Dropping the Ball.....

beakerjoe

Taking about Zack Ryder on another thread and how WWE dropped the ball with his self made overness got me thinking of other times WWE missed with Angles and overness.

I thought Kofi Kingston was gonna be the next big star when he boom dropped Randy Orton on Raw at Madison Square Garden. He has the talent and he could of slowly evolved into a real character and a serious contender for at least the WHC. His push just faded out and I felt WWE has ran his career into the ground.


The Invasion Angle. It was designed to bury WCW IMO. WWE and Vince could of taken that feud to much greater heights. But sadly WWE didn't sign the top WCW guys at the time and it turned into WWE VERSUS WWE with a few upper mid card WCW guys.

SureYWouldntYa

Nexus, could have been massive.

CM Punk coming back after a week in 2011.

Serious chances missed

Mr.Saturn

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Nexus, could have been massive.

CM Punk coming back after a week in 2011.

Serious chances missed

Yeah, I get that Summerslam needed a main-event, but the fact they blew through Cena/Mysterio en route to Punk/Cena was odd. Mysterio and Cena had both been untouchable PG staples 'til that point, and there could've been some money in both saving it for Summerslam, and leaving the Punk angle to gain more steam and traction. Maybe there wasn't faith in the Punk stuff keeping interest over a longhaul, but it still stands as perplexing. I mean, it was ripe material to combat the annual Winter slump.

One that's always grinded my gears is Sean O'Haire. All the grace of a gymnast with the power of a stallion, this dude looked prime for the big time. His version of the swanton bomb, the Sean-ton Bomb is beautiful to behold. He initially came in as a WCW invader alongside Chuck Palumbo hammering the Hardy Boyz and the Dudleys. Then the entire roster came out and smashed them to bits in my favorite ever Smackdown moments!

After this, vignettes started where he would encourage people to dodge taxes, avoid church and have drink if they wanted, after all, fraudsters con the system non stop so why should you pay? If there is a God, he'll forgive you. Was like an anti-CM Punk. Here's his best bits....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWb-tlLQS7w

Alfred Borden

got to go with the unmasking of kane the first time around, sure it was cool for a few months seeing a different side to him, but in the space of a few years he went from being a main eventer to a joke of a jobber (bar his run with the WHC). Always think Kane will be remembered before the unmasking and think his character was hit hardest by the moving into the PG era.

Moneymaker

Muhammed Hussan - WWE should have kept him going, he was red hot.
John Morrison - Mic skills held him back? Should have been more imo.
Mr.Perfect - Should have been champion imo.
Matt Morgan - That stuttering gimmick. Wtf??
D'Angelo Dinero - He should have become a lot more then what he is.
Rikishi - Ran over Stone Cold...why???????
Shelton Benjamin - Another Jo-Mo, mic skills held him back.
Sean O'Haire - Loved this guy and they just gave up on him.
Chris Kanyon - Had an injury and got lost in the shuffle. Bad luck but should have been given a chance.
Lance Storm - That "Boring" chant killed him. He was a great heel in WcW.
DDP - Red hot debut, then totally buried and pinned by the Undertakers WIFE. Sigh.
MVP - That losing streak utterly killed him. Baffling.
Christian - We all know how he's been ****ed over.

glenjamin

Christian for 2 reasons.

Never giving us that dream feud between him and Edge for the WHC even though they both wanted to do it.

Another ball dropped was when Edge retired they had a ready made replacement right there in Christian. He was so over with the fans at the time and was an excellent heel too. He wins the WHC and then drops it to Orton 2 days later. Even after a decent feud between the 2 he was shunned back to the midcard. Awful, awful waste.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Test could work and had a look, I thought they were going to move him further up the card as he was a young talent, he seemed to stall several times

Malenko wasn't given enough time, the best thing about Nitro or a WCW PPV was that they let guys like Perry Saturn and Dean wrestle full matches and always incorporated a storyline.

The undercards to a lot of their shows are awesome, they took the product seriously unlike the cartoon like WWF.

gerrybbadd

Goldberg and Scott Steiner were very badly handled when they were brought in. I know they had their guaranteed contracts, but WWE should have bought those out and brought those 2guys in with the Invasion angle. If things could have worked out, maybe we would still have a WCW running alongside WWE as Vince had originally planned

Charisteas

Brock Lesnar, no way he should have been beaten in his first match back two years ago. He could have been going into a match at Wrestlemania 30 against The Undertaker, undefeated, with wins against Cena, Trips and Punk.

Concannon7

DDP shold have had a better run. He didn't need to be winning world titles or anything but WWE should have used him better.

As for most of the rest. O'Hare, Kingston, Ziggler and Ryder are all vastly overated.

Ridley

Moneymaker wrote: »

Muhammed Hussan - WWE should have kept him going, he was red hot.

Didn't like Hassan but his handling was interminable.

"I'm American and you're racist."
JR: "IF YOU DON'T LKE 'MERICA THEN GIT OUT!! *foams at the mouth*

takamichinoku

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

CM Punk coming back after a week in 2011.

CM Punk losing the title to Del Rio
CM Punk being inexplicably tossed into a feud with Kevin Nash of all people
CM Punk being thrown into a rushed feud with HHH after the Nash thing fell through
CM Punk jobbing to HHH for lord knows what reason


Maybe it continued a bit after that too, can't remember.

B.A._Baracus

WWE is a weird business.

There have been guys over the years who WWE just jobbed out and never gave the ball too. But then there are guys who've been given so many chances to get over.

Edge comes to mind with the latter. Debuted in 1998 and didnt truly get over until the whole Matt hardy thing in 2006. But through-out the years, notably in 2002, getting the rub by tagging with Hogan and getting the tag belts. He was pushed several times to get over. Then there are guys who have a hard time to just make tv.

I am a firm believer that you are chosen by WWE to get over.

SureYWouldntYa

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

WWE is a weird business.

There have been guys over the years who WWE just jobbed out and never gave the ball too. But then there are guys who've been given so many chances to get over.

Edge comes to mind with the latter. Debuted in 1998 and didnt truly get over until the whole Matt hardy thing in 2006. But through-out the years, notably in 2002, getting the rub by tagging with Hogan and getting the tag belts. He was pushed several times to get over. Then there are guys who have a hard time to just make tv.

I am a firm believer that you are chosen by WWE to get over.

the year out injured didn't help Edge

brianregan09

Edge was well on his way to being a star before the Matt hardy thing though

B.A._Baracus

brianregan09 wrote: »

Edge was well on his way to being a star before the Matt hardy thing though

Because he was postioned and used
Thats my point, you had a guy around for 8 years before being cemented. Edge was never jobbed out tho. There are guys around for a couple of years and just get jobbed out then fired.

Whosthis

Vader's WWF run. He was an absolute monster in WCW and a legit tough guy. They booked him as a threat for the first few months and then just jobbed him out to the top guys. Wish they'd given him a title run.

takamichinoku

I think Vader pissed off Michaels for being too stiff, subsequently got demoted right down the card because Vince was terrified of Michaels walking out at the time.

Whosthis

I think I remember reading that before. He was very stiff but I think it added a lot to his character.

bobby_says_hi

The Miz this year. He'd just turned face for the first time but WWE really did nothing with him. There was a lot of potential when Stephanie and Triple H had him attacked by Big Show. They could have really built on that and have him go against the Authority but nope. Him and Kofi going through the face heel revolving door each week was apparently a much better idea

Both Eve Torres and Alicia Fox in 2010. Both had potential to be top Divas while Melina was injured and Maryse flopped. Eve was actually getting good reactions from her push. Instead they had her drop the title after two months, before she could have a meaningful reign. Alicia was just the same. She was more polished in the ring than Eve and was doing very well as the top heel on Raw. Then Melina comes back and gets handed the title within two weeks, completely burying Alicia and ruining any momentum she may have had. And the girl still does not deserve to be a jobber these days

"The One" Billy Gunn. When he returned in late 2000, he was actually the best he had ever been in the ring at the time. That was when I personally got behind him as a wrestler. He had some really good matches with Eddie Guerrero, Val Venis and Chris Benoit during his little push. Then he loses the Intercontinental title after three weeks, gets a pointless heel turn that lasts a month and lapses into obscurity before getting thrown back in the tag division. What makes it annoying to me is that they had Benoit lose the title right after he won it as well, rendering it pointless

Layla deserves a mention as well. When some Divas come back from injury they tend to be a shell of their former selves - Lita, Melina, Candice, Maryse etc. But Layla came back so improved from how she used to be. Nearly every match she had as Divas' Champion was quality. She had also been reasonably over when in LayCool and got plenty of cheers at Extreme Rules when she returned. If WWE had actually invested time and effort into her, she could have fared a lot better. She was good at getting a crowd to react in her matches but WWE just decided to give her one minute matches, no storyline and disappear from TV for weeks at a time. Then they have the bright idea to turn her heel with no fanfare and she absolutely bombs

therickreport

i agree about The Miz though my issue is that he never really got an official face turn. And he could have acted a bit more faceish afterwards. He didn't really change his character much
agree about Layla too. I thought her matches with Beth Phoenix, Eve and Natalya were miles better than anything we'd seen in ages from the Divas. her heel turn was a bad idea. i actually felt embarrassed watching her matches afterwards

Alfred Borden

Another one I was raging with was Mordecai, sure he wasnt great inside the ring, but he had great mic skills and some of his promos were brilliant, could have had a brilliant feud with Taker.

Agent Coulson

For me it is Raven who they dropped the ball with. He was the Jake Roberts of the 90s another one who they dropped the ball with. They could talk you into watching them.

Also they really dropped the ball with Hulk and Flair at Wrestlemania 8. Not giving everyone what they wanted, but turning it into a crappy tag match.