Wrestlers Who Got Trapped in Lower Card Gimmicks

Chain Smoker

So Val Venis is a guy a lot of other wrestlers used to say was capable of much higher up the card stuff than his gimmick allowed, as evidenced by several IC title runs iirc. Nick Dinsmore was highly rated by some too, and while Eugene got over huge it always was going to have a limited shelf life.


Also, any utterly talentless performers who happened to land an amazing gimmick deserve a special mention (for reference, James Ellsworth is perfect for his gimmick, it couldn't be gave to just anyone)

Agent Coulson

Dolph Ziggler being Dolph Ziggler.

J. Marston

Barrett. Leader of the Nexus to leader of the Corre (remember them?) BNB (which was fun) to King Barrett (a poisoned gimmick).

Sirsok

Paul Burchill when he became Jack Sparrow and then tried to ride his sister.

Doug Basham was highly thought of in OVW before the S&M dominatrix stuff with his "brother" and a lady called Shaniqua, the he and his brother joined up with a sexually ambigious boxer, a moleface pop singer and a cowboy hawk blackjack occult protection agency running financial broker.

Wrestling is wonderful

Chain Smoker

Sheamus is one who got straddled with main event pushes and punishment demotions when (at least for a few years) he'd've been pretty good fun as a bit of a midcard goof.

riffmongous

TAKA Mishinoku. KAIENTAI were definitely fun but comedy jobber was such a waste of his talent and there was no way back after that

ShagNastii

The brunt of your guys that come to my mind here are from the ruthless aggression era.

Dolph Ziggler being the exception- all of the Spirit Squad guys were touted to the moon from their work in OVW. Jeter was the future if the IWC were to be believed at the time. So difficult to pass as credible coming off a naff male cheerleader gimmick.

Boogeyman is the poster boy for talentless duds that were pure gimmick. He had a substantial run and even got himself a fairly big WM match with Booker T.

Charles Wright would be cut from the same cloth and he's made it into the HOF.

jaykhunter

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Sheamus is one who got straddled with main event pushes and punishment demotions when (at least for a few years) he'd've been pretty good fun as a bit of a midcard goof.

Sadly I think that's it for him. I don't think they'll ever book him as a serious heel, he'll always be the jokey Irishman that's one booking decision away from 'getting jiggy on these posers'. Considering he's a 3-time World Champ, MITB, RR, KOTR winner, I can't see his portrayal ever improve.

Barrett is an even bigger missed opportunity as he's a fantastic heel (and showed it as the leader of the Nexus), has the presence, mic skills, look and in-ring work to go farther than Sheamo.

Itssoeasy

Sirsok wrote: »

Paul Burchill when he became Jack Sparrow and then tried to ride his sister.

Doug Basham was highly thought of in OVW before the S&M dominatrix stuff with his "brother" and a lady called Shaniqua, the he and his brother joined up with a sexually ambigious boxer, a moleface pop singer and a cowboy hawk blackjack occult protection agency running financial broker.

Wrestling is wonderful

Oh Doug basham. There is a video on YouTube of Jim cornette talking about when Johnny ace was head of talent relations and Doug was the top heel in OVW and he had long hair and they had him shave his head to see what he looked like bald. Well cue Jim asking Johnny why his top heel now looks like a "forty year old truck driver."

Itssoeasy

ShagNastii wrote: »

The brunt of your guys that come to my mind here are from the ruthless aggression era.

Dolph Ziggler being the exception- all of the Spirit Squad guys were touted to the moon from their work in OVW. Jeter was the future if the IWC were to be believed at the time. So difficult to pass as credible coming off a naff male cheerleader gimmick.

Boogeyman is the poster boy for talentless duds that were pure gimmick. He had a substantial run and even got himself a fairly big WM match with Booker T.

Charles Wright would be cut from the same cloth and he's made it into the HOF.

Ah now that's harsh on Charles wright. I mean he could actually go in the ring. Let's be fair now.

Turtyturd

Billy Gunn, you can try call yourself 'The One' for a few weeks but people will still know you as the leather skinned, inappropriately dressed, middle aged man who admires all kinds of asses.

Rikishi. Will always be the dancing fat guy. They had a real opportunity to elevate him after he ran over Austin but Austin having to get his vengeance in the manner he did killed it instantly.

Santino had a good debut but it all went to sh!t soon after. There was the a period where the crowd were really behind him coming up to an elimination chamber PPV but you just knew nothing would come of it because he was too far gone in the comedy foreigner direction.

B.A._Baracus

So many guys over the years have been given gimmicks that were never intended to get over. A few off the top of my head:

- Skip (Chris Candido)
- Salvatore Sincere.
- Duke the dumpster
- Simon Dean (Nova)
- The Goon
- TL hopper
- Mantor
- Sebastian Booger
- Just Joe
- Nailz (but the whole idea of him was to fund with the Big Boss Man)

Could be here all night listing names :pac:
I think when you're given a ****ty gimmick that's it. Doesn't matter how talented you may be you will hit the glass ceiling pretty quickly.

Omackeral

Turtyturd wrote: »

Santino had a good debut but it all went to sh!t soon after. There was the a period where the crowd were really behind him coming up to an elimination chamber PPV but you just knew nothing would come of it because he was too far gone in the comedy foreigner direction.

Ever see his OVW gimmick as a Russian Shoot fighter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZMrOV22rRc

Blue_Dabadee

Lance Storm

Great tune though.

A Rogue Hobo

Raven in WWE for me. Great character and can have decent matches when given motivation to and they just made him do hardcore title brawls and commentate on Heat.

Considering once he left he got himself over huge in TNA (was one of the few reasons to watch TNA in that time period) I think they missed out on not giving him some type of mid card run. Still think Vince was a little bitter over him snubbing the executive producer role for Raw in his first run with the company.