Notable drops down from the card a year on...

[Sweet Clyde]

 

At Summerslam 2004 Randy Orton beats Chris Benoit to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. At Summerslam 2005 Randy Orton beats The Undertaker in the Semi-Main Event. Yet in 2006 he loses to a 53 year old Hulk Hogan in just over ten minutes clean. Pretty big drop for the 'Legend Killer'.

What a stupid thing to say. Chris Benoit, though, went from the main event in 2004 to fighting Orlando Jordan for the US belt in 2005.

 

Plus, hes headlining Summerslam with Hogan... Im sure i can guess which he got more moolah for! And oul Randel prob hadda much easier worked match with the hulkster considering he ony needs to point to get a rection andd the other geezer ya mentioned had to go awol on his whole family to even bee heard of outside the ol wrestling!

[V1mark]

How has no-one mentioned Jack 'Freakin' Swagger!

Won Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania 26 (out of nowhere)

Won the World Title from Jericho on Smackdown two nights later. (Amazingly, this was over 4 years ago!)

Beat Randy Orton clean in an Extreme Rules match at Extreme Rules 2010 (Which everyone has forgotton)

Was headlining House Shows for most of mid 2010.

Then it started to unravel.

The Big Show fued. Horrible 5 minute DQ at Over the Limit. Horrible fued all round.

Dropped the title to Rey in less then 10 minutes at Fatal 4 Way.

A good challenge at Money in the Bank against Rey in July

Then ... freefall.

August and Semptember consisted of house show matches against Chris Masters and MVP

Hell in a Cell featured an awful, random not even announced match against Edge
 
Did more nothing for a while, spend 4 minutes in the 2011 Royal Rumble

Finished up his spiral my managing non wrestler Michael Cole in a -5* encounter at Mania 28.

 

[bAzTNM#1]

Not a massive drop, but Dino Bravo beat Jim Duggan clean at Wrestlemania 6 didn't he? At Wrestlemania 7, he lost a quick one to the Texas Tornado near the beginning of the PPV.

[RoryFice]

Duggan beat Dino Bravo at Wrestlemania 6. He hardly ever did a clean job for anyone, especially back then!

 

Not so much a drop down the card, but off it completely. Mabel was given a strong push in mid 1995, winning the KoTR, challenging Diesel at Summerslam and then feuding with the Undertaker. Due to his propensity to injure people he was then phased out in near record time and by mid-1996 he had been gone for a few months and was an afterthought, wrestling in Memphis and whatnot.

[NorthSeaTiger]

What about Drew McIntyre? Introduced on TV as a FUTURE WORLD CHAMPION, by Vince McMahon himself, gets some decent fueds, a few title runs, then stuck in a opening card comedy "band", losing to a midget bull then future endeavoured.....pretty dramatic fall I think!

[LEGIT]

Bam Bam springs to mind, WWF 1995. It wasn't even 'a year on.' Wrestlemania 11, the face turn, main-eventing with Diesel, quick drop down the card, gets overshadowed and shown the door after Survivor Series. Wrong place, wrong time IMO.

[Reznor]

Duggan beat Dino Bravo at Wrestlemania 6. He hardly ever did a clean job for anyone, especially back then!

 

Not so much a drop down the card, but off it completely. Mabel was given a strong push in mid 1995, winning the KoTR, challenging Diesel at Summerslam and then feuding with the Undertaker. Due to his propensity to injure people he was then phased out in near record time and by mid-1996 he had been gone for a few months and was an afterthought, wrestling in Memphis and whatnot.

 

Aye, although I guess Hacksaw himself could be a shout with that WM6 match then being relegated to commentary for the opener the following year. Not that his position and standing changed (unfortunately), but it was a bit of a steep drop as a one-off. Pretty sure he wasn't injured as he was working shows before and after. He was actually pretty decent on commentary, I wish they'd kept him there.

 

[air_raid]

What about Drew McIntyre? Introduced on TV as a FUTURE WORLD CHAMPION, by Vince McMahon himself, gets some decent fueds, a few title runs, then stuck in a opening card comedy "band", losing to a midget bull then future endeavoured.....pretty dramatic fall I think!

 

Yeah, what a roller coaster year that was!

[Dr.PeterVenkman]

Bam Bam springs to mind, WWF 1995. It wasn't even 'a year on.' Wrestlemania 11, the face turn, main-eventing with Diesel, quick drop down the card, gets overshadowed and shown the door after Survivor Series. Wrong place, wrong time IMO.

 

To be fair I don't think they had any big plans for Bam Bam, I imagine the main event spot at King of the Ring was a thank you from the office for doing the job to LT, bloke got two decent pay days for it basically

[Reznor]

 

Bam Bam springs to mind, WWF 1995. It wasn't even 'a year on.' Wrestlemania 11, the face turn, main-eventing with Diesel, quick drop down the card, gets overshadowed and shown the door after Survivor Series. Wrong place, wrong time IMO.

 

To be fair I don't think they had any big plans for Bam Bam, I imagine the main event spot at King of the Ring was a thank you from the office for doing the job to LT, bloke got two decent pay days for it basically

 

Aye, i suspect there wasn't a whole load of expectation from Bigelows babyface turn. More a case of being a bit stale, being damaged by the LT loss and not having much to do, so they hoped a turn would freshen things up and invigourate him for a bit. There was such an influx of talent around that time though, it was hard not to get lost in the shuffle. I always thought it was a shame Bigelow turned at the same time as HBK as i'd have loved a match between them sometime in '95 too.

 

1995 always gets shat on, but they had some roster. A bit more strength on the upper-tier heel side, and they could've had a great year.

 

When you look at Summerslam year on year, Yoko and Owen also stand out between 93-94 and 94-95 respectively. From main eventing to completely off the card, despite being fit. You got that a lot in those mid 90s Summerslams though, there was always plenty of names missing.

[Kaz Hayashi]

Clutching at straws a bit here, but Vader had what felt like a fall from grace period over the space of about 2 years. But it felt like the demise was noticeable before that.

Came in at 96 rumble, after what seemed like a pretty big build up to his debut.

 

I believed at the time he would carry on bring the monster he was in WCW but it never quite clicked in the same way. He had some pretty big decent segments of feuds with Yoko, HBK, Taker.

 

I couldn't take him as a serious contender for a top slot bar a couple of matches. He seemed like a top mid card guy for the majority, regardless how much it seemed that WWE wanted it to work.

 

The whole 'fat piece of shit' time frame was writing on the wall.

 

Its not the same level as a lot of you have replied with, but I think given his WCW run, the build to his debut, the names he was bouncing with in the ring compared to what we actually got screams demise.

 

To be fair, it's probably more of a 'high expectation' situation.

 

Hakushi possibly fits in to this category a bit better

[TheTagRope]

Surprised Tensai hasn't been mentioned yet (albiet his alter-ego A-Train has), went from pinning John Cena clean in London to one year later shucking and jiving alongside Brodus Clay as Sweet T.

[Callum1993]

Yeah on reflection the Orton comparison was pretty off the mark.

[Fox Piss]

I'm taking it that WCW centerpiece was Starrcade then Brutus going from main eventing against Hogan in 94 to not appearing in the 95 version. 

It was WCW VS NJPW in 1995 so maybe he would've got on otherwise.

[LEGIT]

Lex Luger in the WWF us a shout, too. It all went wrong post-Mania 10.