Sean O'Haire's wasted potential

[Stopspot]

This is in my mind a prime example of wasted potential. O'Haire was a former WCW tag team champion who in 2003 was repackaged with in my opinion, one of the most interesting gimmicks in the WWE. Sean became the devil's advocate. Vignettes started airing for him were he told people to perform adultery, don't pay taxes, don't go to church etc. Ending all of the vignettes with the words "Hell, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know".

Sean on Religion.​

Sean debuted and started corrupting people (getting Dawn Marie to flash the crowd for example) and getting a small win streak going. Then they for some reason decided to drop the gimmick which was getting fairly over, stick him with Piper and feed him to Hogan under his Mr. America act. Sean was then released in 2004.

This was a failure on the WWE's part. Imagine if this gimmick had gotten a serious chance. Sean could have been a great mid card heel with this anti-christ/Devil's advocate gimmick. He was a solid talker as this character, a good wrestler and he had that look that made him honest to god look like he could be the devil with the messy hair and goatee and slightly pointed ears.

Do you think this gimmick and character could have done well? How far do you think Sean could have taken it? How would you have booked him? Or do you just not see it working?

 

[Lockard 23]

I honestly don't remember him doing any kind of religion/anti-religion gimmick (the above video does look interesting, must have been pretty short-lived) but I do remember him as Piper's bodyguard, which just wasn't the best role for him at all.

He was someone who had a lot of potential in WCW's final days, but unfortunately, they were failing fast and hard. I (and others) always believed he could have broken out as the next big thing there if they hadn't sunk under the weight of their own stupidity and mediocrity. I heard WWE were also high on him and wanted to push him hard (Lance Storm brought it up on his website once) but he had a bad tendency to get into bar fights outside the arena and just generally be a shit-stirrer, so his career with them was pretty short-lived.

 

[Stopspot]

I honestly don't remember him doing any kind of religion/anti-religion gimmick (the above video does look interesting, must have been pretty short-lived) but I do remember him as Piper's bodyguard, which just wasn't the best role for him at all.

He was someone who had a lot of potential in WCW's final days, but unfortunately, they were failing fast and hard. I (and others) always believed he could have broken out as the next big thing there if they hadn't sunk under the weight of their own stupidity and mediocrity. I heard WWE were also high on him and wanted to push him hard (Lance Storm brought it up on his website once) but he had a bad tendency to get into bar fights outside the arena and just generally be a shit-stirrer, so his career with them was pretty short-lived.

His vignettes weren't all focused on religion. He was a devil's advocate type of character were he planted ideas in peoples heads about bad behavior like skipping church, cheating and drugs. But as soon as they paired him with Piper they dropped the entire gimmick. So yeah, on TV it was short lived despite him being hyped for a while.

 

[Mustafar Reginald]

Those vignettes are awesome and I absolutely love the character. From what I've read, the reason the gimmick was dropped was because Sean O'Haire wasn't able to keep a straight face when doing the promos in front of live crowds. Not sure if that was actually the case, but that's the only thing I was able to find on why they dropped this gimmick. I'd love for WWE to try and give the Devil's Advocate character another go.

 

[BaraaKhalaf92]

Isn't that the dude in Scooby-Doo?

Seriously though, I think I remember him, I recently played WWE Smackdown HCTP, and I had a feud with him over who to get Torrie Wilson as his manager.

 

[Lockard 23]

Isn't that the dude in Scooby-Doo?

Seriously though, I think I remember him, I recently played WWE Smackdown HCTP, and I had a feud with him over who to get Torrie Wilson as his manager.

lol That's Matthew Lillard, one of the killers in the original Scream. Sad that I can remember that by memory (the Scooby-Doo part.)

 

[BaraaKhalaf92]

lol That's Matthew Lillard, one of the killers in the original Scream. Sad that I can remember that by memory (the Scooby-Doo part.)

LOL Yea I was only kidding.

 

[Leo C]

Those vignettes are awesome and I absolutely love the character. From what I've read, the reason the gimmick was dropped was because Sean O'Haire wasn't able to keep a straight face when doing the promos in front of live crowds. Not sure if that was actually the case, but that's the only thing I was able to find on why they dropped this gimmick. I'd love for WWE to try and give the Devil's Advocate character another go.

Shame if true. It was a great gimmick.