Over and Underachievers

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Inspired by one of those Legends of Wrestling things from On Demand. Lets discuss it. Jim Ross said if you could design a wrestler he would look like this man:

 

He's right as well. Sid should have been far bigger than what he was. Its a shame looking back. He was caught in that era where the business was dying a death and people on steroids were getting weeded out. If Sid would have came into WWF in 1989, he'd have been massive for me. Fucking Zeus and Hogan drew massive business, imagine what Sid and Hogan (or Sid and Savage) would have done? The guy was just a monster to look at and was intense as fuck. Another underachiever is Razor Ramon. All the Kliq (including Michaels and Triple H) say he was the most talented mind in the group. They all learned from him and Curt Hennig. Hall could and should be been one of the biggest single stars of the 90s and early 2000s. He looked great, worked the main event style and could talk.

 

Who's yours? And note underachiever and overachiever doesnt mean who's shit and who is good. It means who you think went further than you imagined they would. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan could be classed as overachievers, but that doesnt mean they are shit and The Ultimate Warrior could be classed as an underachiever due to how he never reached those heights of 1990 again.

[ColinBollocks]

 

I consider Goldberg to be an underachiever. In 1998 he was as over as anybody, ever. The guy was a natural; he wasn't a smooth technician, but he had such ridiculous charisma and ability/timing to work a crowd was impressive, considering his level of experience. He was improving at a fast rate too. Then 1999 came along and WCW did their best to ruin their biggest asset, he never recovered and seemed to stop caring as much - still super over, just not what he was. It's amazing that people get the Goldberg formula so wrong, like WWE did when he signed.

[Arch Stanton]

Goldberg's an interesting case. You could make a good argument for him being an underachiever, or an overachiever. There has never been anyone else quite like him.

 

I wouldn't say that either WCW or WWE 'ruined' him though- I think if he is to be labelled as an underachiever in this business it can only be put down to himself. He could have carried on long after WM20 and really cemented his status as a superstar. With the aura he had, if he was still in WWE, he'd still be in main event now. He chose to pack it in, because he never really had his heart in it.

[sivy]

i always say bam bam always underachived he had the talent but just some reason he fell short of being an main eventer.

[fye]

great thread I reckon

 

JBL jumps out for me as an over achiever if you consider what he did before that, nobody saw his main event run coming or how comfortably he would adapt to that role

 

under achievers for me, and many may dispute these, would be Test and D'Lo, when I first starting watching these guys looked like future world champs, D'Lo for his charisma and Test for his look, I thought so as a new fan anyway

 

I will keep posting if I think of more

[Arch Stanton]

great thread I reckon

 

JBL jumps out for me as an over achiever if you consider what he did before that, nobody saw his main event run coming or how comfortably he would adapt to that role

 

under achievers for me, and many may dispute these, would be Test and D'Lo, when I first starting watching these guys looked like future world champs, D'Lo for his charisma and Test for his look, I thought so as a new fan anyway

 

I will keep posting if I think of more

JBL is a good shout. Despite being a solid and experienced hand, nobody could have predicted that he would transform into the greatest heel character of the decade.

 

In the case of Test, I also used to think he was a surefire main-eventer in the making when I was younger, but in hindsight, he really didn't have the mic skills or the charisma to match the size and the look.

[kickin it wit the kliq]

With his limited talent this man totally over achieved

 

 

Not that there's anything wrong with it

[The Maestro]

Got to agree with Sivy about Bam Bam. I thought that he had such an awesome and unique look about him. As a kid I used to think that he looked scary as fuck. And for such a big guy he was very agile and was more that competent in the ring. I know he main-evented a WrestleMania, but I always felt that he could have been in and around the main event scene a lot more. It does make you think with wrestling, when the likes of Bigelow never had a run with the belt when the likes of Jack Swagger have been champ in recent years. I know they're both from different eras, but still.

 

As for overachiever, I gotta pick DDP. Now that's not a knock on him or his talent. He was one of my favourites around the late 1990s and I genuinely thought he was gonna be the one to end the Goldberg winning streak back at Halloween Havoc 1998 (I was only twelve at the time). I pick him as an overachiever due to the age that he got into wrestling and that part of the reason he was around the main-event scene was due to being mates withe Bischoff. Despite this, he was still over as anything and did fantastic with the opportunities that came his way. If he wasn't buddies with The Bisch would he have been as successful? Probably not. But I thought he was a great overachiever.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

under achievers for me, and many may dispute these, would be Test and D'Lo, when I first starting watching these guys looked like future world champs, D'Lo for his charisma and Test for his look, I thought so as a new fan anyway

Test was looking like a the next main event star in late 99, judging by his position on the card and that he was pals with Shane in real life. But the man shagged Kelly Kelly and Stacy Keibler. The man overachieved in that department. Give me that now and I'll happily die in my early 30s with unknown brain related injuries.

[Fox Piss]

Miz is surely a Overachiever. I'm not knocking the guys talent and many others have come from Tough Enough but Miz just defies everything. He was a wannabe who got a chance and took it. Headlined WrestleMania with Cena and The Rock too and looks like a 12 yr old.

[CleetusVanDamme]

Overachiever has got to be Booker T, for me. He's a six time world champion, despite being average in every category at his best, and he's very rarely at his best, the lazy bastard. Maybe the luckiest wrestler ever. He was pushed to the top for the first time by Vince Russo purely because he was young. He managed to somehow escape all the heat for his absolutely dreadful debut match in the WWE, just because Buff Bagwell was disliked backstage. He was luckily given a top spot in the Invasion storyline, because none of the real stars felt like turning up. It goes on like that for the better part of the last decade, managing to get big runs despite getting worse by the year. He's currently still employed by WWE, despite the fact he's the worst commentator of all time, and he still gets the chance to work his magic in the ring, even though he usually looks like he's about to die of a heart attack by the end of his matches. He's probably going to end up in the Hall Of Fame one day, and it's all down to how hard he's been pushed, rather than his talent.

 

 

Underachiever's hard to say. Despite being in a prominent role for a good portion of the 90's Lex Luger could have done a lot more. Marc Mero's a guy who never quite hit the highs his talents deserved. Really good in-ring, good talker, charismatic as fuck. I'm still not sure how WWE managed to let him fizzle out after his heel turn, he was great in the role!

[SteveJames]

Bit of an odd choice as an underachiever but Steve Blackman was a cult legend to me and my mates back in the early 2000s, his lack of mike skills was more than made up for by some pretty hard hitting matches, just a shame he was touted as a main eventer when he started with WWF only for the promo problems to hold back into the midcard.

 

As far as overachievers go, I'd have to go with X Pac/Syxx/123 Kid, a decent cruiserweight that got lucky by knowing the right people and being the butt of the Cliques jokes for so long, never really saw the appeal in him and the Bronco Buster was embarrassing.

[RoryFice]

under achievers for me, and many may dispute these, would be Test and D'Lo, when I first starting watching these guys looked like future world champs, D'Lo for his charisma and Test for his look, I thought so as a new fan anyway

Test was looking like a the next main event star in late 99, judging by his position on the card and that he was pals with Shane in real life. But the man shagged Kelly Kelly and Stacy Keibler. The man overachieved in that department. Give me that now and I'll happily die in my early 30s with unknown brain related injuries.

 

Where WWE really messed up with Test was immediately after the Invasion storyline. The battle royal at Survivor Series 2001, with the winner gaining immunity from being fired for a year, was a great chance to get someone new over in the long term. Test then lost in the first match of the next PPV, did nothing in the Royal Rumble and then wasn't even on Wrestlemania.

[NorthSeaTiger]

Underachiever: Mr Kennedy/Anderson. Had a unique, custom entrance...appeared to have decent verbal skills and was not bad in-ring. Got a fairly big push, money in bank win..sure-fire future world champ....then fucked it all up by getting injured, upsetting Orton with his clumsiness and making a twat of himself during the signature pharmacy scandal. Straight to TNA where he has done feck all of note. Speaking of which...where the hell is he just now? Injured again?

[fraserbee]

With his limited talent this man totally over achieved

 

 

Not that there's anything wrong with it

Although, considering the promise and push he had early in his career, definately underachieved. Besides, watching him in 1988-1991, when he was really motivated, it's clear he did have talent.