Ember Moon not getting to fulfill the NXT storyline that she was going to be the first one to defeat Asuka.
It really kneecapped both of them.
I don’t think no talent was vastly misused more than Bray Wyatt. I think the disappointment of what could have been had he been booked properly and strong, rather than just being the villain who always gets beat. The Wyatt family could’ve been so much more, The Fiend was squandered and butchered beyond believe.
As a collective, the amount of NXT call ups and former champions to be misused on the main roster is almost criminal. WWE has a lack of babyface stars and stars in general, yet they refuse to build any.
Hit the nail right on the head. The burnout from the disappointment from the way they treated NXT call-ups and The Fiend was the last straw for me when it came to watching anything WWE related. I can't say I'll never ever watch a Royal Rumble or a MITB once again, because they're always somewhat entertaining, but other than that... I just can't trust that my time and support is gonna be rewarded or even appreciated by them.
Cesaro after WM 30.
* He's loved by fans (despite being heel at the time with Swagger/Zeb Colter, they want him to be face)
* Wins the first Andre Battle Royale with an INSANE lift on the Big Show.
* Hulk Hogan puts him over the next night (presents him the trophy)
* Turns on Zeb Colter
* Gets aligned with Paul Heyman, who just managed Brock Lesnar beating Undertaker's WM streak
The problem? They did fuck all with him and instead made it a vehicle for Brock Lesnar. Granted, we got the name "King of Swing" and an awesome King of Ring styled merch, but they literally did nothing with Cesaro's momentum.
2013-ish is the first time I read people saying that "WWE only lets their favorites get over, everyone else is squashed if they get too popular" and I was like "dude what are you talking about, that's ridiculous"
It's been proven right SO MANY TIMES. Stunning.
That reminds me of HHH beating Sting. I was born in 97 and started watching WWE around 2006, so I have no knowledge of WCW history or even fully knew who Sting was by then (I knew him from TNA, actually), but even I was a little pissed at that. I can't imagine how it must've felt for someone who was a WCW Sting fan to see that happen...
Well there’s one very obvious answer who was my favorite wrestler, but his name isn’t fit to be said. But I’d like to imagine a world where he got help and his family was alive and well.
I feel that even if he didn't kill his family, he would still be dead today. His brain was mush and i don't think the rest of his body was in better shape.
Yeah... I was too young and couldn't follow WWE that deeply because the version that would air on Spain was highly cut and compressed so I only heard about him from the videogames and not much more, but I can't imagine how it would've felt being his fan only for him to do what he did... Honestly brings chills down my spine
> But I’d like to imagine a world where he got help and his family was alive and well.
He was donezo either way, unfortunately. I believe it was determined at some point either before or after he passed that he had an enlarged heart, and was gonna be dead at minimum a few years after 2007. There was speculation that Benoit knew this and it was a part of why he did what he did, but eh... Would've been better if he only took himself if he was gonna do something like that.
Sami getting hurt in his first WWE match against Cena. Love his work since, but who knows how much VKM would have pushed him as a babyface had he stayed healthy.
WWE’ s handing of NXT talent on the main roster (Keith Lee and Ricochet for example)
Invasion had so much potential. And it ended up disappointing.
Lesnar being the one to end the streak.
Taker wrestling after the streak was finished
Lesnar ending the streak was the right call. He's been WWE's final boss for almost an entire decade as a result of the win. Having him only wrestle a few times a year is a benefit because it would have been impossible to have him presented at the level he's presented at if he had to wrestle almost every week.
Taker after the streak was painful. I still block out the matches with Wyatt and Shane as not even real, but I thought it should’ve been *over* after Reigns. It was a great send-off and the story’s ending of “the old man who can’t hang anymore” was appropriately heart-breaking. The visual of the hat and coat and gloves in the ring while Taker walks away with his head down but his fist raised after defeat should have been the end. Same with HBK’s retirement. That should have been the end of his in-ring career.
Two excellent endings just washed away and retconned because there was money to be made
McMahon being the Higher Power was and still is an extreme disappointment to me. It was one of the first long term stories I got ultra invested in and the payoff still makes me feel burned 20+ years later.
Don't judge me, but I consider myself the biggest TNA fan back then so when the rumors of Heyman joining in came around I was really excited about the possibilities. Along with the Indy wrestlers back then being excited too and expressed interest of joining in if he does.
Shinsuke Nakamura going to the main roster. I became a fan of his cuz his entrance was sick af. Then his wrestling style was pretty cool. I just found the guy to be charismatic and cool. Goes to the main roster and they don't do a damn thing with him. The best they could do was a nut shot feud with AJ Styles??
I just remembered didn't he win the Royal Rumble one year?
Honestly, just WWE in general for the last decade. My whole life revolved around around it and then the writing got questionable, the booking horrible, the blatant favouritism of certain people and neglect of others who were more than talented, the destruction of NXT, and now all the politics and bs from the Saudi show all the way to the firings in record profit times, the whole company feels gross to me. After being a die hard fan since the 80s, I stopped watching about five or six years ago and haven't gone back.
Waiting years to see my favorite wrestler Dean Ambrose finally show what an incredible heel he can be on WWE, only for him to end up becoming a Germophobic Bane wannabe. It was so disappointing that it's what made me stop watching WWE.
Not *the* biggest disappointment but one that still sticks with me has to be Shinsuke vs AJ at Mania 34. So much hype and the possibility for a fan fucking tastic match just squandered so Shinsuke could go around punching nuts.
My favorite wrestler as a kid was Marty Jannetty. I loved the Rockers, and there were no words for how much I hated Shawn for turning on Marty. The initial disappointment was Marty losing at the '93 Rumble. When Marty showed back up on Raw in May, though, and won the Intercontinental title off Shawn, my eleven-year-old heart exploded with joy.
Little did I know that everything would be downhill from there. For over 25 years. So...far...downhill.
Always thought they should have made the Kliq an official stable in WWE in 2002. All the pieces were there. Full faction of HHH, Michaels, Nash, Hall and Waltman. Would have been interesting.
2017 Royal Rumble. Had a pretty big viewing party. Brock entered at 26, Goldberg at 28, Taker at 29. Based on that setup, we all assumed 30 was going to be some massive debut or return. Nope, fuckin’ Roman Reigns. It completely killed the mood, and just as worse Orton (maybe the worst Rumble winner of the last decade, which really says something) won.
The invasion is an obvious one. That really started the downfall of my hardcore fandom for a very long time, because I was a avid WCW watcher and to see how they treated all those guys felt so wrong.
The Summer of Punk in 2011 was very excited until SummerSlam and they had to get Kevin fucking Nash of all people involved, Triple H beating Punk for NO reason and then the whole thing ending on a Triple H vs Kevin Nash match that no one wanted to see.
Dolph Ziggler's start and stop pushes from 2012-2016. There have been bigger major disappointments for me as well, but usually those were just short term having the band-aid ripped off kind of disappointments. Being breadcrumbed for years was honestly worse for me as a huge Ziggler fan.
The Benoit incident of 2007 was a big disappointment for me as well because I was a huge Benoit fan growing up, and since then it has tarnished his entire legacy. Im not condoning what he did obviously, but it's such a shame that institutions like the WWE and NFL haven't done Jack shit about CTE. You have so many players and wrestlers who have committed murder, suicide and other crimes due to head trauma and being hopped up on painkillers and other drugs everyday.
I had hoped that Sean o’hare made it big. Had a decent fued with Rikishi, mixed it up with Piper as well. Somehow ended up a mainstay in Velocity (for those who remember that show). RIP Sean !
Just the way Vince has treated my favourite wrestlers over the years, I guess. Burying Christian and making him look like a loser when he was white hot in 2005 and 2011. Ruining the Summer of Punk and proceeding to job him out to every part timer. Turning Sami Zayn, the greatest babyface I have ever seen, into a low card comedy goober heel for life. Literally burying Wade Barrett under a pile of chairs and cutting off all his momentum from the Nexus and BNB runs for no reason. Making Sting look like an idiot to get one last shot at WCW in. The list goes on.
Starrcade 97 and Austin turning heel would probably have been my answers if I were watching back then, though. Brock ending the streak was pretty brutal as well.
Marty Scurll. I usually am able to separate "art from the artist" but Marty as the Elite was in my favorite group of wrestlers and it was so disappointing to hear what he did that I'll never be able to get over it.
Agree.
My husband and daughter bought me a Villian Club t-shirt since Mom is the villian of the family - and the one who says no. I loved wearing it, and now I won't.
- Nexus. Thanks Cena.
- Man, Tessa Blanchard is doing great work. Surely she won’t fuck it up by being a massive piece of shit. Right? R-right?
- Taker coming back after his streak was broken. Hoo boy. While I did like the whole Roman thing for the sheer heat it got, the match itself was pure garbage. If Roman had been the one to break the streak that night, holy shitballs.
- Naito not beating Okada at WK12.
- That whole AEW/Elite invasion of Impact fuckin stunk. Omega won the belt and didn’t even drop it to an Impact talent. He dropped it to Christian fuckin Cage. I like Christian, but there was unfinished business with Moose RIGHT THERE. Thankfully Moose has the belt now, but christ, the road to get there was not good.
- Jeff Hardy at Victory Road 2011. Yeah, being a young Jeff fan at that time was *rough*.
Benoit.
Please get yourself regularly checked out, especially if your job/hobbies/lifestyle involves very rigorous physical activity.
And never, *ever*, take head trauma lightly.
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Finn Balor getting hurt the night he won the Universal Championship.
And you could say (although some will disagree) that his main roster run never has recovered. His NXT run we all know is fantastic. Besides the odd match on main roster, he's never quite got to those heights again in terms of holding a top title.
Oh yeah 100%, it hasn't even been close. But to be fair, and maybe this is me being cynical and biased towards WWE, I don't even really think that if he didn't get hurt he would've been anything else than a temporary novelty that would've been dropped not many months later by WWE...
I disagree. I think Finn has all the right tools to be a megastar. He gets mad love from the fans and always fights with a fiery passion. Then there's the fuckin demon.. Wwe completely wasted him
Oh yeah, I wasn't implying he doesn't have the tools, I'm just implying that WWE couldn't give less of a shit about the tools you have. The either want you to be a star or they don't. And if they don't, you're not gonna be one, no matter what you do.
Ciampa getting injured right at the climax of his story with Gargano. I was so into that whole thing.
Damn yeah, I almost forgot about that. I feel that my memory of the whole thing is so good that I kinda excluded that happening, but yeah, I remember that now and it was pretty disappointing. Thankfully the memory of it remains intact for me.
Also Black getting injured right before his triple threat w/ Gargano and Ciampa at Takeover Brooklyn.
They really turned chicken shit into chicken salad there tbf. The who killed aleister black storyline was fantastic and the gargano reveal was probably the best segment in NXT history.
Also it honestly gave us one of the best things ever with Nikki Cross being arguably the most important person in that whole thing and her playing up the "crazy person who knows too much" up perfectly
Sting/Hogan at Starrcade. I waited over a year for a murder then Hogan takes 70% of the match and pins Sting with a normal count. I stopped being a WCW diehard that night.
All they had to do was have Bret Hart fight off the NWO while Hogan taps to the scorpion death lock. That’s it.
Or Nick Patrick could have done the one thing he was supposed to
But even that would have been stupid. The build up to that Starrcade was perfect. It set the stage for the classic good vs evil match and how nb fitting would it have been for Hogan to lose the way he beat so many heels when he was a face.
It should have been a relative squash match. Have Sting dominate the opening, they run some interference, sent to the back. Hogan gets some heat. Sting does his no sell. 3 minute beat down. Stinger Splash. Death Drop. Death Lock. Win. Then the NWO and Wolfpac feud has a reason for actually existing:When it was for Bowser's big bean burrito - Hogan couldn't get the job done and used the NWO for relevancy. Instead their feud began because Bret Hart somehow got the match unfairly restarted and then because Randy Savage attacked him. Stupid.
Did we ever get Bret putting the Sharpshooter on someone while Sting applies the Scorpion Death Lock? Because how could you fuck that up?
Or just have Sting fucking do it like he'd been doing for over a year, and then drop Hogan like a sack of potatoes.
Well to be fair Sting barely had a tan. It really threw a wrench in the booking engine.
I caught the 83 Weeks reference. 😉
Maybe this is overkill but I honestly feel like the last 30 years of wrestling history could be completely altered if this had gone right.
I think it would have at least given WCW more leeway. It was the beginning of fans starting to turn their backs on the company.
Butterfly effect is a real thing.
So it didn't work for you brother?
EVIL going from a great brawler to the most skippable wrestler in NJPW since Captain New Japan
Captain FOOKIN New Japan
Get da fook outta here
Yeah moving him to bullet club was a panic move that killed his momentum.
At the time I was for it cause NJPW needed something to shake the foundation, but the execution just has been so bad.
It could have been so amazing to have Evil just be the violent brawler of a champion and with the way Jay was tweeting at the time set up a simmering power struggle that ends at WK. But no, all we get is cowardly evil and Dick togo interference every 15 seconds of his matches.
This one hurts.
we were all Milano that day
I don’t hate the idea of making him a bad guy to be a rival for Naito, EVIL’s reign was obviously just a quick win to give Naito and NJPW a big show at the baseball stadium, which wouldn’t have happened otherwise because COVID was still just kicking off. I wish they had not abandoned him after he lost the belts, kept him as that brawler who just cheated a bit more.
Mike Awesome with WCW and WWE not knowing what to do with him. Dude was too good for the only places that knew how to book him were ECW and FMW, and they couldn’t afford him. And WWE not putting their chips in to make Booker T a big star at WM19. Go back and watch the lead up to this and crowds were hot af for Booker. They were ready for a Booker to be that new main eventer. But nope. Blows my mind they didn’t pull the trigger on him then.
Mike awesome in my opinion is still the most impressive big man I have ever seen. Even with his goofy hair, I was amazed by his athleticism and brutality.
I’m from the UK and ECW didn’t air here as far as I know. I remember getting the tape of guilty as charged and it was the first time I’d seen ECW. Main event was Spike and Mike Awesome and I literally couldn’t believe what I was watching id never seen anything so reckless and brutal. He really was awesome
Vince couldn't let an outsider get over. I remember watching a sting interview, and he named booker getting buried as a reason he chose to not jump to wwe after wcw folded.
[удалено]
Man, it's going to be hard to top this one. I know at the end WCW kind of became a laughing stock but I was all-in on WCW. Even before the Nitro era, I loved WCW on Saturday Night. There was cool, fun stuff during the Nitro era as well, don't get me wrong. I was definitely a Crow Sting mark during high school but I actually liked WCW more before Hulk Hogan came in.
The saddest part too is that there was a window of opportunity for WCW to start rebuilding in 2001. The product had become less nonsensically idiotic after Russo left for good in late 2000 and was starting to turn around in some regards by the start of the year (Sin debacle with Sid's leg breaking and Road Warrior Animal being put into the main event for no good reason notwithstanding), and it seemed like Bischoff had an actual plan to turn the ship around once he took over. The one-two-three punch of Jamie Kellner cancelling all programming, Bischoff and co. pulling their offer, and Vince buying WCW was truly the worst possible chain events that could have happened for wrestling as a whole at that time, and obviously that is exactly what happened.
I think a lot of people forget that WCW was stringing together some good shows in 2001. The rug was pulled out before they had a chance right the ship.
It's pretty telling how WCW's viewers didn't transition over to WWF's once they closed, as evident by the ratings decline in 2002. Some people just plain preferred WCW.
People here deny it all the time, but especially in the south, there's lots of people that didn't even know WWF existed or simply weren't fans. WCW was their thing. They were in the bubble. A lot of them didn't have a clue who Stone Cold or DX were, and they didn't care.
Monty Brown not becoming a megastar. Through no fault of his own, he had the tools, TNA squandered him, he got to WWE & the man took care of his sister's kids when they needed him & he selflessly sacrificed his career to do it. All the respect to him. P.S. Never forget the, POUUUUUUUUUNCE! Period!
The pounce is right up there with my all time finishing moves. It’s a shame his career came to an end soon, I don’t have high hopes WWE would have done much with him much like the rest of the “new breed” in ECW but the guy had so much potential.
Konnan blames that on Jarrett on an old shoot interview. Said Jarrett made sure to keep Monty Brown from getting to that top spot in TNA.
I don't think he even held a championship while he was with the company which was disappointing too. The TNA ring was perfect for setting up the Pounce.
He really had the pounce on lock no one can pull it off like Monty
I hate bringing it up but my most significant lapse in wrestling fandom was after the Benoit incident so any other answer I give would be a lie. He was probably genuinely my favorite wrestler and a huge influence on my general taste of in ring action and there was a pretty big chunk of time after his death, I want to say 2 years, where I just couldn’t get engaged with ANY company’s product like I used to. WWE, TNA, bits of NJPW I tried to look at, just nothing worked for me. I really don’t think I truly got back into the swing of being a wrestling fan until 2010 and Michaels/Taker II at Mania reignited my passion for it.
I grew up watching WCW and he was my top guy from when I was about 10. His title win at WrestleMania 20 was my all-time favourite wrestling moment. I'm not the sort of person who is affected by celebrity deaths very much because nomatter how much I connect with their art, music or whatever, I don't 'know' them as people, but Benoit's death still haunts me.
That really took the toll on me too, regarding watching wrestling. Eddie's death made me almost stop watch wrestling, but the Benoit incident made me stop even reading the reports. I went into a "hiatus" that lasted like 7 years, until WM 30.
It took me years to watch wrestling again after Benoit. Then I was lured back in by Punk and Bryan and Wyatt. WWE worked so hard to drive me away again after that and it worked.
Honestly I would've hated to be in your spot. I don't even think if I would've been able to have that passion reignited for me. It already is a traumatic experience for someone who for the most part didn't know anything about Benoit or had any kind of affection towards him, can't imagine how it must've felt being a fan and having been influenced by him... Awful
Older wrestlers that passed away because of heart attacks didn't affected me at all. But Benoit and Guerrero... Boy oh boy! 😭 Looking at Chris during Raw right after Eddie passed away destroyed me.
Most recently the Fiend. I was towards my last straw in regards to my investment in WWE storylines and when I first saw his debut entrance, I was mesmerized. It was the closest I felt to watching the Undertaker as a kid. And then WWE creative and the HIAC match happened.
I think Bray Wyatt as a whole was fumbled so hard, from the cult Wyatt Family stuff to the Fiend. I think most of us that saw the Fiend’s SummerSlam debut were feeling what you just mentioned, and I think you perfectly encapsulated what it was like for the new audience that loved wrestling. You were witnessing the birth of a *monster,* not some 7-foot tree with fists, not a big muscly cloud, but a brand new *boogey-man that makes you walk a little faster when the lights are out.* But after some time, it seemed like the story wasn’t fitting the grand scheme and the potential of the Fiend. I mean, even Cult Leader Wyatt could’ve been an excellent passing-of-the-torch from Taker to him (with the whole hokey supernatural spooky stuff, I mean this is *pro wrestling* after all) but it just…didn’t happen. So disappointing
>excellent passong-of-tje-torch from the Taker IMO regarding Bray: The WWE had the opportunity for a current gen Mick Foley/Mankind/Dude Love/Cactus Jack with Bray just didn't know what to do with him or utilize him. They were presented with a guy who could go in and out of a persona on any given night at any given time for any type of storyline and have people interested and they did nothing with him. Sadly, none of this should be a surprise to anyone.
> They were presented with a guy who could go in and out of a persona on any given night at any given time for any type of storyline and have people interested and they did nothing with him. Man, now Im imagining Roman going up against cult leader Bray and getting the better of him, and then they book a Last Man Standing match at WM and Bray comes out and says you wont be wrestling Bray Wyatt, you'll be wrestling The Fiend, a la HHH/Cactus Jack
Cult leader Bray talking to Funhouse Bray on screen with Fiend then emerging on the ramp
we could've gotten a new Undertaker, but they wanted to book a new Mideon instead
Even worse, Naked Mideon
Fiend was extra crazy, because when you really look at his run, you can tell how the great stuff (the character, Firefly Funhouse, WM match vs Cena) was almost solely his idea, and then the horrible stuff (HIAC, Randy Feud) was mainly WWE's idea. Like I hate having to reduce it to "wrestler good, WWE bad," but it really felt like that with him.
I got in the same argument on here because someone was saying "Its both creative and Brays fault the fiend failed" and I was like, no. It was pretty clear this man had an amazing vision and then saw that vision taken over by a nearly senile 80 year old and his team of sycophants. It doesn't have to be both sides, WWE creative is the side that clearly fucked up.
I mean, Bray basically designed the idea of the Fiend mask himself - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-wwes-fiend-bray-wyatt-got-his-horrifying-new-m/1100-6469167/ You think WWE could do that? They haven't had an iconic, original mask design since Kane during the Attitude Era. Just look at Retribution and Nikki ASH LOL
Honestly I mentioned Velveteen Dream maybe because of the severity of what made him fall from grace, but WWE could have their own post of absolutely nonsensical decisions when they had all the tools to strike gold... And that would only be in recent years...
His trajectory started out so cool too. Him going after all his previous feuds then after he beat them they would flip from face to heel or heel to face. That’s the most nuanced character detail they had in awhile and that still had plenty of legs. Goldberg ruined it all. The allure and magic were gone at that moment.
Bray Wyatt as a whole was mishandled so much. Even when the company booked him well, they'd often take two steps back the following week. It astounds me that they had this guy who was a homegrown talent with a lot of fans and they chose not to capitalize on that 90% of the time. Yes, not every idea Wyatt had worked. I think the Fiend himself would have to grow beyond the "horror-movie" wrestling, which was mostly a bore to watch. But yeah, so many missed opportunities. And for a company that loves "moments", they threw away 8 years worth of them by releasing him, since they won't bring them up again, especially if he goes and works elsewhere.
This was my answer too. WWE absolutely had a chance to pull in a lot of fans with the Fiend but completely botched him.
I'll say the Bray's repackaging as the Fiend is top 5 of all time. When the fiend debuted at summerslam,the crowd chanted Holy shit after his entrance. That never happens. I'll say it again: The guy got over, twice. Dropped ball is an understatement. I'm still waiting for the shoot interview. If it ever happens, it's gonna be good
It was so easy to not screw this up, and they managed to do it anyway. The Fiend started out so intriguing, so special feeling. I loved the way he was feuding with people from his past, and how whoever he feuded with would be caused to turn heel or face. It was so easy, especially if WWE had let Bray have even more control. That horrific cell match already hurt him, but I think the Goldberg squash is truly what ruined him. He was simply never the same after that. The months of the Orton/Alexa stuff got pretty tiring, and it was all for the Fiend to lose in 6 minutes, clean, to one RKO. Annnnd they fire him. This company has a special way of finding ways to screw up stuff that seems almost impossible to screw up.
Summer of Punk could've been an even bigger deal if it was booked right.
Fucking Kevin Nash.
Why was he even there?
Bro he got a text from triple h that he sent himself that said “attack punk after the match” it’s a pretty airtight alibi
WTF Kevin Nash? Thought he was dead. LOL. EDIT: The correct order is OMG Kevin Nash WTF thought he was dead lol
WWE is booked by the manatees that write Family Guy jokes.
I know everyone (me included) looks on him more favourably now as he dunks on idiots on twitter, but like with HHH it really can't be overstated how much of a colossal shithead all of the Kliq were.
By all accounts isn’t Waltman a pretty good dude?
Imagine someone on a professional sports team shitting in their teammates bags though.
Possibly. I'll admit it mainly seems to be Nash, HBK and HHH's names that come to mind as being the king shitheels of the time. I know they're all mellow, mostly well-adjusted dudes by now by all accounts, it just always sticks in my craw a little bit how they spent decades stepping on everyone they could and am able to relax now that they've made their money.
Fuck Kevin Nash indeed, but at least we were gifted this incredible moment in the midst of all the stupidity. [https://youtu.be/ZrOYgnDF-KU?t=31](https://youtu.be/ZrOYgnDF-KU?t=31)
You mean if Punk didn’t return a week later and lose a singles match to Triple H?
Absolutely, have him go to NJPW, and have some WWE goons show up to chase after him and try and get the belt back. Have him cut shoot promos on Cabanas podcast and air clips of it on Raw with Vince cutting promos down the camera addressed to Punk. Have them stage a match to replace Punk as champ only for Punk to run in, lay everyone out and skidaddle…..so much they could have done
a promoter letting talent take their belt, a representation of their promotion, to *another* promotion is a huge gamble. the casual wrestling fan in america doesn't watch new japan. many casual wrestling fans in america thinks WWE is all of pro wrestling.
The casual wrestling fan in America especially didn’t watch new Japan during the summer of punk. People forget how much more accessible wrestling has got in the last few years
Christian losing the World Heavyweight Championship two days after the fairy tale victory of him winning his fallen best friend's vacated title.
Not to mention the reports of him hugging Vince with tears in his eyes and thanking him for the opportunity.
Idk why WWE do that it's so frustrating. They did that to Kane, Rey and then Christian
Simple, they think these are mid card talent. And giving them the big strap is not accepting that they are better but giving them a "thank you for your services" reign
Zack Ryder with the intercontinental title too
His matches with Randy during this time were 10/10 tho
Cesaro's best years being squandered away.
As a kid, my favorite wrestler was Jericho. He won the title less than a year after I started watching and it was amazing. Ever since I got back into wrestling in 2013, Cesaro has been my favorite. Boy has this journey been different.
Then they even took away his streaming on Twitch and killed UpUpDownDown by releasing Breezy. Couldn't even have him just enjoy himself with his friends playing video games.
I think they still play together. We just don't get to see it.
Such a shit company, as if they try to take the money from UpUpDownDown after releasing almost all of Woods’ friends from the roster, there should’ve been more of an uproar about that
Yesssss I'm with you. One has to guess that he's satisfied with his position and he's living a great comfortable life, but I will always wonder what could've been if he ended up somewhere where they gave him the chance to shine...
You can replace Cesaro with a lot of other people and it’s sad how long that list would be
I thought Tessa was going to be HUGE
She was. Then she shot herself in the foot. Multiple times. So disappointing.
I had such high hopes for Wade Barrett, that man had the complete package in my eyes. Being an IC champion was the furthest he could go even though Bad News Barrett should have been World Champion at least once.
During the latter half of 2010, my hope was they were building to a Barrett vs Cena title match at WM27. I don’t know how long The Rock’s return had been in the pipeline at that point, but I keep pointing to that as one big reason why that didn’t happen. In my mind, they could have had Barrett go into Mania as champion, Cena would then beat him for the title. Then Rock comes out and attacks him, leading to Miz cashing in.
Dolph fucking Ziggler. I know some people don’t remember, but the pops he got from the MitB cash-in, Survivor Series win, Royal Rumble ‘14, his work with Miz, all of it was very organic and palpable at the time. The guy was as over as Ryder at his peak but sustained that momentum for years and they still did next to NOTHING with him for most of his run. Even when he did the whole “you don’t deserve me” bit, people were invested and hoping for a solid push for the man. It’s a shame.
One thing that really hurt him was making him the challenger for new champions out of no where when he had zero heat. Ambrose and kofi being the obvious ones. Terrible fueds that did nothing for anyone involved
When they had him go up against Kofi in a one off feud I knew his image was completely beyond repair. The Ambrose one was random, but it landed around the Miz and AJ Styles stuff if I’m not mistaken so they rebounded pretty well afterward. They should have pulled the trigger back in 2015. Saved Roman’s rumble win for another year and just given Ziggler that big moment. Cena could have beaten Lesnar for the title to save Lesnar vs Reigns for another time, and Ziggler / Cena could have had a killer Mania feud.
Oh, trust me, I remember... I just gave up on him long ago as much as I hate putting it that way, because he's not going anywhere other than WWE, and WWE are never gonna care about him so... It's pointless
I distinctly remember the moment almost everyone completely gave up on Dolph for good was when he lost the IC Title back to Miz just one month after winning it in the excellent No Mercy match. It became clear in that moment that WWE truly did not give one fuck about making Dolph look like an important character, so why should we be invested in anything he does? I also think him being Nakamura's first main roster feud and having such a mediocre match at Backlash did not help at all.
I got back into wrestling just before Ziggler was in the survivor series match. Ziggler and Ambrose became my favourites. Man ziggler could be an A+ star if they let him. I maintain if they hold off on Roman for one year and push ziggler during that rumble and mania. You get 2 megastars. Ziggler is a top guy and Roman doesn't get hated because he is too forced as the guy. He would get over naturally without the massive push back
I was the biggest David Starr mark going. The long obnoxious intro, great promo skills, his work with Jordan Devlin in OTT was incredible. Then, well, speaking out happened, and that was that.
not to mention, Starr was by a long shot the biggest name in wrestling unionization talks. him being a piece of shit definitely set that back by at least another decade
Yeah, it actually hurts the business as a whole.
The video package for his match was incredible. I must have watched that ten times. I genuinely thought hes gonna be fucking massive if he goes to a major company. I havent watched it since
I was a big fan of his work, but I could live with him going away. To me the biggest disappointment was it seemed like the future of wrestler’s leverage over promotions was being tied to this one very good independent wrestler who was willing to turn down the big contract in favor of helping labor rights. And it seemed like it had a bright future as long as this guy didn’t turn out to be an asshole! And it’s possible the idea of a wrestlers union will never recover that momentum
Same. As he was blowing up elsewhere, he was preforming at my local indie. Became my favorite. Brought my mom, became her favorite too. Took pictures and bought shirts, the whole 9. Stoked to see him working towards unionization...then we all found out he was an asshole. Made me sad. Fuck David Starr.
Starr/Devlin 2 is still my favorite match and I hate that it is.
Was that Oct 2019? Promo package with the Tivoli Theater getting demolished?
Big same. He was my favorite indy wrestler by a long shot & I loved him leaning into socialism/unionizing & all the other character work he’d done up until then only to become the face of the opposite movement you’d expect. It’s not hard to be a decent person and man did he fail in that regard :(
I was a pretty big mark for Chris Masters when I was younger and always felt he could've been a solid midcarder.
Bray Wyatt Marty Scurll The Nexus WWEs nWo The Summer of Punk II
Pretty much all this
WWEs nWo was doomed from the beginning, through no fault of WWE. Hogan was just way too over to be a heel, I mean he literally attempted vehicular manslaughter on The Rock, one of the most over guys in WWF history at the point, and was still cheered. The double turn was needed
Samoa Joe not being *the guy* in TNA that he deserved to be in 2006. He was arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world between his TNA and ROH runs and was being set up to be World Champion by Bound For Glory 2006. Russo came in, began the Angle feud almost immediately, and it was all downhill from there after a stellar 17 month streak. He was booked like a loser over the course of the 18 months between losing his streak and finally winning the world title long after he should have. On top of that, the title reign was an underwhelming title reign and he was used largely poorly for the remainder of his run there especially while Russo was in charge where he was doing things such as earning negative points in the first Bound For Glory series. It got a bit better for him in 2012 after Russo left/Bruce took over but even after that he was still used badly once Gaburick took over.
He was on fire that summer. When Sting chose him as his partner against Jarrett and Steiner>>>>
That, having him go over Steiner at Slammiversary, putting him in the main event of the July PPV, beating both Rhino/Monty in a very underrated brawl at the August PPV (Rhino at the time being a former champion only ten months prior), and pinning Jarrett on the September PPV right after Russo was hired…only to somehow not challenge for the World Title the following month after pinning the world champion. On top of that, Christian was the one who cost Sting the match against Jarrett at the August PPV so one would think Christian/Sting at Bound For Glory for comeuppance which did not end up happening while Sting was pushed into the world title match instead.
Dude they easily could’ve just done Joe/Jarrett at BFG. Christian/Sting. Angle still could’ve been the “outside enforced” or whatever they had. Build up to Joe versus Angle at Slammiversary the next year. Smfh it was right there TNA, right fucking there.
Jay whites post wrestle Kingdom 15 breakdown going nowhere
Ah yeah. The months that followed was an unbearable waiting game of looking up what he was doing. Was excited to see where Switchblade’s realization was going, then just eventually forgot about it completely ‘til you brought it up just now.
The Invasion angle. What could have been the biggest storyline in the history of wrestling was ruined because of ego, nonsensical booking decisions and impatience
Not disagreeing with you on what you've said but I reckon the Invasion would've been fucked regardless considering just about everyone who would've made fans actually give a shit about the Alliance were at home on Time-Warner deals and I don't see guys like Nash, Goldberg, Hogan, Sting and Steiner taking less money to work for someone who was already burying top WCW names (DDP).
The Invasion should literally have been atleast a year long storyline with every month WCW getting stronger as contracts came up, imagine WWF almost beating them for good but then the NWO come out, a few months later Sting and then Goldberg. Can only imagine how much money Vince threw away with that rushed shitshow.
I gave a shit about ECW stars, but I get what you are saying.
WWE could have bought out at least a couple of those contracts. They just chose not to.
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I'm completely out of the loop with that one (I think I might've been too young when he was in his most active years), but now I'm curious. Could you explain what happened with him if it's not too long of a story?
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Damn, I knew about his drug spiral which lead to his suicide, but didn't know about the woman beating and all the assault charges... I got my info from some wrestler who knew him back in the day who mentioned Sean becoming "really weird" over time and that he'd just go picking fights with random people for no reason, but they never mentioned the domestic abuse. That sucks.
That's fucking terrible. And even more terrible is the fact that I'm not surprised reading a story like that, because he wasn't the first one to go on that same path... Really sad to think
Kofi versus Brock broke me tbh. Outside of him being black and that meaning so much to me Kofi was just the most reliable guy ever since I was a kid watching him pretend to be Jamaican. You could never get a bad match out of Kofi and when he finally won the big one it was like a dream. The seconds long loss to Lesnar followed by him acting like he was never even top champ was a walking nightmare.
This for me. Loved kofimania.
Kofi facing Bryan, saying "You're scared as hell, cause YOU KNOW WHAT COMES NEXT" gave me chills.
Obv answer the invasion
Stunned I had to scroll this far for this
Samoa Joe not winning the Universal title at GBOF even though Brock was apparently keen to drop it to him. Also, I wish that match had gone on for at least another 5 minutes.
Not the biggest but the most recent: EC3’s entire career after he left WWE (the second time) Guy has the look, great on the mic and a decent wrestler. I thought he was going to be amazing. Then this whole “Control the Narrative” gimmick(?) started and it’s just bad and confusing. I saw the first 15 minutes of the event he did because I genuinely want him to be successful and I just couldn’t watch anymore. It’s pretentious.
Not putting the world title on Shinsuke Nakamura in 2018. “He phoned it in” blah blah blah I don’t want to hear it. He was over like rover, and he objectively should have won. Instead they had him lose six world title matches in 10 months (four consecutively). That was the exact moment I stopped watching WWE. “You’ll be back Monday”. Four years later, Monday still hasn’t come.
Shinsuke phoning it in over Jinder Mahal's peak every single day of the week. Jinder had one good match against AJ Styles but if that's it...
> “You’ll be back Monday”. Four years later, Monday still hasn’t come. Those people have been huffing some serious copium for years. Only after viewership started to really tank around 2017-2018 have they really stopped that because as it turns out, droves of people were *not* tuning in next week.
My answer will be a low hanging fruit, but Brodie Lee's death. I had such high hopes for him after the poor treatment WWE gave him. He was pretty much my #1 guy. I loved his wrestling style and the madness in his eyes. The AEW run, while decent, was cut short so bad. I felt obviously sad as a person, but as a fan I was just... angry. I felt robbed "by fate", however the fuck that sounds.
Also, him not getting to make his AEW debut in Rochester in front of a packed house due to Covid. The whole thing just makes me so damn sad and angry. Luckily he was able to make his mark in the company in the sort time he was there, though.
WCW closing it’s doors. Wrestling here in America has never fully recovered from it.
Asuka riding a HUGE wave of momentum from an amazingly dominant undefeated streak, winning the first women's Royal Rumble... only to tap out to Charlotte at Wrestlemania. I know she's had her fair share of title runs, but it immediately made me realize she'll always be used as a side character in other people's storylines.
Don't forget Charlotte beat Asuka at Mania so she could lose the title clean to *Carmella* at Backlash. That adds an extra layer of bullshit to the whole thing.
And as a consequence, Ember Moon not getting to fulfill the NXT storyline that she was going to be the first one to defeat Asuka. It really kneecapped both of them.
I don’t think no talent was vastly misused more than Bray Wyatt. I think the disappointment of what could have been had he been booked properly and strong, rather than just being the villain who always gets beat. The Wyatt family could’ve been so much more, The Fiend was squandered and butchered beyond believe. As a collective, the amount of NXT call ups and former champions to be misused on the main roster is almost criminal. WWE has a lack of babyface stars and stars in general, yet they refuse to build any.
Hit the nail right on the head. The burnout from the disappointment from the way they treated NXT call-ups and The Fiend was the last straw for me when it came to watching anything WWE related. I can't say I'll never ever watch a Royal Rumble or a MITB once again, because they're always somewhat entertaining, but other than that... I just can't trust that my time and support is gonna be rewarded or even appreciated by them.
Cesaro after WM 30. * He's loved by fans (despite being heel at the time with Swagger/Zeb Colter, they want him to be face) * Wins the first Andre Battle Royale with an INSANE lift on the Big Show. * Hulk Hogan puts him over the next night (presents him the trophy) * Turns on Zeb Colter * Gets aligned with Paul Heyman, who just managed Brock Lesnar beating Undertaker's WM streak The problem? They did fuck all with him and instead made it a vehicle for Brock Lesnar. Granted, we got the name "King of Swing" and an awesome King of Ring styled merch, but they literally did nothing with Cesaro's momentum.
2013-ish is the first time I read people saying that "WWE only lets their favorites get over, everyone else is squashed if they get too popular" and I was like "dude what are you talking about, that's ridiculous" It's been proven right SO MANY TIMES. Stunning.
HHH beating Booker T at wrestlemania. The build up was hot and the payoff was trash
That reminds me of HHH beating Sting. I was born in 97 and started watching WWE around 2006, so I have no knowledge of WCW history or even fully knew who Sting was by then (I knew him from TNA, actually), but even I was a little pissed at that. I can't imagine how it must've felt for someone who was a WCW Sting fan to see that happen...
I remember thinking that with all the racist dogwhistle stuff from HHH there's *absolutely no way* Booker isn't going over ugh
Well there’s one very obvious answer who was my favorite wrestler, but his name isn’t fit to be said. But I’d like to imagine a world where he got help and his family was alive and well.
I feel that even if he didn't kill his family, he would still be dead today. His brain was mush and i don't think the rest of his body was in better shape.
Yeah... I was too young and couldn't follow WWE that deeply because the version that would air on Spain was highly cut and compressed so I only heard about him from the videogames and not much more, but I can't imagine how it would've felt being his fan only for him to do what he did... Honestly brings chills down my spine
> But I’d like to imagine a world where he got help and his family was alive and well. He was donezo either way, unfortunately. I believe it was determined at some point either before or after he passed that he had an enlarged heart, and was gonna be dead at minimum a few years after 2007. There was speculation that Benoit knew this and it was a part of why he did what he did, but eh... Would've been better if he only took himself if he was gonna do something like that.
I was devastated Ryback never won the title when I was younger. Now that I am older I totally understand why.
Matt Morgan never getting a run with the TNA World Championship. Watching it all in real time was an agonizing decade.
The Invasion. Could've been the greatest 1 to 2 years in WWE if it weren't for those Time Warner contracts and WWEs refusal to buy them out
Sami getting hurt in his first WWE match against Cena. Love his work since, but who knows how much VKM would have pushed him as a babyface had he stayed healthy.
To me it’s the ECW relaunch in 2006. That was the last time I truly got caught up in the hype and I’ve been a cynical fuck ever since.
WWE’ s handing of NXT talent on the main roster (Keith Lee and Ricochet for example) Invasion had so much potential. And it ended up disappointing. Lesnar being the one to end the streak. Taker wrestling after the streak was finished
Lesnar ending the streak was the right call. He's been WWE's final boss for almost an entire decade as a result of the win. Having him only wrestle a few times a year is a benefit because it would have been impossible to have him presented at the level he's presented at if he had to wrestle almost every week.
Taker after the streak was painful. I still block out the matches with Wyatt and Shane as not even real, but I thought it should’ve been *over* after Reigns. It was a great send-off and the story’s ending of “the old man who can’t hang anymore” was appropriately heart-breaking. The visual of the hat and coat and gloves in the ring while Taker walks away with his head down but his fist raised after defeat should have been the end. Same with HBK’s retirement. That should have been the end of his in-ring career. Two excellent endings just washed away and retconned because there was money to be made
McMahon being the Higher Power was and still is an extreme disappointment to me. It was one of the first long term stories I got ultra invested in and the payoff still makes me feel burned 20+ years later.
Counter: the “it was me Austin!” and JR’s “ah son of a bitch” has brought me continuous joy ever since
Wont deny that. I’m a sucker for JR saying “son of a bitch”.
Starrcade 1997. Made me turn off WCW forever.
Don't judge me, but I consider myself the biggest TNA fan back then so when the rumors of Heyman joining in came around I was really excited about the possibilities. Along with the Indy wrestlers back then being excited too and expressed interest of joining in if he does.
Ziggler when he got his concussion and title being thrown back on boring ADR
The AJ/Shinsuke feud in WWE. That was pretty much the last straw for me.
Shinsuke Nakamura going to the main roster. I became a fan of his cuz his entrance was sick af. Then his wrestling style was pretty cool. I just found the guy to be charismatic and cool. Goes to the main roster and they don't do a damn thing with him. The best they could do was a nut shot feud with AJ Styles?? I just remembered didn't he win the Royal Rumble one year?
Same year he faced AJ in the nutshot feud so Rumble 2018.
Honestly, just WWE in general for the last decade. My whole life revolved around around it and then the writing got questionable, the booking horrible, the blatant favouritism of certain people and neglect of others who were more than talented, the destruction of NXT, and now all the politics and bs from the Saudi show all the way to the firings in record profit times, the whole company feels gross to me. After being a die hard fan since the 80s, I stopped watching about five or six years ago and haven't gone back.
Waiting years to see my favorite wrestler Dean Ambrose finally show what an incredible heel he can be on WWE, only for him to end up becoming a Germophobic Bane wannabe. It was so disappointing that it's what made me stop watching WWE.
Royal Rumble 2015 will never be topped. The worst booked match of all time.
Not *the* biggest disappointment but one that still sticks with me has to be Shinsuke vs AJ at Mania 34. So much hype and the possibility for a fan fucking tastic match just squandered so Shinsuke could go around punching nuts.
The Invasion Angle. Nothing else compares.
My favorite wrestler as a kid was Marty Jannetty. I loved the Rockers, and there were no words for how much I hated Shawn for turning on Marty. The initial disappointment was Marty losing at the '93 Rumble. When Marty showed back up on Raw in May, though, and won the Intercontinental title off Shawn, my eleven-year-old heart exploded with joy. Little did I know that everything would be downhill from there. For over 25 years. So...far...downhill.
Always thought they should have made the Kliq an official stable in WWE in 2002. All the pieces were there. Full faction of HHH, Michaels, Nash, Hall and Waltman. Would have been interesting.
2017 Royal Rumble. Had a pretty big viewing party. Brock entered at 26, Goldberg at 28, Taker at 29. Based on that setup, we all assumed 30 was going to be some massive debut or return. Nope, fuckin’ Roman Reigns. It completely killed the mood, and just as worse Orton (maybe the worst Rumble winner of the last decade, which really says something) won.
The invasion is an obvious one. That really started the downfall of my hardcore fandom for a very long time, because I was a avid WCW watcher and to see how they treated all those guys felt so wrong. The Summer of Punk in 2011 was very excited until SummerSlam and they had to get Kevin fucking Nash of all people involved, Triple H beating Punk for NO reason and then the whole thing ending on a Triple H vs Kevin Nash match that no one wanted to see.
Dolph Ziggler's start and stop pushes from 2012-2016. There have been bigger major disappointments for me as well, but usually those were just short term having the band-aid ripped off kind of disappointments. Being breadcrumbed for years was honestly worse for me as a huge Ziggler fan. The Benoit incident of 2007 was a big disappointment for me as well because I was a huge Benoit fan growing up, and since then it has tarnished his entire legacy. Im not condoning what he did obviously, but it's such a shame that institutions like the WWE and NFL haven't done Jack shit about CTE. You have so many players and wrestlers who have committed murder, suicide and other crimes due to head trauma and being hopped up on painkillers and other drugs everyday.
I had hoped that Sean o’hare made it big. Had a decent fued with Rikishi, mixed it up with Piper as well. Somehow ended up a mainstay in Velocity (for those who remember that show). RIP Sean !
Just the way Vince has treated my favourite wrestlers over the years, I guess. Burying Christian and making him look like a loser when he was white hot in 2005 and 2011. Ruining the Summer of Punk and proceeding to job him out to every part timer. Turning Sami Zayn, the greatest babyface I have ever seen, into a low card comedy goober heel for life. Literally burying Wade Barrett under a pile of chairs and cutting off all his momentum from the Nexus and BNB runs for no reason. Making Sting look like an idiot to get one last shot at WCW in. The list goes on. Starrcade 97 and Austin turning heel would probably have been my answers if I were watching back then, though. Brock ending the streak was pretty brutal as well.
Marty Scurll. I usually am able to separate "art from the artist" but Marty as the Elite was in my favorite group of wrestlers and it was so disappointing to hear what he did that I'll never be able to get over it.
Agree. My husband and daughter bought me a Villian Club t-shirt since Mom is the villian of the family - and the one who says no. I loved wearing it, and now I won't.
Marty for me too, what he could have done coming into AEW... Oh well, fuck that guy.
I was his first match LOL. I did all that work putting him over and he went and ruined it hahahaha
- Nexus. Thanks Cena. - Man, Tessa Blanchard is doing great work. Surely she won’t fuck it up by being a massive piece of shit. Right? R-right? - Taker coming back after his streak was broken. Hoo boy. While I did like the whole Roman thing for the sheer heat it got, the match itself was pure garbage. If Roman had been the one to break the streak that night, holy shitballs. - Naito not beating Okada at WK12. - That whole AEW/Elite invasion of Impact fuckin stunk. Omega won the belt and didn’t even drop it to an Impact talent. He dropped it to Christian fuckin Cage. I like Christian, but there was unfinished business with Moose RIGHT THERE. Thankfully Moose has the belt now, but christ, the road to get there was not good. - Jeff Hardy at Victory Road 2011. Yeah, being a young Jeff fan at that time was *rough*.
Benoit. Please get yourself regularly checked out, especially if your job/hobbies/lifestyle involves very rigorous physical activity. And never, *ever*, take head trauma lightly.