WWE dropping the ball

I'd have to say Goldberg.

They made him look like a chump within weeks by doing backstage comedy bits with Goldust.

The worst though was the elimination chamber at Summerslam 2003. Best reaction he got in WWE with him going through everyone in the match but then HHH hits him with the sledge hammer and pins him.

Made worse by the fact that HHH was carrying an injury at the time (hence him wearing those stupid bicycle shorts) so it made even more sense to drop the belt.

CastorTroy

Drew McIntyre is another one. The chosen one, etc

Agree with Summer of Punk as well.

Bringing Punk back too early for starters.

He should have at least got a match vs Nash with Nash putting him over.

HHH beating him at he PPV was a disgrace.

Itssoeasy

ricero wrote: »

Ryback was white hot when he was feuding with punk for the title. Always felt they dropped the ball with him losing to punk at hell in a cell and then turning him heel to face cena

Dropped the ball ? Well ryback is known for dropping people alright.

Stereomaniac

Yeah. The fact that they booked themselves into a corner at the Hell In A Cell springs to mind.

Looper007

Blue_Dabadee wrote: »

Zack Ryder. He got over with the fans through the powers of social media, but WWE buried him 6 feet under with his feud with Kane.

He was basically used to get Cena more Cheers and to get Eve over as a Heel, she screwed Ryder over week after week and he never once got any payback. After that he was pretty much dead in the water, well at least he has EMMA from NXT to lick his wounds with . But it was one of the worse burials I've seen, but was anyone shocked he got over himself something you don't do in WWE.

Looper007

Deleted User wrote: »

Agree with Summer of Punk as well.

Bringing Punk back too early for starters.

He should have at least got a match vs Nash with Nash putting him over.

HHH beating him at he PPV was a disgrace.

something Punk bought up before he quit to HHH, he should have done the honours and put over Punk. Wouldn't have done HHH no harm but it totally screwed Punk over. Sure he got a long ass WWE title run (even that was treated second rate to anything Cena was doing). He had to lose to Taker The Rock and Lesnar without getting any payback. Put into useless feuds with Jericho Axel and Ryback.

To be fair to Punk he did his best with whatever he got but you could see he was totally fed up by the end of it.

nasty_crash

How much of punk being fed up with the product was down to the people - or lack thereof - who he wanted to have fueds with - i.e. your Axel, Ryback, Kane, Big Show's etc. - Gotta think he has to be interested in returning in some part with the likes of Owens, Nakamura, Aries, Finn, Gallows, Sami, Hideo, Joe all on the roster! And having ambrose and rollins(after injury) higher up on the card now!

Back to the topic at hand...

I have to agree with the Ziggler suggestions.... I remember seeing him in dublin at the hotel before the Show and everyone was like 'Its About Time' after he won the title on the Monday After mania... that was epic... its funny to think they took the strap off him so quick after getting that concussion when we have seen in recent times - Brock defend the title every month and not show up inbetween - trips now have it and its not defended - Bryan was injured for a while before he gave it up! I think they missed a beat with ziggs

Also they were really close to dropping the ball with ambrose - and it showed the way he lost the IC title and he hasnt even mentioned it since.... it was like

Writers - Your gonna face Brock at mania!
Ambrose - Yes!
Writers - Oh wait whats the big shiny thing around your waste?
Ambrose - Oh thats my IC title that I've had for a while and defended etc
Writers - Ok... lets see.... your gonna loose that sunday.... and after that we will never speak of it again
Ambrose - but surely i should get a rematch??
Writers - .... never again Dean!

And they really need to be careful how they book ambrose over the next couple of weeks with Roadblock and Mania cos if they make him look crazy.... and weak.... Im just not sold on how its playing out now! Granted so happy that ambrose and brock at mania - i didnt fancy bray and brock at all!!

Angron

I'm still very hopeful they won't drop the ball with Dean. He's consistently getting some of the best reactions on the show, in spite of that period in 2014 where he lost (I think) every PPV match he had, mostly through interference or just really stupid stuff (like a fecking exploding telly). Unfortunately, I think the only way he's actually getting to the top right now is if Roman gets injured, and Cena or Seth can't be rushed back in.

beakerjoe

WWE have missed the boat with a heap load of talent and most of it is because of Vinces mentality of tearing their character down and building them back up and in many cases the character initially there was great and the attempt of rebuilding said wrestler is very lazily done.

If you got over elsewhere (WVW, ROH, TNA, ECW), Vince will want to destroy that and try rebuild the individual his way. If said character is over elsewhere and comes to WWE, WWE creative will fight hard to let it gain traction and get over on its own without Vinces or anyones input.

In the 90’s, more than likely if you were a big name coming into WWF, you wouldn’t be as big as you were previously. God forbid an outsider can come into WWE and be just as successful. You could argue that the likes of Dusty Rhodes, Rick Rude and Vader all could have been top stars in WWE, but they never got the big push or the big win, rather they were designed to be popular names to get other WWE talent over. But if you came from outside and if Vince tweeked, altered or complete changed your gimmick, name or look, then you stood a chance of being pushed.

Hogan, Warrior, Savage, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret, Owen, Yokozunna, Mabel, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Steve Austin, The Rock, HHH, Kurt Angle......all guys that Vince or WWE created character wise. They got the push. Ric Flair, was probably the only guy not a WWE pushed so hard, but it could be argued it was a case to build him up to eventually feed him to Hogan.

If Vince wasnt so hell bent on WWE "creating" these stars, WWE could be a better place today.
Ambrose is a star and they should of pulled the trigger on him after The initial Shield spilt and not Roman.

Ziggler , like someone said, isn’t a top guy and while he had plenty of close brushes with being fairly over, he’s not got the tools to be the no1 heel or no1 face. I just don’t see it anymore and I think WWE were right not to push the guy to the moon.

Barrett : One one side I don’t know why Vince didn’t strap a Rocket to him. Hes a big guy, handy enough in the ring and hes got a look Vince would normally go for. But Im glad he didn’t, he just hasn’t got it. He never blew me away in the ring, his characters, while over to a degree, were never main event characters. Never did it for me.

Drew Galloway : Too young when he was being pushed and has improved greatly away from WWE. He wasn’t ready for it then but had not signed for WWE then and was tearing up the indys like he has been, then he would be a big player in NXT or would be at least.

Ryback : No. They shouldn’t have booked him to be in the ring with punk that early but once he was defeated, which would of happened eventually if it wasn’t to Punk, his lack of ring skills and mic skills would be there for all to see. He was never the guy and Im glad WWE agreed.

Dusty : Was undervalued but you have to remember he was past his prime when he went to WWF and if I remember the Polka Dots was his idea. But yeah, he could have been used better but his best years were already behind him.

Bray Wyatt is a ball dropped. He is a fantastic talent that is being wasted or pushed very lazily. He can cut promos very well and he can work in the ring well for a heavy fella. Pity his character is so stale.

Moneymaker

ADR is a recent one that really stands out. Gets fired, does some absolutely awesome work as Alberto El Patron, they bring him back. Crowd goes nuts and he beats John Cena clean as a sheet.

What do they do? Make him a heel and do this hideously awful angle and instantly, no one cares about him.

Kane, Test, Big Show, Shelton Benjamin, Rikishi, Christian, William Regal, Vader, MVP. I could go on and on.

beakerjoe

Moneymaker wrote: »

ADR is a recent one that really stands out. Gets fired, does some absolutely awesome work as Alberto El Patron, they bring him back. Crowd goes nuts and he beats John Cena clean as a sheet.

What do they do? Make him a heel and do this hideously awful angle and instantly, no one cares about him.

Kane, Test, Big Show, Shelton Benjamin, Rikishi, Christian, William Regal, Vader, MVP. I could go on and on.

I wouldnt class any of these guys as main events, but they could have been so much more than they were( excpet Vader, he was main event material. )

Del Rio was a waste. A huge waste. they had nothing for him and just wanted a latin guy to tick the boxes on tours. The whole Zeb story was logic defying nonsense.

johnnyryan89

Could add Rusev to this list, built him up as this unstoppable machine and then went on a three match losing streak against Cena at WM31, Extreme Rules and Payback after his win against Cena at Fastlane and he's just went downhill after that.

What about Randy Orton's first run as WWE champion, beats Benoit to become the youngest world champion and it was perfectly set up for them to have Evolution stay together and business as usual and after a couple of months then have Triple H and Orton feud after some leadership issues but they botched that up by turning on him not even 24hrs later and had him drop the belt after only a month.

gnfnrhead

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Could add Rusev to this list, built him up as this unstoppable machine and then went on a three match losing streak against Cena at WM31, Extreme Rules and Payback after his win against Cena at Fastlane and he's just went downhill after that.

What about Randy Orton's first run as WWE champion, beats Benoit to become the youngest world champion and it was perfectly set up for them to have Evolution stay together and business as usual and after a couple of months then have Triple H and Orton feud after some leadership issues but they botched that up by turning on him not even 24hrs later and had him drop the belt after only a month.

I believe Orton was just WWE being petty. It came not long after Lesnar had walked out. Giving Orton the title took away the Youngest Champion tag line from Lesnar and put it on someone they were hoping would be a big star in future. Orton was nowhere near ready but WWE are well known for their pettiness.

Blue_Dabadee

Nexus storyline. It was alright for the first couple of weeks before they lost at SummerSlam which ultimately killed their credibility as a stable.

Also some of them were still green and weren't ready for main roster.

ShagNastii

Blue_Dabadee wrote: »

Nexus storyline. It was alright for the first couple of weeks before they lost at SummerSlam which ultimately killed their credibility as a stable.

Also some of them were still green and weren't ready for main roster.

The ball drop of Wade Barrett and Nexus go hand in hand. The Nexus were fantastic from the get go. It was the NWO take two and I personally thought it was exciting as hell.

You would underestimate just how good Barrett was at the time. He looked like a million bucks and was a wholly credible threat to the mighty John Cena. Main event standard by a mile.

It went the way of so many guys. They were not let "kill" the Ce-Nation. I'm not one to crib about Cena not giving somebody a real rub but if you'd have let Wade/NXT destroy Cena (on a big PPV) you would have had yourselves a megastar. I'd almost echo the same for Bray Wyatt.

Lord TSC

Am still salty bout Cena no selling the DDT on concrete, only to pin two guys in quick succession.

Turtyturd

The two weeks of Punk gets mentioned a lot, but I would put the fault at both his feet and at WWE's.

Owens is one for me. Great debut win over Cena but you just knew there was only going to be one person coming out on top of the feud.

I know it has been talked about a lot over the years but the invasion storyline still remains such a load of ****.

Turning it into another McMahon vs McMahon storyline that had been off and on for the past 2 years

Stephanie as ECW owner

Not getting 1 big WCW name in

Austin leading wcw/ecw

The very next year (even the end of 2001 with Flair) the likes of the NWO, Bischoff and Steiner came in and there was also a brand split. This was when it should have been done. NWO and Bischoff alone would have been fine. I know they had contracts that meant they could sit at home so thats why I think they should have waited till 2002.

Brutal stuff and probably the biggest missed oppertunity in WWE history.

gnfnrhead

Deleted User wrote: »

I know it has been talked about a lot over the years but the invasion storyline still remains such a load of ****.

Turning it into another McMahon vs McMahon storyline that had been off and on for the past 2 years

Stephanie as ECW owner

Not getting 1 big WCW name in

Austin leading wcw/ecw

The very next year (even the end of 2001 with Flair) the likes of the NWO, Bischoff and Steiner came in and there was also a brand split. This was when it should have been done. NWO and Bischoff alone would have been fine. I know they had contracts that meant they could sit at home so thats why I think they should have waited till 2002.

Brutal stuff and probably the biggest missed oppertunity in WWE history.

Vince wasn't willing to let WCW look like a threat to his guys. That's why the biggest star was probably Booker T. DDP was wasted from the second he was signed and nobody else really came close to those two from the WCW side. If the roles were reversed, WWF would have invaded WCW being led by Jericho and Big Show while Austin, Angle, Rock, Triple H and Undertaker sat at home. That's never going to work but they pushed ahead anyway.

No reason Vince couldn't have left WCW to do its thing as a separate brand until the nWo became available. If the WCW brand is a success, leave it be. If not, then do a hostile invasion where they try to take over again but this time with the support of WCW.

nacho libre

I think they have dropped the ball with Bray Wyatt. His match at Roadblock against Brock should be on the Wrestlemania card. Also he has lost too many of the big feuds he has had. I would have had Taker lose his streak to him last year.

rossie1977

Straight Edge Punk wrote: »

Ziggler always strikes me as a big dude.

He is like 5'10-5'11 and 180lb in person. I have met lots of big wrestlers and ziggler ain't that

Its a shame that there is no competition for WWE anymore, guys like Punk and Ziggler would have been able to go to a competitor and show WWE just what they are missing out on by forcing wrestlers on to the fans that we have no interest in watching.

Except wcw would never have pushed ziggler or punk

Wcw pushed guys like sting, Vader, Nash, hall, ddp, goldberg, luger, windham, steiner, booker t ie guys that people would consider Vince bodytypes.

Guys like punk, ziggler would be curtain jerkers in wcw along with mysterio, Guerrero, Jericho etc

Can you imagine a guy like punk holding top title in wcw for over a year and beating Hogan or Nash time and time again like he did cena..