Unluckiest wrestlers

[DCW]

Was only watching the latest OSW on Mania 21 where they were talking about Evolution. Incredible that Jindrak got binned mainly because himself & Randy were insufferable twats together. H was in the car with them both just once and he'd had enough apparently..

Edited September 11, 2025 by DCW

[davertfnewman]

6 hours ago, unfitfinlay said:

I don’t know if you’d call it “bad luck” exactly but I’ve always been strangely fascinated by how Lars Sullivan’s career went.

He had a panic attack right before he was supposed to start a Wrestlemania program with Cena and that was basically him. He never ended up doing anything of note. Think he only had a couple of matches outside of NXT after that.

What really gets me is that WWE fined him $100,000 for racist and homophobic posts he’d made years before. Their logic was that he was going to be a big star with the Cena feud so would easily make it back. Assuming they didn’t let him off with it at some point, there’s a very good chance he actually lost money working for WWE.

Didn't help that he posted the homophobic stuff but had also been in, as Ron Jeremy might put it, gay movies for the adult film industry.

[LaGoosh]

19 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

I can't think of any great examples off the top of my head, but was there anybody that really got an unlucky break when WCW was bought out by WWF? 

There were a fair few ECW/indie guys who had just signed contracts with WCW or were just about to which were completely scuppered by them being bought by WWF. Some of them (AJ Styles for examples) managed to make it big eventually but definitely a few who were never heard from again.

[Arch Stanton]

That's what I was thinking, but couldn't pull any specific examples out of my head for guys that never really recovered from it!

[SaitoRyo]

Chelsea Green had a bad run of luck during her first WWE run. She broke her wrist during her televised NXT debut match, then did the same during her SmackDown debut. She was released several months later (while still on the injured list).

[Callum1993]

4 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

That's what I was thinking, but couldn't pull any specific examples out of my head for guys that never really recovered from it!

You could maybe argue Scott Steiner? Was built as essentially the top heel for the last year or so of WCW. Comes in once the AOL Time-Warner contract was up with that great debut at Survivor Series then proceeded to shit the bed for the rest of his run. Obviously not helped with the injuries he had but he had that awful feud with Triple H and was then left off of Wrestlemania 19. Then went into feud/team with Test and was then let go the following year. I wonder if he hadn’t been injured whether he would have won the World Title? 
 

In terms of other guys on an upward trajectory when WCW ended none of them really worked out in WWE other than Booker T, Rey and arguably Shane Helms. Kronik were the shits, DDP was buried, none of Jindrak, Stasiak, Palumbo or O’Haire really worked out despite lots of gimmick changes and attempts to get them over. 

[tiger_rick]

9 minutes ago, Callum1993 said:

You could maybe argue Scott Steiner?

He was lucky to be employed given his shoot on Ric Flair, attacking a road agent backstage, getting arrested for battering some pretend EMTs and having a crap with DDP. He's a hilarious loose cannon but if he worked for any company with a backbone, he'd have been shit-canned long before he was diagnosed with Action Man foot.

Edited September 12, 2025 by tiger_rick

[WrestlingForFun]

4 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

He was lucky to be employed given his shoot on Ric Flair, attacking a road agent backstage, getting arrested for battering some pretend EMTs and having a crap with DDP. He's a hilarious loose cannon but if he worked for any company with a backbone, he'd have been shit-canned long before he was diagnosed with Action Man foot.

Scariest thing:

Him behaving like a relatively normal human being:

https://youtu.be/NHWKgty3FUc

[RedTwoster]

17 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Chelsea Green had a bad run of luck during her first WWE run. She broke her wrist during her televised NXT debut match, then did the same during her SmackDown debut. She was released several months later (while still on the injured list).

In an odd way that might have worked out well for her. She’s one of the best characters they have right now, and that might not have happened had she been tainted by however she’d have been used during the McMahon era. 

[davertfnewman]

Just watching Fall Brawl '94 and realised that one of the unluckiest guys in wrestling, on account of being Paul Roma, was Paul Roma. Great look, could go both ways, was a pretty solid wrestler, but on account of a shitty attitude cost himself more than he ever made.

[Callum1993]

8 minutes ago, davertfnewman said:

Just watching Fall Brawl '94 and realised that one of the unluckiest guys in wrestling, on account of being Paul Roma, was Paul Roma. Great look, could go both ways, was a pretty solid wrestler, but on account of a shitty attitude cost himself more than he ever made.

 

[Chili]

I actually really like Paul Roma. Always enjoyed his work, had a great look and it's a shame it took too long to tap into the natural dickhead aspect of him because it came off great on TV as a heel. Power & Glory are one of those things I worry is a bit 'Sean O'Haire vignettes' and that they might not be as good as my brain tells me. Then you watch them back and yeah, they were fucking great. I'd throw Herc & Jerk in as unluckiest tag team because, timing really fucked them. All hail the Powerplex!

[wandshogun09]

Chris Candido has to be a shout for this. Goes through all the struggles with addiction and drug abuse, finally gets himself clean, starts working indies and gets an opportunity in TNA in 2005. He’s looking good, seems to be buzzing to be back doing what he loved and is pencilled in to appear on WWE’s ECW One Night Stand show, then suffers a freak injury in a match in TNA, has an operation to fix it and ends up dying a few days later from pneumonia after what should’ve been a straightforward surgical procedure.

Always really saddens me whenever I see anything with Candido in it. I’m not sure how long he’d have stayed clean anyway, him and Sunny together just seemed absolutely toxic for each other. But there’s something extra cruel about the timing and how it ended for him.

2 minutes ago, Chili said:

All hail the Powerplex!

Easily Top 5 greatest tag team finishers ever. Probably Top 3. Maybe Top 1. Just awesome.

[davertfnewman]

50 minutes ago, Callum1993 said:

 

Babyface/heel!

[Chico Torres]

As he tells it, Nature Boy Buddy Landel in 1985 was in line for a huge push in Jim Crockett Promotions but he got wasted on coke the night before, didn’t show up to the studio the next morning and got blackballed by the booker Dusty Rhodes. He then spent the next 10 years battling addiction, getting out of shape, hanging around smaller promotions and doing jobs in WCW.

Fast forward 10 years to 1995 to Smoky Mountain Wrestling and he’s in the best shape he’s been, he’s clean and has a great match with then IC champ Shawn Michaels at the Superbowl of Wrestling which gets him a WWF gig. He subs for Shane Douglas at In Your House 5 against Ahmed Johnson, has a match with Bret Hart that is shown on WWF Mania and then while leaving a tv taping he slips on some ice, breaks his ankle, gets fired and he never gets a run in a big promotion again. Dies young in his early 50s.

He did cut this absolutely cracking promo before the match with Shawn Michaels