Wrestlers WWE dropped the ball on

[TheGoldStandard]

Who are some of the Superstars that WWE didn't have faith in and completely dropped the ball with them?

I can think of a few names:

Elijah Burke
Matt Morgan
Bull Buchanan (don't laugh)
Sean O'Haire (LOVED his gimmick before Piper came in to ruin it)

any others?

 

[Dod Draper]

Shelton Benjamin (seemingly Benjamin's fault too)
Kofi Kingston (I'm not a Kofi fan, but they did a complete U-turn with him last year and really crushed his momentum)
Jack Swagger (see above)

Many WCW/ECW superstars.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

what do you mean Benjamin's fault? He did everything that was asked of him and then some. He did that HORRIBLE Momma gimmick that made him a joke. Are you talking about his mic work?

 

[Prodigy]

Benjamin was reportedly lazy. Yes he may of done what he was told to do but to really move up in the company you gotta do what you're told to do and more.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

lazy? really? I never seen him not go 100%. He did botch a move here and there, but who hasn't done that. He was always the show stopper in the MIB matches he was in.

 

[Deezy]

Shelton was a person who was happy languishing in mediocrity, and in a place as competitive as a WWE locker room, it spelled certain doom for him. He was coasting off his athleticism and never was a person to push himself towards mainevent status and WWE was left with no choice but to get rid of someone who wasn't going to make them money.

Sean O'Haire liked to fight too much, which is the reason he tried to have a feeble MMA career.

And They definitely dropped the ball on Matt Morgan, why would you let someone F5 the Big Show only to release him a few days later?

And Elijah Burke is someone they could've made into a star, unfortunately the writer who would go to bat for him left and he was stuck in limbo.

 

[Killz]

I don't buy Shelton and the like but you mentioned two potential upper midcard/future main event talents in Elijah Burke and Matt Morgan.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying because they've main evented the iMPACT zone they could main event a WWE show but these guys seemed to be the perfect build for what WWE like to push and both of them really seemed into the product. I mean, guys like Shelton were in higher spots on the card and he showed no tremendous care for what he did except to coast like deezy said. Burke and Morgan were the sort of guys that would have stayed with the product and really cared about what they did.

 

[The New F'n Show]

I think Burke and Morgan are two good choices amongst many. I always thought they blew possible pushes for many old WCW guys. Ron Simmons and Too Cold Scorpio come to mind. They could have done something with Jerry Lynn or Justin Credible but neither was going to be a star. Vader would top this list for me by far.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

Deezy is right about Benjamin. Benjamin never cared about being the big star, so WWE did no harm. O'Haire was really interesting, but in the end he wanted to do something else. Matt Morgan is one guy they did drop the ball on, he was a main event waiting to happen. I wasn't around for the Eljiah Burke era, so can't judge. I still think Mike Knox had talent, not main event talent but he could seriously do some good feuds with. Jack Swagger will be back on the rise eventually, according to sources once he won the title, he became a jerk backstage and they are burying him a bit.

 

[Troy]

Matt Morgan and Elijah Burke are great examples of two wrestlers who WWE dropped the ball with. Both could have been great talents, especially Burke who seemed primed to be a big player when he lead the New Breed but nothing ever came of it.

Paul Burchill is one that I think WWE dropped the ball on. He was a great talent and WWE never let his gimmicks play out completely on the main roster.

Kevin Thorn/Mordecai is another. Kevin Thorn had the vampire gimmick down right when vampires became the cool thing and WWE let him go. I was one of about seven people who also liked the Mordecai character and was disappointed when the dropped it.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

Troy, Paul was a good talent. His gimmick was in the hype of the Pirates movies. Just like how Kevin Thorn's vampire gimmick came along. I really didn't see Burchill has a big future superstar. I do miss Katie Lea

What gimmick did you prefer with Thorn? Vampire or Mordeci? I really like the build up for Mordeci. I only see him have 2 pay per view matches and that was it.

 

[Troy]

I preferred the Mordecai gimmick and I really liked the vignettes that WWE made for him before his debut. I assumed that he would be built up as a future opponent for the Undertaker because of the gimmicks they both had. His feud against Hardcore Holly completely killed his character and ruined what momentum he had. He should have been so much more. Then he had the Kevin Thorn gimmick which he made awesome but again was let down by WWE at a crucial time.

Another name that I just thought of was Muhammad Hassan. He took his controversial gimmick and made it into something which was mainevent material. He was on the fast track to success until that segment on Smackdown featuring masked attackers. UPN completely ruined a great character when they blocked WWE from having him on Smackdown. His gimmick was all about wanting to change the image that all arab-americans are terrorists and really it was a good gimmick to have. WWE took it a bit far with the masked attackers segment but really it was a good message to send, not all arabs are terrorists only a tiny fraction are and you can't stereotype everyone. It is a shame that he retired from the industry after that since he and Daivari together were a great combination and seemed set for the mainevent.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

People don't understand that UPN was the one that killed Hassan's character. Smackdown was taped on Tuesday and the London bombing happened that Friday afternoon. UPN decided to keep Hassan's masked men on the show. It was their screw up and Hassan was finished because of it.

 

[Prodigy]

I believe they actually dropped it on Knox. His promos were actually good and though not the best his in ring work was good enough to bring him to mid card titles imo.

 

[Deezy]

I preferred the Mordecai gimmick and I really liked the vignettes that WWE made for him before his debut. I assumed that he would be built up as a future opponent for the Undertaker because of the gimmicks they both had. His feud against Hardcore Holly completely killed his character and ruined what momentum he had. He should have been so much more. Then he had the Kevin Thorn gimmick which he made awesome but again was let down by WWE at a crucial time.

Another name that I just thought of was Muhammad Hassan. He took his controversial gimmick and made it into something which was mainevent material. He was on the fast track to success until that segment on Smackdown featuring masked attackers. UPN completely ruined a great character when they blocked WWE from having him on Smackdown. His gimmick was all about wanting to change the image that all arab-americans are terrorists and really it was a good gimmick to have. WWE took it a bit far with the masked attackers segment but really it was a good message to send, not all arabs are terrorists only a tiny fraction are and you can't stereotype everyone. It is a shame that he retired from the industry after that since he and Daivari together were a great combination and seemed set for the mainevent.

I wasn't much of a fan of the Mordecai gimmick, I don't think wrestling and religeon should be mixed since it generally causes more problems than it would buyrates. Hardcore Holly is a terrible human being. Also Kevin Thorn wasn't all that great of a wrestler imo, he was so obviously green you could actually hear him asking when spots were going to happen. I remember him on WWECW and practically mapping out the match before the spots happened.

Hassan was definitely a shame, UPN really screwed WWE on this character. I don't understand why he just wasn't put back on Raw.