People who were really over but then fell off a cliff

[CiderBag]

Well it didn't help that in his first 3 months of being a heel he was first battered mercilessly by Stone Cold, then beaten by The Rock the next month and then on the third month was chokeslammed off the Hell In A Cell into a truck full of sawdust by The Undertaker. How we was supposed to get over as a heel from all that I don't know. The Racism shit he came out with didn't help either.

He seemed to get a lot of heat with people during his NWE days...

[DeanoTheGame]

I remember the predictions online saying Ted DiBiase was on the verge of becoming the next big star. Towards the end of the Legacy run there was a lot of talk about him breaking out on his own. I just didn't get it - I've always found him to be bland. Even back before they joined Legacy, I preferred Rhodes. He's always had tons more character and charisma. I preferred fucking Manu to DiBiase. It amuses me now to see how well Cody's doing while DiBiase has become a complete nobody. It is a shame though, because every now and again DiBiase shows glimpses that he can be an interesting mid-card guy. I just don't think he'll ever achieve it.

[ColinBollocks]

The only interesting things I can remember about DiBiase during that time period are his ears went weird for a couple of weeks, and when he was selling a beating from Orton it looked like he was having a shit.Mind when R-Truth was our favourite during his brief feud with Cena?

[Loki]

I can only assume The Pope is a massive cock backstage, as both of his runs have gone exactly the same way - huge charisma, big push, over with crowds, sudden drop off a cliff.That feels like him just not being liked/easy to work with.

[Van Dammer]

I can only assume The Pope is a massive cock backstage, as both of his runs have gone exactly the same way - huge charisma, big push, over with crowds, sudden drop off a cliff.That feels like him just not being liked/easy to work with.

When did he show huge charisma, get a big push or was over with the crowds in WWE? He was absolute shite wasnt he? Perhaps he had a little bit of charisma. Unless you are talking about non-WWE runs?

[Loki]

At the start of WWECW he was featureq quite prominently, if my addled memory serves. Then completely de-pushed. The pattern is much more obvious with TNA - there was a moment when he genuinely looked like he was going to be the next top babyface. I believe it was a feud with D-Von that went on for about a year that killed that momentum dead. Also, he lost clean to ?Angle in his one title match, I think.

[DeanoTheGame]

Vince McMahon was pushing Elijah as the future of the WWE and the next big thing. I'd say that counts as the start of a big push, but it ultimately lead to nowhere.I thought he showed a lot of charisma in his WWE run too. He stuck out during The New Breed as the one guy in that faction that could break out and become a pretty big star.EDIT: Loki, pretty sure it was AJ Styles he lost to. Lockdown 2010 iirc.

[NEWM]

Dibiase was possibly the most overrated-by-the-internet guy I'd ever seen, and I know that's a big list. Frankly, I saw NOTHING in Legacy that made me think he had a cat in hell's chance, especially when next to Cody Rhodes, who always looked like he had something in him.

 

However, the Dibiase Posse was something I had a really good feeling about. Something so pointless and inane that it had to be from his own ideas box, and because it was Smackdown they just thought "fuck it", and let him crack on. These days, getting something a cult following will go a long way to getting you somewhere. Don't get me wrong, it's not a free ticket to the top unless Vince sees mileage in it too (yeah, take that Zack Ryder), but silly bollocks you do when nobody's watching is often the key to success amongst the Vanilla Midcard of today. One of the reasons I love NXT so much is because basically it's a show full of that. If you've never watched it, you'd maybe be scratching your head how Darren Young and Titus O'Neill made it to Smackdown, but the bollocks they were trotting out was a total blast. The shackles go back on when it comes to the main shows though, so for Dibiase to be getting away with it for that while bode well for him. Now, the chance is probably lost.

 

Briefly on The Pope, I've bummed his ringer off countless times on here, but I don't give a fuck if his ego was bigger than Hulk Hogan and HHH's combined back then. They massively shit the bed with his push, which in turn seemed to make him just give up. There's a long list of failed nearly men from TNA's ten years, but he's the top of it by a country mile. He had "biggest star in the whole industry" written all over him. For about 4 or 5 months there, he was seriously WWE Main Event good.

[Magnum]

I think The Miz seems like a good recent example. Though it took me a while to come round to him, a few years ago I thought he was the standout option to make the step up from the WWE midcard - a great and rare example of a well-done, slow burning push that hadn't really been done effectively in the WWE since Batista. However, I think having him main eventing Wrestlemania was a case of promoting him beyond his level of competency, and it stood out like a sore thumb because he was sharing the ring with two physically huge, bonafide superstars. I think the WWE probably noticed the same thing, because they seemed to lose faith in him pretty soon after that.I did, however, feel like he would find a natural place in the upper midcard as the Jericho of his generation - like his predecessor, he was pretty good at a few things, but not really great at anything. That seems to have gone out of the window as he's gradually fallen out of favour, and I really wouldn't be surprised to see him in TNA this time next year.

[NEWM]

I actually meant to post The Miz from reading the thread title before other names distracted me. I'm a big fan and it saddens me to see how badly they've lost interest in him. I don't blame him one bit for his demise this time last year, nor do I see him working any less hard for the company - he's just doing it all in a greatly diminished spot. I still reckon they turned the wrong guy face with him and A-Ry, but then looking back it was just before Punk was about to come in and claim that big spot anyway, so he would have still ended up on the short end of things.His act is such that he's a guy that badly needs wins to stay credible, and unfortunately there's been a distinct lack of them for a while now. A mouthy cunt needs get that chip on his shoulder as big as it possibly can be before he gets it knocked off once in a while. As it is, he's just a mouthy cunt who gets put on his arse anyway. There's absolutely nothing there to emotionally invest him. I think there's a proper organic money-drawing babyface underneath it all, but I'm almost certain we'll never ever see it properly executed.

[simonworden]

I have to say with the Miz that I still see a return to the spotlight maybe not to bonafide megastar level but as said above the jericho of this generation.. He just needs to be part of a decent 1 on 1 angle and not part of these silly group/ multi man feuds as he has been for the past 6 months to almost a year. I barely remember his role in the 3 way feud in December with Punk / Del Rio apart from being an extra bod

[Professor Paul's Bin]

Kane and Big Show both had a decent start in the company but ended up floating around for far too long. They could have been much bigger than they are now. Shame really

[ColinBollocks]

I actually meant to post The Miz from reading the thread title before other names distracted me. I'm a big fan and it saddens me to see how badly they've lost interest in him. I don't blame him one bit for his demise this time last year, nor do I see him working any less hard for the company - he's just doing it all in a greatly diminished spot. I still reckon they turned the wrong guy face with him and A-Ry, but then looking back it was just before Punk was about to come in and claim that big spot anyway, so he would have still ended up on the short end of things.His act is such that he's a guy that badly needs wins to stay credible, and unfortunately there's been a distinct lack of them for a while now. A mouthy cunt needs get that chip on his shoulder as big as it possibly can be before he gets it knocked off once in a while. As it is, he's just a mouthy cunt who gets put on his arse anyway. There's absolutely nothing there to emotionally invest him. I think there's a proper organic money-drawing babyface underneath it all, but I'm almost certain we'll never ever see it properly executed.

Obviously we're dealing in speculation but I don't see it, The Miz's best attribute is his smugness. I read he made his debut as a face and it bombed badly because he was too unlikeable.The Miz needs to start taking it up the arse, or something. The locker room appear to not rate him, and now he's turned the likes of Triple H against him - he was getting the blame for Survivor Series bombing too.For me, The Miz is a case of 'not everybody can be a main eventer'. He's got something, but I don't think he should be at the top of the card too much.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Kane and Big Show both had a decent start in the company but ended up floating around for far too long. They could have been much bigger than they are now. Shame really

Kane was only brought to feud with the Undertaker and then leave. He's outstayed his welcome by about 14 years. Its a miracle he's still around, let alone in big storylines.Not that I'm knocking him, but to have the run he's had with a pretty much one dimensional gimmick is amazing.

[air_raid]

Apologies for repeating any points that have been posted while I've been typing. Or indeed before.

Test. There wasnt just a time where he was being talked up as the next big main eventer in WWE, he genuinely was the next guy and was on that cusp of nailing it and then just hit a brick wall and never recovered.

Test always is my stock answer for "should have gone further." Disregard what you think about his match quality - I actually think he was alright - and I think the combination of how over he seemed battle Shane and the Posse, and his natural position as the finance jilted by Steph at the altar, he really should have been right there helping The Rock and Cactus fight off Corporation X. I've long maintained he should have been the one to wrestle Trips at Armageddon 1999, and if you think that doesn't sound Pay Per View worthy, I'll remind you that the WWF title match on that card was Big Show VS Big Bossman and that The Rock wrestled for the tag team titles on the undercard, and perhaps we'll acknowledge it was a decent night to try new things, however misguided. * In fact, having done nothing on the undercard, Test would have been a decent fit to insert into the title match at Survivors and me and my mate thought he would! I'm not advocating a Test title win on the night, he should have retained all the way to 'Mania, but it would have been good exploitation of a very over story line. As it was, a meaningless Hardcore title reign followed by a meaningless Albert relegated Test to playing second fiddle to Trish's bosom, and he never recovered.

Billy Gunn springs to mind. Back in the attitude era they were blatantly pushing Mr.Ass for a more significant role, but after a few gimmick relaunches he never recovered.

Didn't help that Austin reportedly rejecting working with him (and Jarrett) in summer 99 when they were thinking of new heels for Austin to wrestle. They went with Hunter in the end, I forget how that worked out.

Nexus? I wasn't watching at the time but wasn't they red hot?

Didn't help that they were exposed as nobodies at SummerSlam, with all their eliminations being screwy/flukey then Cena smashing Gabriel and Barratt as though he were Dave Batista after a Diva Search segment. Yes, they were nobodies, but had they at least been presented as a real threat and won that first Pay Per View match against their Raw regular counterparts, there might have been some interest (and PPV buys) in subsequent PPVs built around individual matches between the established superstars and the upstarts.

His feud with Randy Orton, when Kofi boom-dropped through a table in the crowd, he was so over.

Didn't help that instead of being valiant in defeat at Survivors then earning a breakthrough win at TLC (IIRC) over Orton, Kofi was booked to do the opposite. So he was able to pin Orton in a multiman but not in singles where it matters most. And of course got convincingly beaten on the Bret Hart comeback episode of Raw, which to me felt like "Orton can get back to chasing the title now this distraction has been dealt with." Although actually that sat alright with me, I hate Kofi.

(X-Pac) then he went backwards, got injured & disapeared and fell to the bottom of the pile and ended up one of the most hated guys on the roster even as a face.

Strictly speaking, once Pac turned in 1999 they never turned him back, unless you count when they tried to present every WWF wrestler as a face against the Alliance. I think turning him was a mistake considering how over he was as a baby, but then again I wouldnt trade the antics of the full on heel DX as part of the HHH/Steph monster faction for anything. If only they'd pushed Test harder etc....

Ted DiBiase. Towards the end of the Legacy run it seemed he was being groomed to become a big future star, and they often teased a DiBiase face turn against a heel Orton.

Didn't the live crowd go mental when they thought Ted had turned babyface on Orton in the Chamber in 2010? That was the moment to run Ted vs Orton and Cody, but instead they ran with trying to make Orton the sympathetic babyface because they wanted a second genuine main event babyface now rather than try and make one, and it may have been obvious already that Edge wasnt quite going to cut it in his persona at the time. All for the best though, we'd no doubt have been more frustrated at the stop-start DiBiase babyface push, as he's bland as you like. He and McGillicutty are cracking examples that sometimes the acorn lands fucking miles from the tree.

I think The Miz seems like a good recent example.

I actually meant to post The Miz from reading the thread title before other names distracted me.

I have to say with the Miz that I still see a return to the spotlight maybe not to bonafide megastar level but as said above the jericho of this generation..

I agree with you all, other than that Jericho is quite obviously of this generation as well. I enjoy everything Miz does outside the ring and he's one of the characters that interests me in what he does and says, and this is more than enough to make up for his matches being fairly average. When he made his entrance at Mania 27 I thought "this is it, he's made it!" and that he was 100% star, a made man. Even after the title reign, I dont understand why Awesome Truth weren't given the belts while they were running roughshod, costing Cena the title and beating Punk & HHH. Fuck it, Rock turning on Cena at Survivors could have given the tandem a cracking shot in the arm and done more to build towards the Mania main event than what they actually assembled. As for the backstage antics that caused Miz' demotion, as I've stated before (such as Punk's instant devaluing for his offhand comments to Taker about the dress code) I can't understand for the life of me why the punishment for disciplinary matters like that doesn't only extend to financial (i.e. fines or unpaid work) rather than damaging the on screen credibility of an asset that you may have invested time and money into possibly planned storylines for, and would hope to make money off at some point in the future. If Steve McFadden turned up a bit late to filming 'Enders or had a tiff with the producer, you wouldnt see Phil Mitchell relegated to drinking his pint in silence at the back of the Queen Vic for a few months, then try and build him back to a major storyline arc afterwards would you? OK, that's not a great example, but you know what I mean.* After all, there was no way the Big Slow deserved to drip his burgersweat on the same canvas our Ray graced with his Godlike prowess.