Wrestlers you never thought would become main eventers

[Ron Simmons]

With CM Punk being a huge talking point these days (NO spoilers please!) I remember when he initially got signed, and when he debuted in ECW people pretty much dismissing his chances of making it big. Obviously he has, so I'm wondering what wrestlers did you initially think didn't have a chance of becoming top stars when you first saw them, but actually did?

 

My first pick would have to be Umaga. When I first saw the guy I thought the gimmick would flounder and he'd be repackaged or released by the end of the year. Instead he really made the most of the character he played and could quite feasibly have been a World Champion at some point had circumstances been different.

 

Another choice for me would be JBL. I never liked his singles run as Bradshaw, and I must admit I groaned after he made his debut as the JBL character. He quickly won me round though, playing the gimmick to perfection and becoming one of the best heels of last decade.

[Smeg_&_The_Heads]

HHH-Rock and Austin when they 1st joined (The Greenwich Snob-The Smiling Blue Chipper and The Ring Master) I did think they would be mid card but never thought they would reach the heights they did then again they probably wouldn't of had under those gimmicks

[Fox Piss]

Christian i don't mind him but he really is not main event material.

 

I know people go on about Miz but you can see why WWE like him. He is not out of place on regular TV and he is a brilliant face of the company.

[FUM]

Batista when he was with Reverend D-Von and then when he was just a spare member at the start of Evolution. Once he came back from injury and they used him properly though, he became awesome.

[SteelEdge]

First one that springs to mind is Bradshaw. He was just an average brawler in a cool tag team. Even when he became JBL I didn't think he'd do anything significant. Then came his monster title run and I loved the guy.

[King Pitcos]

The Miz. When he was the Smackdown host and, well, everything he did up until teaming up with Morrison, I just thought he was crap.

 

Batista as well. He seemed like he'd be just another nobody/"enforcer" up until about six months before his title win. I remember even when he was fighting for the Intercontinental at SummerSlam 2004, I thought he was a bit above his station. Although he'd been a tag champ before that, and he'd fought Rock at WrestleMania, so I don't know what I was thinking really. I guess I just thought he'd never do anything except be Evolution's bodyguard type.

[FUM]

Jeff Hardy, as well actually. Never thought he'd make it as a singles wrestler let alone become the hottest star in the business at one point.

 

 

I mean, who ever thought this guy would make it?

[Adorable Adrian]

 

Randy Orton did not impress me at all in his early days, when he had the shoulder injury and was doing the weekly updates (Was it called the Randy News Network or something like that). Even the early days of Evolution he was still bland to me, it wasn't until he transitioned into The Legend Killer that I took note

[Ron Simmons]

Not a main eventer as such, but I never expected Vickie Guerrero to become one of the top heels in wrestling. When she first debuted her acting was terrible, and she wasn't particularly enjoyable to watch either. Her Edge alliance propelled her to become one of the best things in wrestling at that time.

[Celticlion89]

DDP. When he was a manager, feuding with Johnny B Badd or in his more illustrious role of The Honky Tonk Man's driver, I would never have thought World Champion.

[ThePhenom]

I never thought Sheamus would be WWE Champion ever, let alone in six months. In the Summer of 2009, some Irish guy said in a wrestling chat room that I was in, that Sheamus was someone to keep an eye on. He said that he is going to be something one day. I laughed, and thought it was because of his nationality, and that he wouldn't ever get past mid card WWECW status.

[fye]

for me Batista, Eddie, Jericho, Edge, Christian, JBL and Cena spring to mind so far. Obviously it depends at what point youre talking about but when I saw these guys I never thought main eventers some day

[CuckedByMenry]

Orton, Cena and Mysterio. When they first appeared in the WWE, an episode of Smackdown ended with the three of them in the ring as Michael Cole called them "The future of the WWE". I regrettably thought "You must be joking".

 

Edit: I'll put Triple H in for a mention as well. Forget the main event, I didn't think he'd still be there two years later, let alone fifteen.

[air_raid]

Fucking JBL and Mark Henry. And I don't mean "when they were starting out," there are dozens of answers to that. I mean eight and nine years after their debuts respectively.

 

If you'd have told me at any point in late 2005 "Mizark will challenge Angle for the belt at the Rumble" I'd have passed out from shock. If you'd told me watching Mania XX that one of the Acolytes would be champion within 2 months, I'd have died. Possibly gasping "DAMN!" with my final breath.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

The Miz is probably the biggest one. When JBL was burying the shit out of him in 2006, I thought, "this guy might last a year or so, tops." Then he got drafted to ECW and teamed with Morrison, and everything improved ten-fold. When he got drafted to Raw, I thought the midcard was a perfect spot for him, then he began to call out Cena, and was very entertaining in doing so, hence my sig and avatar. I still think he's getting a bigger push than he deserves, even though I like him a lot. He works hard and is a good company face, but he looks so out of place in the main event scene. There's no shame in being at a Tito Santana or Attitude-era Val Venis level, which I think he's better suited to.

 

Also, Chris Jericho. Another guy I love now, and much like Miz, I never thought he deserved to be a main eventer. I didn't buy him in 2002, 2005, 2007... the first time he won me over as a major player and one of the best was in the 2008 HBK feud. He commanded attention, and backed up those commands with a high quality of work, playing to his strengths and solidifying himself as The Man. I went from seeing him as a Tito Santana to putting him in the same bracket as a Kurt Angle or Mick Foley. He could return today as a main event guy and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.