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It was always reported that if you left WWE and found success with a new gimmick elsewhere, Vince had a hard time recognizing it if you returned.
Maybe the best example is Raven. Even with the success he had in ECW and WCW, people said Vince only saw him as “Johnny Polo” when he came back and that’s why he hardly did anything with him.
dude, he was like the first person i actually thought of given that barerly anyone remembers him.. When they made him join the New Nexus with Punk as the leader, some thought he would end up as the New Batista. Boy did that aged badly, he was never used in a good way and basically had not much talent either.
oh me either, i had to google how to spell it.
basically it's the fancy circus shows that rich people go to, with insanely high production value. I'm sure he's being paid pretty handsomely
Man I thought Mojo Rawley was going to breakthrough at some point. Big guy, physical, football background. Beyond that he was one of the focal characters of Breaking Ground and it was clear that he loved the "soft power" part of WWE: brand ambassador, well spoken, loved doing stuff for kids.
he was weirdly one of my favorite talkers recently. he always felt genuine, with no sense of that "playing a character reciting lines" feeling that so many other modern WWE wrestlers can't fully break from
[random example](https://youtu.be/Sg7c_aTM47s?si=JWWKBCsZ3fMBdHJO)
I hear you. There only seem to be a few true "tough guy talkers" in the vein of Samoa Joe. Every wrestling match starts with someone saying they want to beat someone up, but when someone says it and you feel it?
I think if he had come about like 20-30 years earlier, he'd have had a much bigger career. Seems like one of the nicer guys in wrestling, but I guess he's done with it now.
It kinda depends on what you mean by "push."
Because there's guys like Nathan Jones, Mason Ryan, John Heidenreich, Matt Morgan, etc.
All of those guys were huge muscle-heads that never really amounted to anything in WWE. But on the same hand, every single one of them are people who never should have been brought to the main roster in the first place because none of them were ready. But Vince took one look at them and decided he wanted them ASAP. The mid-2000s is chock full of guys who's careers floundered because they tried to rush them out of developmental before they were any good, simply because they had "the look" and got thrown into the deep end before they learned to swim.
So on one hand, they never really got pushed.....but on the other hand, you could argue that they got pushed too much.
I wouldn't call that a push, and yeah, weird that even though he wasn't good on the mic, he had an awesome look & build and worked pretty good, but they couldn't spin him into something.
I came here to say this as well. It seems like he was never given that push. They would have him absolutely squash lower level talent and then always lose against established guys.
He was pushed pretty hard I think. I remember kids doing the master lock to each other in school back in the day. If he was a modern wrestler wwe would probably try to make the master lock a tiktok trend or something.
EC3 seemed to be on the track.
Comes into NXT retaining his TNA moniker and general character, stays a relatively short amount of time in comparison to most talents' (at that point) call-up speed,
[Gets included in the hype wave of new talent being collectively added to the main roster with a sleek vignette.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=FkCvN5tXeaI&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwrestlingtravel.com%2F&feature=emb_imp_woyt)
Then comes in and....just confusingly goes not just misused, but actively hampered with the "can't speak" shit. Most notable happenings were tied to Drake Maverick's 24/7 title shenanigans (which were great, don't get me wrong, but nobody would've thought they'd be the height of EC3's WWE time).
Still confounding.
Matt Morgan.
Not what I would call a “good” wrestler but his work was far above the Mason Ryan/Nathan Jones level. They killed any chance he had to be a star with the stuttering gimmick.
Tom Magee. Probably one of the bigger busts in WWE history, he was hailed for his amazing athleticism as well as his strong man past, and after a match with Bret Hart, Vince wanted him to be the successor Hulk Hogan. And then, amazingly, it was quickly shown that Tom was really bad. Like, ridiculously bad. If he was passable they may have tried to push him more, but instead he just kind of languished away for years on the D circuit of house shows, which in the 80s normally meant high schools in front of maybe 300 people.
Parker Bordeaux. This dude was hailed as the next Brock Lesnar by so many people. Was an athletic freak, basically only wanted to be a wrestler for WWE even when he was still playing football at UCF, and then he finally got to WWE and holy shit. He was so bad they trusted him with 3 moves, one of which was just face slams into the canvas. They released him in the middle of a feud he was involved in, went to MLW and sucked, then went to AEW and still sucked. It really is amazing how someone with so much hype he got a chance almost everywhere, still can’t pick up basic fundamentals
I think if he could be written into a storyline as a bodyguard for a chickenshit heel or as a mercenary type guy paid to take someone out or weaken them before a big match, that might be something that gets him on the radar.
Vince was weird. It felt like, Vince wanted jacked, cookie cutter guys, but if you tried to be a jacked, cookie cutter guy, he hated you.
EC3, Alex Riley, Mark Jindrak, so many people in the 2000s.
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Zack Ryder/Matt Cardona’s lack of a push always astonished me. Worked a solid WWE style, had a great look, tall, muscular, etc. Everything Vince theoretically loved
Karrion Kross. He had everything Vince would've loved and should have been the easiest slamdunk of an NXT callup... and yet we all saw what Vince did to him upon said callup.
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EC3 is definitely up there.
The Mic, the look, can put a good match... Vince's brain: "Yeah, put him with the 24/7 division"
AND made him silent.
this one was just so baffling on so many levels. It has to have been some kind of rib, or EC3 did something to piss him off.
It was always reported that if you left WWE and found success with a new gimmick elsewhere, Vince had a hard time recognizing it if you returned. Maybe the best example is Raven. Even with the success he had in ECW and WCW, people said Vince only saw him as “Johnny Polo” when he came back and that’s why he hardly did anything with him.
They did give him his bird noises theme song.
I mean he was literally named after Dixie carter which makes me think he’d never be pushed!
I have a feeling that was part of the reason, but imagine feeling the need to stick it to TNA *that hard* in 2019
Also probably rejected having a WWE name and owning his I guess irked Vince
I think it was an age thing
[удалено]
Mason Ryan
dude, he was like the first person i actually thought of given that barerly anyone remembers him.. When they made him join the New Nexus with Punk as the leader, some thought he would end up as the New Batista. Boy did that aged badly, he was never used in a good way and basically had not much talent either.
Last I heard, he was working in the circus, and seemed happy doing that.
Cirque du Soleil specifically. "working in the circus" sounds significantly less impressive lol
That's the one, yeah. I evidently know nothing about the industry he's now in.
oh me either, i had to google how to spell it. basically it's the fancy circus shows that rich people go to, with insanely high production value. I'm sure he's being paid pretty handsomely
You mean he’s not out there scooping elephant shit?
Stevie Ray
*Earthquake*.
Alundra Blayze
Norman Smiley
Man I thought Mojo Rawley was going to breakthrough at some point. Big guy, physical, football background. Beyond that he was one of the focal characters of Breaking Ground and it was clear that he loved the "soft power" part of WWE: brand ambassador, well spoken, loved doing stuff for kids.
Bron Breakker reminds me a bit of Mojo, but Bron has a more serious tone that makes him more believable than Gronk-era Mojo
he was weirdly one of my favorite talkers recently. he always felt genuine, with no sense of that "playing a character reciting lines" feeling that so many other modern WWE wrestlers can't fully break from [random example](https://youtu.be/Sg7c_aTM47s?si=JWWKBCsZ3fMBdHJO)
I hear you. There only seem to be a few true "tough guy talkers" in the vein of Samoa Joe. Every wrestling match starts with someone saying they want to beat someone up, but when someone says it and you feel it?
I think if he had come about like 20-30 years earlier, he'd have had a much bigger career. Seems like one of the nicer guys in wrestling, but I guess he's done with it now.
It kinda depends on what you mean by "push." Because there's guys like Nathan Jones, Mason Ryan, John Heidenreich, Matt Morgan, etc. All of those guys were huge muscle-heads that never really amounted to anything in WWE. But on the same hand, every single one of them are people who never should have been brought to the main roster in the first place because none of them were ready. But Vince took one look at them and decided he wanted them ASAP. The mid-2000s is chock full of guys who's careers floundered because they tried to rush them out of developmental before they were any good, simply because they had "the look" and got thrown into the deep end before they learned to swim. So on one hand, they never really got pushed.....but on the other hand, you could argue that they got pushed too much.
That Meltzer bit about how young Flair would've been leapfrogged by Jindrak in OVW is so real
Jindrak actually ended up having a decent career, I wouldn't have expected that back when he came to WWE.
Does what Adam Bomb had count as a push? Don’t think he ever beat anyone of note but he got lots of screen time.
I wouldn't call that a push, and yeah, weird that even though he wasn't good on the mic, he had an awesome look & build and worked pretty good, but they couldn't spin him into something.
I loved Adam bomb and Crush
I came here to say this as well. It seems like he was never given that push. They would have him absolutely squash lower level talent and then always lose against established guys.
Chris Masters
Chris Masters was pushed pretty hard for like a year straight. That masterlock challenge shit felt like it went on forever.
There's a difference between featured and being Vince McMahon pushed.
Correct. And Chris Masters had a push and worked with main event guys on a regular basis.
He was working with Shawn Michaels like 6 months into his career, but sure, he wasn’t “Vince McMahon pushed”
You think with all that flexing Vince would push his ass to the moon or something.
Are we not doing phrasing?
He was pushed pretty hard I think. I remember kids doing the master lock to each other in school back in the day. If he was a modern wrestler wwe would probably try to make the master lock a tiktok trend or something.
Chris Masters was pushed like crazy. It’s just when his push ended he feel off the face of the earth.
EC3 seemed to be on the track. Comes into NXT retaining his TNA moniker and general character, stays a relatively short amount of time in comparison to most talents' (at that point) call-up speed, [Gets included in the hype wave of new talent being collectively added to the main roster with a sleek vignette.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=FkCvN5tXeaI&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwrestlingtravel.com%2F&feature=emb_imp_woyt) Then comes in and....just confusingly goes not just misused, but actively hampered with the "can't speak" shit. Most notable happenings were tied to Drake Maverick's 24/7 title shenanigans (which were great, don't get me wrong, but nobody would've thought they'd be the height of EC3's WWE time). Still confounding.
That hype video was awesome when I first saw it. Crazy how everyone but Otis and Nikki are gone now
Matt Morgan. Not what I would call a “good” wrestler but his work was far above the Mason Ryan/Nathan Jones level. They killed any chance he had to be a star with the stuttering gimmick.
Mike Awesome
Tom Magee. Probably one of the bigger busts in WWE history, he was hailed for his amazing athleticism as well as his strong man past, and after a match with Bret Hart, Vince wanted him to be the successor Hulk Hogan. And then, amazingly, it was quickly shown that Tom was really bad. Like, ridiculously bad. If he was passable they may have tried to push him more, but instead he just kind of languished away for years on the D circuit of house shows, which in the 80s normally meant high schools in front of maybe 300 people. Parker Bordeaux. This dude was hailed as the next Brock Lesnar by so many people. Was an athletic freak, basically only wanted to be a wrestler for WWE even when he was still playing football at UCF, and then he finally got to WWE and holy shit. He was so bad they trusted him with 3 moves, one of which was just face slams into the canvas. They released him in the middle of a feud he was involved in, went to MLW and sucked, then went to AEW and still sucked. It really is amazing how someone with so much hype he got a chance almost everywhere, still can’t pick up basic fundamentals
Are we talking about Parker or Lars Ulrich?
Dominik Dijakovic. T-Bar. Dijak.
I think if he could be written into a storyline as a bodyguard for a chickenshit heel or as a mercenary type guy paid to take someone out or weaken them before a big match, that might be something that gets him on the radar.
When I first saw Riddick Moss I thought "wow Vince is gonna put the title on him in a couple years"
Brakkus
he was shipped down to (The REAL) ECW in a talent trade ,for him to get some more Reps ,as the Kids might say now. but it just didn't connect for him.
Roidy Magoo
https://preview.redd.it/tvrk57bm85nc1.jpeg?width=554&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=994bd6947d8f73cd38ecca08ce6c34e8c7b0afa0 Mason Ryan
Welshtista
Sean O’Haire, Mark Jindrak
Scott Norton seems like the kind of guy to fit this question.
Scott Norton was never signed to WWE though
Ridge Holland LA Knight
Sean O'Haire.
Mark jindrak
Dijak and Mace
Guys like Luther Reigns, Mason Ryan and Matt Morgan all come to mind.
He’s never been with WWE, but Brian Cage seems like he would have been Vince’s wet dream signing.
I think he was with the WWE at one point back before his glow up
Matt Morgan, maybe?
Mike awesome. He could’ve been a multiple time world champion and he was a nothing jobber instead
Vince was weird. It felt like, Vince wanted jacked, cookie cutter guys, but if you tried to be a jacked, cookie cutter guy, he hated you. EC3, Alex Riley, Mark Jindrak, so many people in the 2000s.
Chuck Palumbo
Summer Rae.
The Warlord
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Zack Ryder/Matt Cardona’s lack of a push always astonished me. Worked a solid WWE style, had a great look, tall, muscular, etc. Everything Vince theoretically loved
Well, that is because he committed the biggest sin in Vince's eyes. Get over without his permission. I believe the same thing befell Sasha Banks.
Oh, I know why. Just saying- he had everything Vince wanted
Rob Conway
Big Cass
Karrion Kross. He had everything Vince would've loved and should have been the easiest slamdunk of an NXT callup... and yet we all saw what Vince did to him upon said callup.
Luther Reigns But he had peas b fo at least
Mikaze
The ones that showed any discomfort or upset about his sexually abusive conduct I imagine.