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Well, I was wrong about you...


RedRooster

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Which wrestlers were you a big fan/champion of; only for you to realise, as time went on, that they weren't actually as good as you'd thought?

For clarity - I don't mean wrestlers who were exposed as wrong 'uns, this is purely from an ability perspective. 

And on that note...

Britt Baker Talks AEW Owen Hart Foundation Tourney & Filming 'Carpool  Karaoke'

There was a time when I thought that not only was Britt Baker the saviour of the AEW women's division, but that she should have been given the same amount of focus on AEW as top male stars when it came to her segments. Had that happened, sadly, I suspect she'd have been exposed as having terrible instincts far earlier than happened; and that we'd essentially have had extended versions of her "sandbag" segment with Thunder Rosa. 

Perhaps, with an editor and a different approach to booking, Baker's star would have continued to ascend, rather than plummet down to earth. Unlike other people who will undoubtedly be mentioned in this thread, it's not too late for her to turn things round - although it's starting to feel like we're dangerously close to that point.

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How long have you got? D'Lo Brown was a "can't miss" prospect according to both Power Slam and myself, because he got a good pop and his matches were pretty good. He traded on the quality of his X-Pac matches for a while and got some pretty good matches out of Jeff Jarrett who was a pretty good foil for him, and his first Intercontinental title win should have been the start of his promotion to that "top of the midcard"/main eventer in waiting spot that Razor used to occupy, but then he got bogged down with Mark Henry and suddenly it all went to hell. It's said that his head went after Droz, and that probably explains why he put weight back on and was happy to slum it in crap tag teams for a while before he got let go, but looking back I can't help but think I was seeing more upside than there really was. But at least I wasn't the only one.

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9 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Mr Brent Albright.

Completely bought into him from his OVW run.

This is a brilliant shout, I felt exactly the same about the guy; and had the highest of hopes for "Gunner Scott" when he was promoted to the main roster. Actually, there were a number of people from that era of OVW who I thought would be massive - Johnny Jeter, Chet "The Jett" Jablonski and Tank Toland, to name but three. It was mostly down to online reporting, to be honest - and little me hadn't quite learned that you shouldn't believe everything that you read on the internet. 

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To reverse things, John Cena. Originally thought he was the blandest, charisma free generic cookie cutter wrestler when he first appeared but he’s really a Mount Rushmore GOAT contender. 

Edited by Keith Houchen
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I’ll add a reverse one also. 
 

FTR. Couldn’t stand all the cosplay as classic tag teams stuff when they first came to AEW. Especially the Ax and Smash naming thing. Felt far too try hard. 
 

Think there great now and are consistently the best performers on what ever show in what ever setting they are in. The bald one vs. Ospreay from Dynamite the other month was a fantastic tv match. 

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I still can’t believe Test wasn’t a headliner for years. Worked like a more athletic Nash, looked great in bikers and in vest/pleather. Tall, good build, not the best promo but could have been built on. 

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49 minutes ago, Louch said:

I still can’t believe Test wasn’t a headliner for years. Worked like a more athletic Nash, looked great in bikers and in vest/pleather. Tall, good build, not the best promo but could have been built on. 

At one point I thought he was going to be a a headliner, more for his look than anything and they seemed pretty high on him at point. 

 

I hate to admit it but when I first saw Vampiro in 99 I thought he was ace. Looked cool and thought he was talented, if he had a bad time then I thought it was just shitty wcw booking. Nope he was just wank. 

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Samoa Joe for me. I'd heard every one saying how he was the future, an amazing ground breaking phenomenon. The hype was sky high. 

Then I caught him in some ROH match on TWC and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was OK but nothing more. He was sold as being "real" but there he was in some blue flowery tights and she'll necklace plodding about being a bit mediocre. 

I was unlucky it my first exposure and I did grow to love Joe because he is ace, although I stand by him never being as good as the hype, but it took time. It was also the first exposure to part of what's ultimately killed part of my fandom, anything remotely good ends up over hyped by companies or fans and kills the joy for me before I get on board. 

 

Other way is Matt Hardy. As a youngster I was convinced he was the potential breakout star, the better all-rounder than Jeff he was the one to watch as a slow burner. Boy was I wrong, V1 and comedy skits with MVP aside he might have well not existed. 

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Jack Evans. Seeing him in TWC promo videos I thought the guy looked amazing. Then you got to see him be more and more botchy and when he showed up in AEW near the start I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 

Big Swole as well. When I first saw her in AEW and her feud with Britt Baker I thought she looked pretty decent. But jeez was I wrong. TK was an idiot when he publicly fired her, but he wasn't wrong on the criticism itself. She was a danger in the ring with her sloppyness and someone with that much experience should be better then that.

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Can't believe I forgot this one...

WWE Pushed Mr. Kennedy To Make Matches Look Realistic

...KENNEDY

So yeah, when I first saw him in Paul Heyman's OVW I thought he was going to be huge. Then, when he debuted on Smackdown, my opinion didn't changed. I was a massive fan. When he won Money in the Bank, I was desperate to see him cash in and become World Heavyweight Champion...and then he got injured. 

When it was rumoured that he was going to be revealed as Vince McMahon's son, I thought that this was his chance, and he was finally going to break through...and then he said some stupid things and got fired again. Then he returned to Smackdown after a stint on Raw, surely this time? Nope, I can't even remember what happened that time. Then he moved back to Raw, pissed off Randy Orton, and was fired. 

But wait! Impact signed him!! I remember hearing about these incredible, unscripted promos that he was cutting. I sought them out...and they were shit. I was massively disappointed. As time passed, I began realise that not only wasn't this guy all that I thought he was. 

The fact that he's never made a WWE return, even for a guest Rumble spot, is pretty telling. Heck, at the start of the most recent brand split people like Rhyno, Curt Hawkins, The Headbangers and the Spirit Squad made a comeback...but Kennedy was nowhere to be seen. I was fooled by the guy, turns out WWE was not. 

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I'm another one that was a super late convert to Samoa Joe; I hated the name, thought it sounded more like a WCW Saturday Night jobber than a main event bad-ass, hated his gear, and saw him as a super-indie guy who didn't work to his size. As time went on, getting closer to him arriving in NXT, I saw a few matches where he was clearly just phoning it in and I figured that he was coasting on reputation in a scene that had largely outgrown him and where he no longer stood out. Sad to say that, outside of a few great matches, it was his NXT/WWE run that finally convinced me he was all he's been sold as. 

I had a similar thing with AJ Styles, though; saw him as a flippy moves guy with no real psychology or substance to his game and zero charisma. It wasn't really until his NJPW run that I thought he became a better all-rounder.

 

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