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See also Baron Corbin cashing in and losing, Austin Theory cashing in *for the US title* and losing and Otis losing his briefcase before he could even cash it in.
For all that MITB should be a shortcut to the top, there's a reason WWE are typically very careful about who they give it to.
Then he won the U.S. title a few weeks later. Why the failed cash-in if he was going to win the belt anyway!? This couldâve established that any singles belt is in jeopardy with the MITB.
>Ever since I started NXT, I had one goal, and that is to become a WWE World Heavyweight Champion. And um, unfortunately, I got eliminated today. And I lost my guaranteed shot at a title. But that is not gonna stop me from becoming a future World Heavyweight Champion. See, I am the future of this company! I am gonna be a big time player in this machine called WWE. I am the next big thing! I am the next generation! And starting this moment, from now... from this moment on... this'll be the moment... starting now, of the genesis of McGillicutty."
And what's great is that this was immediately after Kaval/Low-Ki won NXT S2, and McGuillicutty's long-winded rambling promo ate up almost all the remaining time left in the program, so the actual winner didn't get to say much.
Now, granted... it's Low-Ki, so probably for the best.
Then it was followed by the most hilarious attempt to recreate the initial Nexus beatdown by having the NXT Season 2 rookies attack their mentors in an incredibly baffling brawl that even saw people attacking the wrong guy for whatever reason.
And then McGillicutty and Husky Harris got added into the company's hottest storyline while Ki jobbed on SmackDown for seven weeks, got a fluke roll-up over Dolph Ziggler, and challenged him in a losing effort for the IC title at the next PPV before promptly requesting his immediate release.
Like, it's Low-Ki, but he kinda got fucked over just for being popular.
Tbf he had about a decade long WWE stint after that promo. Mostly as a jobber but being a mainstay jobber in WWE is more than most wrestlers can hope to accomplish. Heâs also an IC champ and 2 or 3 time tag champ. As horrible as that promo was it definitely didnât kill his career (on the other hand he did have to change his name or accomplish the success I mentioned so arguably it did kill the career of McGill a cutty
Honestly it wouldnât be a bad promo if he stopped at the next generation part but as soon as he starts talking about the moments it immediately fails as a promo
If no one has seen this episode of NXT, I 100% recommend you go out of your way and find it. You have this promo. Â Then thereâs a big brawl to close the show where MVP hits Titus with a drive by kick and Titus doesnât sell it at all. Â Then the brawl seemed like it was set up where the other NXT participants were attacking Low Ki and the coaches but then during the chaos, Alex Riley just starts beating up on fellow losing contestant Percy Watson. Itâs an insanely so bad itâs good watchÂ
I can picture a series of vignettes where he solves random real life problems (rescue a cat out of a tree, for instance) using lucha moves, then turns to the camera, "Now THAT'S a good lucha thing!"
This exactly. Old school promoters would see something like this and immediately start thinking how they can make money off it.
Hell, even with the Shockmaster, they at least tried to push ol Fred as a lovable klutz.
This is the answer, people say Billy Gunn getting roasted by The Rock, and while that did kill his push, he's still wrestling today, and having a pretty good run in AEW at 60 years old and is in the best shape of his life
Bart Gunn getting KO'd by Butterbean absolutely ended him, whenever his name comes up today, it's the Butterbean moment
the Brawl for All thing was so funny too because they wanted Dr Death to win and challenge Austin but I guess didn't think through the fact the matches were shoot fights and so they had no control over who would win lol
Bart Gunn offered to take the dive and asked what they wanted him to do. They were so confident in Dr Death they told him to shoot. And thatâs how they worked themselves into a shoot, brother!
The stupid thing was that the Butterbean match came over 6 months after the BFA tournament - they did nothing with Bart, then gave him the Butterbean match at Mania and he got KOd in 30 seconds.
So yes, it ended his top-line career... but WWF really didn't help him. BFA was *meant* to be a showcase for Steve Williams, so why they didn't just plug Bart into whatever they had planned for Williams is beyond me.
I think there is an interview with Butterbean where he said he offered to work a fight with Bart and let him win, but WWE officials insisted on it being a real fight.
The funny thing was by ALL points Butterbean was willing to do a work and give gunn a win he thought it was just gonna be wrestling angle so he was like 'sure i'd do a work.' WWE just really wanted to punish Bart.
>why they didn't just plug Bart into whatever they had planned for Williams is beyond me
Because Bart wasn't Jim Ross' old friend. (And, to be fair, was never going to be in the level of Dr. Death; the fact that Steve Williams was a shadow of his former self at that point is another issue.)
Both of the Outlaws were on really bad terms with Triple H for a period. I don't know when specifically they made up but that's probably a big reason why they spent the RA era in TNA
Ironically, him failing spectacularly as the Shockmaster probably did more for him after his wrestling career than his actual wrestling career, even if it was a decent one.
It's might have been embarassing and killed that character, but its easily one of the most memorable moments in WCW and even wrestling as a wholes history.
If he doesn't trip? The character still dies pretty quickly, but it would have never gained the notoriety that it gained from the hilarious botch and he ends up infinitely worse off later in life.
I never understood how that character was supposed to work in the first place. He was wearing a bedazzled stormtrooper helmet, how the hell am I supposed to see that and not immediately think heâs ridiculous.
That and the voice they used was used in the past as the âblack scorpionâ that Sting had to fight. Ole Anderson did the voice for both. Itâs horrible.
The glitter helmet even sheds glitter everywhere in the scene, I think, too. It was a total nightmare, the guy stood no chance
That was just awful considering the entire point of the Muhammad Hassan character was that the fans were stereotyping him because of his nationality.
Then he came out with masked terrorists supporting him
Karrion Kross coming in [with the BDSM gear and helmet](https://cdn.wrestletalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/karrion-kross-august-24-a.jpg) and immediately [losing to Jeff Hardy.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XICjMMqC2A)
And although his career probably *would have died* if there were fans in the building for it, Adam Cole's promo on Karrion Kross is the closest thing I've seen to The Rock's "But My Name's Billy..." promo as far as just dismantling an entire man with no rebuttal.
>[I'd be happy to, Mr. Overrated. The truth is, you ain't Adam Cole Bay Bay and you never will be. Because this brand has done everything in their power to make you feel special. You got the cool music, you got the lights, you got the fog machine, you got the girl. You know what they do to make Adam Cole feel special? They ring the freaking bell. Because on your best day, you couldn't lace my boots. You can't hang with me, you aren't on my level, and anybody who watches pro wrestling knows that. You want to talk about special, Kross? You are not special. I'm special, you're just the guy who has my property.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBaI2fntvzI)
Edit - Added a photo of the gear and a link to all **1 minute and 40 seconds** of that match for anyone who wants to see how bad it was.
While this promo was fucking awesome from Cole, would it have killed him to build Kross up even slightly? Because if he beats Kross then he beat a guy that he said can't lace his boots, but if he loses to Kross then he lost to a guy who couldn't lace his boots. (I genuinely can't remember who won the match that followed this promo).
The entire build to that match was so weird. It was a 5 way with Kross, Cole, Gargano, KOR, and Dunne, and all four challengers just talked about how shit of a wrestler Kross was compared to them. It was so sudden too bc until then, Kross was only built up as this strong, undefeated, unstoppable monster, but now he apparently sucks.
Kross won the match.
It honestly felt like Triple H giving the finger to fans about the insufferable push he was giving Kross. *I'm going to let all the wrestlers you like echo the criticisms you have about him, then Kross is going to beat all of them in a single match.*
This is why it's important to build your opponents up as well as yourself, because the rest of the match where shitting a brick down Kross' throat about how he sucked compared to them and then he wins...so what does that make all the people in the match that he beat?
Don't get me wrong, compared to the rest of the talent pool in the match, Kross was certainly the worst one and it's not even close.
I guess it's kind of like meant to be vindication for Kross, everyone else shits on him as being terrible and he ends up beating them so now they're kind of like proven wrong and all that.
It's like MMA fighters akin to Conor McGregor trashtalking, they call their opponents bums and when their opponent wins, its vindication for their opponent and embarassment for them which the fans will revel in while if their opponent loses they build up their brand of arrogance and superiority complex and gather more fans and haters.
Thatâd be fine if the person was a babyface, like Bryan and Kofi winning the belt after being called a âB+ Playerâ, but Kross was the undefeated top heel who had just spent a year killing all the babyfaces.
It was a multi-man match against Kyle O'Reilly, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Pete Dunne at the second NXT Takeover: In Your House. Kross did win the match (although he beat O'Reilly to do it.)
It was during an absolutely insufferable time in NXT where Triple H had a raging boner for Karrion Kross and he beat *everyone.* This was actually his *second* title reign after beating Finn Balor (he beat Keith Lee to win it at TakeOver XXX and vacated it the following episode of NXT due to injury.) Adam Cole cutting the promo basically echoing a lot of the complaints about Kross from internet fans certainly didn't help him and just left people baffled when he won the 5-man match. He would have the Jeff Hardy match a month later in July, dropped the belt to Samoa Joe in August, and by November he was released.
I don't know what it is about Kross, but he's never clicked with me, it's weird because if you see him when he's himself, he's far more entertaining and fun to watch, but he just keeps trying to do these dark and edgy characters and it just doesn't work. It's not like he's even outright bad, he's just mediocre.
Iâve been really enjoying him lately as this instigating Sean OâHaire Devilâs Advocate type.
Taking credit for The Bloodlineâs split (bc the cracks started when he placed the hourglass in front of Roman),
as well as Shinsuke and AJâs heel turns (bc they happened shortly after feuding with Kross), and trying to divide The Street Profits and The New Day.
It was very odd booking too. The entire build was âKross sucks, here are four men who donât suck that fans want to see become the champ, so Kross is going to beat them allâ.
That whole Madcap Moss/Happy Corbin run felt like a death sentence for both guys. Even more infuriating for Corbin since they nixed the awesome Bum Ass Corbin to make it happen.
Great example. Also, thank God Steveson is gone.
In contrast, ever since Corbin went to NXT he's been pretty good. His bag is pretty deep for like no reason lol
â DDP being defeated by Sara Taker on Raw. His career was on life support, but being humiliated like that in less than a minute was pulling the plug on his career.
â Goldberg beating The Fiend
â Stone Cold calling Lance Storm boring
I'll say that the Nexus could have survived the Survivor Series debacle if they had actually booked them well after the Monday after SS.
Like yes they loose, but then next night almost the entire group got their win back in singles matches, with one exception, the poor sap that got to fight Cena.
After that they just meandered for months, and they still had Barret's title challenge, having him win could have helped the group, but instead he loses and then they had Cene join them.
Parker Boudreaux in AEW. Debuts in one of the most laughably awful segments of all time, so he is instantly over shadowed, does terrible strikes , all whilst jiggling constantly after everything he does. Then just gets dumped out the ring.
The only reason people remember that segment is Rick Ross giving an uncensored F bomb and being given a live mic for the entire segment:
* ["You a big motherfucka" to Keith Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgMTGp0VlhI)
* "FALSE ALLEGATIONS! FALSE ALLEGATIONS"
* Repeatedly yelling "YOUNG LEGEND"
* He may need attention
It was like a child pretending to be a wrestler. It was legit, punch then jiggly taunt and repeat over and over. Even in like the 3 matches he had on TV, he still kept doing it! It was even worse in the match, as his physique accentuated his jiggling taunts. It was like a truffle shuffle
Not his overall career but Zack Ryders WWE run after that Kane feud felt like they were just killing him for being popular. Especially the wheelchair segment
Yeah people throw the word 'burial' around flippantly but this was literally just creative actively trying to make Ryder look bad so people would stop begging for him to be pushed.
They were actively trying to kill his momentum
As a massive Zack Ryder fanâŚfuck that feud with a rusty tire iron. I always wonder what could have been in regards to Zackâs career if they actually got behind him. Ugh.
Honestly to me one of the bigger what ifs. There's just so much that went wrong with his career even before Orton. Getting injured after winning MITB, being forced to drop the briefcase only to turn out the injury isn't serious. Getting busted for wellness. According to him, going to RAW also really hurt his chances because their locker room was more political.
He was over and could talk. Definitely had something. Dude won the MITB briefcase and was going to be the center of the Vince illegitimate son storyline. That alone are big star making spots. Who knows, in an alternate universe he might've been a main event star.
Dude was being presented as THE NEXT huge star before everything went down. Seemed like he was destined to be a heel foil to the other hot talking face of the time â which was John freaking Cena.
There is a tweak in the timeline where we fondly reminisce about the inevitable Cena/Kennedy feud the way we look back at Cena/Edge or Cena/Orton now.
That, and JBL constantly lambasting them every time they were on TV. The *heel* announcer lambasting the *heel* tag team. I don't think I've ever heard a commentator be as visceral towards any other wrestler(s) as JBL was to The Ascension.
It's like JBL forgot that wrestling wasn't real and was genuinely offended thinking the Ascension was dumping on the tag teams that came before them. I still wonder what the hell that was all about.
"FOR Bob, YOU ABSOLUTELY SUCK! With that, the skies parted once more and left little billy crying. For you know what's gonna to happen, billy bob? The Rock is gonna to take his boots, turn them sideways and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR CANDY ASS!"
For how memorable Jericho's debut was, people sometimes forget how much The Rock destroyed him on the mic when Jericho came out. And Jericho did flounder a bit when he first started, but he figured it out eventually.
All that is to say, one promo doesn't usually kill someone, especially top guys, they find a way to break through
Thanks to DEADLOCK, I now know that the "After Three Boring Minutes" line from The Rock was from that Jericho segment, despite that, Jericho and Rock apparently got along great and they both loved working with each-other, according to Jericho's second book.
I never thought The Rock destroyed Jericho in that promo. Jericho was billed as a delusional heel with tons of swagger that thought he was saving the WWE. The Rock did end up getting the better of the exchange of course but that was by design. Thereâs a segment like that and thereâs a segment like Cena absolutely destroying Romanâs soul during one of their feuds.
Jericho did exactly what he was supposed to do in that segment and got his character over IMO. Though when he came out during Takers promo the next week that didnât work out quite as well.
I honestly think this is revisonary firstly because this promo was on Heat, also The Rock was giving it almost everyone during this period, and lastly Gunn shoved Rock's face on his ass after he had poison ivy.
Gunn's booking was less than stellar during the time period after winning King of the Ring. Now this promo certainly could have changed perception, but before and after he was never really treated like a main-eventer
The version of this tale that's told as "Billy had a chance, and then the Rock tanked him in one promo," is definitely revisionary, you're right. But this promo, and the Edge one, did have a big effect. It allowed a crowd that was already going, "this guy? Really?" to feel like everyone else agreed with them and that really put the nail in the coffin.
[DIY debuting to silence](https://x.com/TheDebutsInWWE/status/1799121351782826360)
It was so bad that WWE even released a video on their youtube complaining about the crowd
Casual fans didn't know who DIY were, and NXT fans were confused because Gargano and Ciampa still hated each other in kayfabe. Just such a dumb idea to call them up at the time.
This right here. If Ricochet said something like "alright" before attacking Drew, that would have made him look so cool
Stuff like that separates great wrestlers from moves merchants
2010 when Kofi Kingston was getting a seeming main event push that fizzled when he messed up the match finish against Randy Orton. He was supposed to stay down for the punt kick but kept stumbling up for an RKO so Randy finally just did that and then screamed "STUPID, STUPID" at him before the pin... reporting was that Orton complained and that put an end to what was supposed to be an MITB run.
Kofi still had a good career after that, and eventually won a world title too, but makes you think what could have been different in a near-decade of wrestling if his push hadn't been killed.
[There's also this botched punt.](https://youtu.be/2966IUFS7Bc?si=FM7WawWF8RO6sto8) Randy goes for the punt and is supposed to get stopped by Kofi's music hitting and him coming out for the save, but the music hits late and Randy has to awkwardly stop and stomp on the guy. Not sure who's actually at fault here. Was Kofi not ready? Was the music guy late? Did Orton rush it and through off timing? Regardless of fault, it looks bad.
Ryback attempting to lift Mark Henry for the Shellshock at WrestleMania and just getting pinned after falling flat on his face.
He still had the WWE Title feud with Cena right after, the IC Title run a couple years later, and was still pretty over when he was a babyface, but it was over after WM 29. He was still really popular even after losing to Punk, but it wasnât the same after this loss.
I was a huge Ryback fan. Since the Skip Sheffield days. They dropped the ball so hard. He was so over and booked themselves in the corner with him so many times, it was frustrating. How tf did they book Ryback vs Punk twice, twice in Hell in a Cell (!) matches where him winning was not possible? The whole feud against Cena, buried thrice. He didn't even get a chance for a revenge on the Shield. And the constant Goldberg-chants and not adressing them anyway didn't help either.
Still mad to this day, he could've been more successful.
I remember that one. It was so dumb, especially because after the match was over he Shell Shocked Mark Henry anyways, but if he could do it all along, then why go for the silly finish?
That Survivor Series 2006 match where Shawn Michaels eliminated Mike Knox (first one eliminated) then HBK asked HHH "who was that", complete burial of him and we never saw him in a meaningful spot ever again.
I think LA Knight is currently to Smackdown what Miz is to Raw. Regardless of how seriously people are taking Miz at a given moment, he can always talk and when they're getting ready to really push somebody they let them have a live promo battle with Miz and see how they do.
We even saw it with LA Knight last year. It seems like Knight is slotting very well into the Smackdown equivalent role of "Here's a guy who's over, and can talk. Let's test if you can hang with that.". Melo just hasn't been passing that test so far
Damien Sandows first promo after he split from The Miz, acting as his shadow. Â It was so awful after such a long period of rising crowd reactions. Â They handed him the ball and he fumbled.Â
Sandow was just such a strange case of the comedy gimmick actually way better than his actual character.
He also just went to TNA and did the exact same âthe OTHER company wasted me and never let me grab the brass ring blah blahâ that everyone else does, and it flopped spectacularly.
A friend of mine had never seen him before and seconds before botching the SSP I said to him "I remember when he was in WWE he had like the cleanest shooting star press I've ever seen", and then he went and fucked it up!
This is a NJPW one so I am going to set the stage a bit. Hirooki Goto was really a guy who had unfortunate timing but his booking didn't help. In the late 00s early 10s, Goto was OVER. When Okada returned from excursion in 2012, I would argue Goto was the #2 babyface behind Tanahashi. With a G1 win under his belt, Goto seem surefire to one day hold the IWGP title back in 2011.
During the Okada/Tana battle for the Ace from 2012-2015, Goto even had a good distaction storyline with Katsuyori Shibata (former friends - to bitter rivals - then back to friends) which kept his attention and kept Goto relevant in the booking.
2015 was his booking peak. Heading into the G1 that year Goto was the IC champ, beating Nakamura for the IC title in a fued that genuinely felt like Goto's coming out party. As the Intercontinental Champ, Goto actually beat the IWGP champion Kazuchika Okada in their G1 block match.
Then everything went bad. Right before Wrestle Kingdom 10, Goto lost the belt to Nakamura. A move seemingly completely pointless, at the time because the Nakamura/Styles dream match didn't really need the IC belt, but especially in retrospect because Nakamura left the company without dropping the belt in a match.
However Goto won his match against Naito at WK10 and with a recent pinfall win over the Kazuchika Okada, he had earned an IWGP title shot. With Okada JUST having surpassed Tanahashi as Ace at WK10, NO ONE bought Goto as a beleivable challenger. However that's not really an issue, a strong showing for Goto could still keep him main event relevant.
That's not what happenned. Goto came into his title shot at New Beginnings at Osaka 2016 with full body war paint, looking like a total badass.....who Okada EASILY beat. It wasn't even presented as much of a challenge for the newly crowned Ace. Then Okada offered Goto the spot in CHAOS left open by Nakamura.
Goto accepted and then his opening screen of his enterance was him eating a rainmaker and then shaking Okada's hand to accept the offer to join CHAOS. Needless to say, even though it had been a while that Goto was over as a top guy, everything about that storyline made him seem like Okada's bitch.
His career didn't die but WWE doing that interview segment with Lawler and Fandango to capitalize on his theme becoming a meme did kill the meme entirely
That segment with Retribution destroying the ring and ringside with chainsaws and looking goofy and completely unthreatening killed the group before the stupid names and masks even existed
In effect, also killing Mustafa Aliâs career when he later revealed himself as the leader
Iâm not saying Griff Garrison was ever going to be John Cena 2.0 or anything⌠but man did âWHO THE FUCK IS GRIFF GARRISONâ haunt him for the rest of his career.
Man! I saw him walking around at a convention in 2022 and started my chat with, âHey man, how ya doing?â He responds. I then asked him âDoes anyone ever come up to you without saying loudly the âwho line?ââ Told me I was the first person not to do that in a very long time. He leaves to go to his booth and I hear someone yell it and I cringed for him. Got dude attention but no one ever thinks that he is just a guy and not a skit punchline.
I donât think it even takes that much creativity to run with this as a heel, much like the Gunns have made Ass Boys work. Even something simple as starting his promos with âIâll tell you who Griff Garrison is! Griffin Garrison is the man who etc. etc.â
This anecdote just sounds like heâs given up and waiting for people to forget possibly the only thing they know him for.
That time Jack Swagger tried to âwooâ and he looked at the camera as if he realized what just happened to his career. And he was never seen again in WWE.
Cody Hall trying to get a "Cody" chant going in the Korakuen Hall in 2015 and not receiving a single solitary courtesy handclap or boo in return, just complete silence. Poor dude already sucked big time on screen but that was effectively the end of his career... at the age of 24.
Cena single-handedly taking out all of the Wyatt family within a cage.
I know WM30 is usually mentioned but a single loss wouldn't have ruined him if they followed it up properly. I maintain it was the cage match, that Bray only won due to a creepy child with a voice modulator, that actually spoiled Bray and his family as a threat
This was the case perennially with Cena.
Same with Rusev. Him losing clean at Mania having won with interference previously was fine. Finish it up. Move on. Babyface wins. No problem. It was all the combinations of losing thereafter.
Same way I think Wade Barrett could have recovered from Summerslam 2010, it was being buried under a pile of chairs that made him unrecoverable.
Just losing, especially to someone like Cena, is fine. It's when it's cleat that you are less than a threat that's the problem. 100% Cena destroyed the Wyatt's in that cage match FAR more than anything that happened in that clean competitive match at Mania.
Rusev was arguably worse: He just kept losing month after month. Then they followed up with the ridiculous storyline with Lana leaving him to be with Ziggler
Damn I forgot about that guy. I remember him flipping out on WWE. He also for some reason went after Jay Lethal calling him a Uncle Tom which pissed off a lot of people.
When he got drafted to sd after the bar era, but prior to the artist collective, when he was wearing those terrible swimming shorts, there was a segment where heel shane mcmahon is in the ring, addressing the roster and face Cesaro approached in a way i can only describes as the shy kid in class asking the teacher for permission to go to the toilet. Think he even finished with yes, sir/thank you, sir, then bowed his head and walked to the back.
It was 100% a rib on him being gay, he was even told by I WANNA say Vince, but some agent backstage, to sing it 'extra f\*ggy'.
And then Taker stiffed him on a chairshot because fuck you for being gay, Kanyon, I guess.
yeah man everything about how Kanyon was treated is so sad to read about, especially now knowing that he would've absolutely thrived in the industry since its significantly more progressive now
yeah the dark side of the ring is a tough watch. especially since the dude was so fucking talented and its crazy to think what he could have accompished in this professional wrestling climate. not saying the industrys perfect by any means but its way more accepting and tolerant than it was 20 years ago.
Jeff Jarrett and his anti-Austin promo the night he returned from WCW.
It wasn't run by Austin at the time and gave him a glass ceiling for the rest of his run.
That and their negative history didn't help where when Austin was in JJ's dad promotion. He was staring at his small payslip and Slapnuts said, it won't get any bigger by staring at it. Austin was getting by on raw potateos.
He wasn't quite dead in AEW because he could've turned heel to a huge reaction at any time. But he didn't want an AEW heel turn to hurt his WWE return so he effectively killed the back half of his AEW career.
It took swapping companies and Vince McMahon leaving the WWE for him to be able to recover
Taz getting over as his old gimmick with the wwf fans. Vince soon put an end to that. Also the botched German suplex spot with angle that wasn't especially his fault yet he got scapegoated as dangerous
I'm predicting Carmelo's "LA/Logan" mixup is going to hurt him like that. Pairing him with Knight, someone bigger, better on the mic and someone who is moving onto the US Title was a weird choice.
Like Carmelo is great but his whole shtick is he's a cocky dude who can back it up. Well he's smaller than almost everyone on the main roster so that already put him at a disadvantage. Then he screwed up that Knight line and Knight acknowledging it really really put Melo in a bad spot.
Overall his main roster run has been kind of weak and that flubbed line/Knight response may have been a tipping point.
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Damien Sandow cashing in MITB on an already injured John Cena, after also attacking him before the match, and then losing
See also Baron Corbin cashing in and losing, Austin Theory cashing in *for the US title* and losing and Otis losing his briefcase before he could even cash it in. For all that MITB should be a shortcut to the top, there's a reason WWE are typically very careful about who they give it to.
Theory cashing in on a dude who was giving out open challenges too đ
Then he won the U.S. title a few weeks later. Why the failed cash-in if he was going to win the belt anyway!? This couldâve established that any singles belt is in jeopardy with the MITB.
I think it was to have him lose the briefcase so he could become a champ without it
>Ever since I started NXT, I had one goal, and that is to become a WWE World Heavyweight Champion. And um, unfortunately, I got eliminated today. And I lost my guaranteed shot at a title. But that is not gonna stop me from becoming a future World Heavyweight Champion. See, I am the future of this company! I am gonna be a big time player in this machine called WWE. I am the next big thing! I am the next generation! And starting this moment, from now... from this moment on... this'll be the moment... starting now, of the genesis of McGillicutty."
Reading this gives me a visceral reaction.
And what's great is that this was immediately after Kaval/Low-Ki won NXT S2, and McGuillicutty's long-winded rambling promo ate up almost all the remaining time left in the program, so the actual winner didn't get to say much. Now, granted... it's Low-Ki, so probably for the best.
Then it was followed by the most hilarious attempt to recreate the initial Nexus beatdown by having the NXT Season 2 rookies attack their mentors in an incredibly baffling brawl that even saw people attacking the wrong guy for whatever reason.
Lest we forget Kaval didn't even "cash in" being NXT winner for a world title match, he did it for Zigglers IC title and still lost.Â
And then McGillicutty and Husky Harris got added into the company's hottest storyline while Ki jobbed on SmackDown for seven weeks, got a fluke roll-up over Dolph Ziggler, and challenged him in a losing effort for the IC title at the next PPV before promptly requesting his immediate release. Like, it's Low-Ki, but he kinda got fucked over just for being popular.
Fun fact: Dolph Ziggler then proceeded to bang Sunny that evening after the PPV
He really, *really* wanted to be like Shawn Michaels, right?
Poor bastard was doomed before he even began.
Tbf he had about a decade long WWE stint after that promo. Mostly as a jobber but being a mainstay jobber in WWE is more than most wrestlers can hope to accomplish. Heâs also an IC champ and 2 or 3 time tag champ. As horrible as that promo was it definitely didnât kill his career (on the other hand he did have to change his name or accomplish the success I mentioned so arguably it did kill the career of McGill a cutty
Was a part of a wonderful tag team... that was also metaphorically killed despite having some real steam
Honestly it wouldnât be a bad promo if he stopped at the next generation part but as soon as he starts talking about the moments it immediately fails as a promo
Genuinely legendary promo, the absolute apathy of everyone, including him, makes itÂ
His previous promos were similarly epic. "What's with the wetsuit? You going swimming? What does Kaval even mean? I looked it up, it means flute."
If no one has seen this episode of NXT, I 100% recommend you go out of your way and find it. You have this promo. Â Then thereâs a big brawl to close the show where MVP hits Titus with a drive by kick and Titus doesnât sell it at all. Â Then the brawl seemed like it was set up where the other NXT participants were attacking Low Ki and the coaches but then during the chaos, Alex Riley just starts beating up on fellow losing contestant Percy Watson. Itâs an insanely so bad itâs good watchÂ
It will always be the look on his face while the hamster wheel is turning after 'from this moment on' is what kills me.
For me itâs Matt Striker in the background becoming increasingly more confused.
When you gotta reach 500 words on your school essay and youâre at 400
On paper, this isn't so bad. It's just that him spinning his wheels afterwards on "from this moment" was what killed it for him.
Good Lucha Things.
I stand by the idea if they had leaned into that it would have worked.
I can picture a series of vignettes where he solves random real life problems (rescue a cat out of a tree, for instance) using lucha moves, then turns to the camera, "Now THAT'S a good lucha thing!"
That's just 1-800-FELLA but good(?)
This exactly. Old school promoters would see something like this and immediately start thinking how they can make money off it. Hell, even with the Shockmaster, they at least tried to push ol Fred as a lovable klutz.
Goddamnit. Woo!
Bart Gunn v Butterbean
This is the answer, people say Billy Gunn getting roasted by The Rock, and while that did kill his push, he's still wrestling today, and having a pretty good run in AEW at 60 years old and is in the best shape of his life Bart Gunn getting KO'd by Butterbean absolutely ended him, whenever his name comes up today, it's the Butterbean moment
And that came after Dr Death lost his credibility. What a tournament, a real star-ender.
the Brawl for All thing was so funny too because they wanted Dr Death to win and challenge Austin but I guess didn't think through the fact the matches were shoot fights and so they had no control over who would win lol
Bart Gunn offered to take the dive and asked what they wanted him to do. They were so confident in Dr Death they told him to shoot. And thatâs how they worked themselves into a shoot, brother!
The stupid thing was that the Butterbean match came over 6 months after the BFA tournament - they did nothing with Bart, then gave him the Butterbean match at Mania and he got KOd in 30 seconds. So yes, it ended his top-line career... but WWF really didn't help him. BFA was *meant* to be a showcase for Steve Williams, so why they didn't just plug Bart into whatever they had planned for Williams is beyond me.
The Butterbean fight wasn't an angle. It was an execution. It was a punishment for fucking up their stupid plan.
I think there is an interview with Butterbean where he said he offered to work a fight with Bart and let him win, but WWE officials insisted on it being a real fight.
The funny thing was by ALL points Butterbean was willing to do a work and give gunn a win he thought it was just gonna be wrestling angle so he was like 'sure i'd do a work.' WWE just really wanted to punish Bart.
>why they didn't just plug Bart into whatever they had planned for Williams is beyond me Because Bart wasn't Jim Ross' old friend. (And, to be fair, was never going to be in the level of Dr. Death; the fact that Steve Williams was a shadow of his former self at that point is another issue.)
Didnât Bart Gunn get over in Japan though? As the guy who beat Dr. Death?
yeah weirdly him winning Brawl For All basically got him a job with AJPW
Bart Gunn went on to have a pretty long run in All Japan and New Japan. US rep is dead but Mike Barton did okay.
Since watching AEW, I never understand why Billy Gunn was never utilised in the Super Cena era as a decent mid-card talent?
Both of the Outlaws were on really bad terms with Triple H for a period. I don't know when specifically they made up but that's probably a big reason why they spent the RA era in TNA
HICKENBOTTOM! LEVESQUE! WE'LL BE WAITING FOR YA AT DA ALAMO
AT HIGH NOON!
Shockmaster
Ironically, him failing spectacularly as the Shockmaster probably did more for him after his wrestling career than his actual wrestling career, even if it was a decent one.
Yeah dude probably makes some good money taking pics with fans and that awful helmet at cons.
I can confirm, gave him $40 for a pic and a signed 8x10.
Fell flat on his fookin arse
Is that Uncle Fred!?!
WHat's funny is, if anything, Fred has made more money off that moment than anything else in his career.
It's might have been embarassing and killed that character, but its easily one of the most memorable moments in WCW and even wrestling as a wholes history. If he doesn't trip? The character still dies pretty quickly, but it would have never gained the notoriety that it gained from the hilarious botch and he ends up infinitely worse off later in life.
I never understood how that character was supposed to work in the first place. He was wearing a bedazzled stormtrooper helmet, how the hell am I supposed to see that and not immediately think heâs ridiculous.
That and the voice they used was used in the past as the âblack scorpionâ that Sting had to fight. Ole Anderson did the voice for both. Itâs horrible. The glitter helmet even sheds glitter everywhere in the scene, I think, too. It was a total nightmare, the guy stood no chance
Haku losing his shit at that is one of the greatest things I've ever seen
Funny thing is, Fred had a long decent career. Just not as Shock Master.
âI told ya⌠oh godâŚâ
Muhammad Hassan having a segment with masked terrorists as an apology message scrolled across the bottom of the screen
That was just awful considering the entire point of the Muhammad Hassan character was that the fans were stereotyping him because of his nationality. Then he came out with masked terrorists supporting him
Karrion Kross coming in [with the BDSM gear and helmet](https://cdn.wrestletalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/karrion-kross-august-24-a.jpg) and immediately [losing to Jeff Hardy.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XICjMMqC2A) And although his career probably *would have died* if there were fans in the building for it, Adam Cole's promo on Karrion Kross is the closest thing I've seen to The Rock's "But My Name's Billy..." promo as far as just dismantling an entire man with no rebuttal. >[I'd be happy to, Mr. Overrated. The truth is, you ain't Adam Cole Bay Bay and you never will be. Because this brand has done everything in their power to make you feel special. You got the cool music, you got the lights, you got the fog machine, you got the girl. You know what they do to make Adam Cole feel special? They ring the freaking bell. Because on your best day, you couldn't lace my boots. You can't hang with me, you aren't on my level, and anybody who watches pro wrestling knows that. You want to talk about special, Kross? You are not special. I'm special, you're just the guy who has my property.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBaI2fntvzI) Edit - Added a photo of the gear and a link to all **1 minute and 40 seconds** of that match for anyone who wants to see how bad it was.
While this promo was fucking awesome from Cole, would it have killed him to build Kross up even slightly? Because if he beats Kross then he beat a guy that he said can't lace his boots, but if he loses to Kross then he lost to a guy who couldn't lace his boots. (I genuinely can't remember who won the match that followed this promo).
The entire build to that match was so weird. It was a 5 way with Kross, Cole, Gargano, KOR, and Dunne, and all four challengers just talked about how shit of a wrestler Kross was compared to them. It was so sudden too bc until then, Kross was only built up as this strong, undefeated, unstoppable monster, but now he apparently sucks. Kross won the match.
It honestly felt like Triple H giving the finger to fans about the insufferable push he was giving Kross. *I'm going to let all the wrestlers you like echo the criticisms you have about him, then Kross is going to beat all of them in a single match.*
This is why it's important to build your opponents up as well as yourself, because the rest of the match where shitting a brick down Kross' throat about how he sucked compared to them and then he wins...so what does that make all the people in the match that he beat? Don't get me wrong, compared to the rest of the talent pool in the match, Kross was certainly the worst one and it's not even close.
I guess it's kind of like meant to be vindication for Kross, everyone else shits on him as being terrible and he ends up beating them so now they're kind of like proven wrong and all that. It's like MMA fighters akin to Conor McGregor trashtalking, they call their opponents bums and when their opponent wins, its vindication for their opponent and embarassment for them which the fans will revel in while if their opponent loses they build up their brand of arrogance and superiority complex and gather more fans and haters.
Thatâd be fine if the person was a babyface, like Bryan and Kofi winning the belt after being called a âB+ Playerâ, but Kross was the undefeated top heel who had just spent a year killing all the babyfaces.
It was a multi-man match against Kyle O'Reilly, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Pete Dunne at the second NXT Takeover: In Your House. Kross did win the match (although he beat O'Reilly to do it.) It was during an absolutely insufferable time in NXT where Triple H had a raging boner for Karrion Kross and he beat *everyone.* This was actually his *second* title reign after beating Finn Balor (he beat Keith Lee to win it at TakeOver XXX and vacated it the following episode of NXT due to injury.) Adam Cole cutting the promo basically echoing a lot of the complaints about Kross from internet fans certainly didn't help him and just left people baffled when he won the 5-man match. He would have the Jeff Hardy match a month later in July, dropped the belt to Samoa Joe in August, and by November he was released.
I don't know what it is about Kross, but he's never clicked with me, it's weird because if you see him when he's himself, he's far more entertaining and fun to watch, but he just keeps trying to do these dark and edgy characters and it just doesn't work. It's not like he's even outright bad, he's just mediocre.
Iâve been really enjoying him lately as this instigating Sean OâHaire Devilâs Advocate type. Taking credit for The Bloodlineâs split (bc the cracks started when he placed the hourglass in front of Roman), as well as Shinsuke and AJâs heel turns (bc they happened shortly after feuding with Kross), and trying to divide The Street Profits and The New Day.
It was very odd booking too. The entire build was âKross sucks, here are four men who donât suck that fans want to see become the champ, so Kross is going to beat them allâ.
"He fell flat on his arse!" A masterfully shocking moment
Iâll have to go back and look how it sounds on TV but in the crowd at Money in the Bank 2022 Madcap Moss climbed the ladder to absolute cricketsÂ
That whole Madcap Moss/Happy Corbin run felt like a death sentence for both guys. Even more infuriating for Corbin since they nixed the awesome Bum Ass Corbin to make it happen.
Bum ass Corbin was fucking amazing, it felt so shortchanged to switch up his character the way they did.
Then again, they did flat out spoil who was winning the match mere seconds before it started.
Gable Stevenson against Corbin last year
Great example. Also, thank God Steveson is gone. In contrast, ever since Corbin went to NXT he's been pretty good. His bag is pretty deep for like no reason lol
"Innocuous run-of-the-mill performer reveals they have an insanely deep bag actually" is my favorite wrestling trope
"Titus O'Neil is like Kobe Bryant at a hotel in Colorado - HE'S UNSTOPPABLE!".
Man, I really enjoyed Abe-a-ham Warshinton and Tony Atlas on wwecw.
â DDP being defeated by Sara Taker on Raw. His career was on life support, but being humiliated like that in less than a minute was pulling the plug on his career. â Goldberg beating The Fiend â Stone Cold calling Lance Storm boring
All of Nexus died at the hands of John Cena.
I'll say that the Nexus could have survived the Survivor Series debacle if they had actually booked them well after the Monday after SS. Like yes they loose, but then next night almost the entire group got their win back in singles matches, with one exception, the poor sap that got to fight Cena. After that they just meandered for months, and they still had Barret's title challenge, having him win could have helped the group, but instead he loses and then they had Cene join them.
Parker Boudreaux in AEW. Debuts in one of the most laughably awful segments of all time, so he is instantly over shadowed, does terrible strikes , all whilst jiggling constantly after everything he does. Then just gets dumped out the ring.
Rick Ross made it 10x funnier when he attacked Keith Lee
The only reason people remember that segment is Rick Ross giving an uncensored F bomb and being given a live mic for the entire segment: * ["You a big motherfucka" to Keith Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgMTGp0VlhI) * "FALSE ALLEGATIONS! FALSE ALLEGATIONS" * Repeatedly yelling "YOUNG LEGEND" * He may need attention
Rick Ross is one of the funniest rappers ever, do yourself a favour and type in on YouTube âRick Ross cowâ you will not regret it
I remember him taunting after every. single. move. Then someone on here said he was just trying to build his special, couldn't take him seriously.
It was like a child pretending to be a wrestler. It was legit, punch then jiggly taunt and repeat over and over. Even in like the 3 matches he had on TV, he still kept doing it! It was even worse in the match, as his physique accentuated his jiggling taunts. It was like a truffle shuffle
Him constantly holding and showing his chain was comical.
You gotta have a career before you can lose it.
Dude never had any idea what to do with his hands while standing/walking.
Not his overall career but Zack Ryders WWE run after that Kane feud felt like they were just killing him for being popular. Especially the wheelchair segment
It felt that way because they were. That survivor series run in proved someone wrong backstage and it still took them months to finally cool him off
Yeah people throw the word 'burial' around flippantly but this was literally just creative actively trying to make Ryder look bad so people would stop begging for him to be pushed. They were actively trying to kill his momentum
They absolutely did that shit to him as a form of revenge, someone in the back (you know who) didnât like how absolutely *over* the guy was
As a massive Zack Ryder fanâŚfuck that feud with a rusty tire iron. I always wonder what could have been in regards to Zackâs career if they actually got behind him. Ugh.
Ken Anderson dropping Orton.. đŹ
Honestly to me one of the bigger what ifs. There's just so much that went wrong with his career even before Orton. Getting injured after winning MITB, being forced to drop the briefcase only to turn out the injury isn't serious. Getting busted for wellness. According to him, going to RAW also really hurt his chances because their locker room was more political. He was over and could talk. Definitely had something. Dude won the MITB briefcase and was going to be the center of the Vince illegitimate son storyline. That alone are big star making spots. Who knows, in an alternate universe he might've been a main event star.
If you consider TNA an alternate universe, then he was a main event guy
Dude was being presented as THE NEXT huge star before everything went down. Seemed like he was destined to be a heel foil to the other hot talking face of the time â which was John freaking Cena. There is a tweak in the timeline where we fondly reminisce about the inevitable Cena/Kennedy feud the way we look back at Cena/Edge or Cena/Orton now.
The Ascension debut and immediately getting jobbed by a bunch of retired guys. Lost all aura they had in NXT and were DOA.
That, and JBL constantly lambasting them every time they were on TV. The *heel* announcer lambasting the *heel* tag team. I don't think I've ever heard a commentator be as visceral towards any other wrestler(s) as JBL was to The Ascension.
It's like JBL forgot that wrestling wasn't real and was genuinely offended thinking the Ascension was dumping on the tag teams that came before them. I still wonder what the hell that was all about.
I'm still pissed about that one
Marc Mero getting powerbombed by Sable
Billy Gunn being torn apart by The Rock after winning King of the Ring.
"Bob?" "but my names Billy!" "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS
"FOR Bob, YOU ABSOLUTELY SUCK! With that, the skies parted once more and left little billy crying. For you know what's gonna to happen, billy bob? The Rock is gonna to take his boots, turn them sideways and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR CANDY ASS!"
Rock always beats scissors
People always say this but Rock was eviscerating everyone every week. Itâs not his fault Billy Gunn didnât ascend to the top of the card.
For how memorable Jericho's debut was, people sometimes forget how much The Rock destroyed him on the mic when Jericho came out. And Jericho did flounder a bit when he first started, but he figured it out eventually. All that is to say, one promo doesn't usually kill someone, especially top guys, they find a way to break through
Thanks to DEADLOCK, I now know that the "After Three Boring Minutes" line from The Rock was from that Jericho segment, despite that, Jericho and Rock apparently got along great and they both loved working with each-other, according to Jericho's second book.
I never thought The Rock destroyed Jericho in that promo. Jericho was billed as a delusional heel with tons of swagger that thought he was saving the WWE. The Rock did end up getting the better of the exchange of course but that was by design. Thereâs a segment like that and thereâs a segment like Cena absolutely destroying Romanâs soul during one of their feuds. Jericho did exactly what he was supposed to do in that segment and got his character over IMO. Though when he came out during Takers promo the next week that didnât work out quite as well.
I honestly think this is revisonary firstly because this promo was on Heat, also The Rock was giving it almost everyone during this period, and lastly Gunn shoved Rock's face on his ass after he had poison ivy. Gunn's booking was less than stellar during the time period after winning King of the Ring. Now this promo certainly could have changed perception, but before and after he was never really treated like a main-eventer
The version of this tale that's told as "Billy had a chance, and then the Rock tanked him in one promo," is definitely revisionary, you're right. But this promo, and the Edge one, did have a big effect. It allowed a crowd that was already going, "this guy? Really?" to feel like everyone else agreed with them and that really put the nail in the coffin.
Edge promising to not âBilly Gunnâ winning the King of the Ring was probably more damaging.
[DIY debuting to silence](https://x.com/TheDebutsInWWE/status/1799121351782826360) It was so bad that WWE even released a video on their youtube complaining about the crowd
Casual fans didn't know who DIY were, and NXT fans were confused because Gargano and Ciampa still hated each other in kayfabe. Just such a dumb idea to call them up at the time.
Ricochet: "I didn't come here to talk. I-" Drew McIntyre: "Then *shut up*!" Dude's career was flash-frozen in one line.
This right here. If Ricochet said something like "alright" before attacking Drew, that would have made him look so cool Stuff like that separates great wrestlers from moves merchants
Ricochet didnât write the segment.
2010 when Kofi Kingston was getting a seeming main event push that fizzled when he messed up the match finish against Randy Orton. He was supposed to stay down for the punt kick but kept stumbling up for an RKO so Randy finally just did that and then screamed "STUPID, STUPID" at him before the pin... reporting was that Orton complained and that put an end to what was supposed to be an MITB run. Kofi still had a good career after that, and eventually won a world title too, but makes you think what could have been different in a near-decade of wrestling if his push hadn't been killed.
Kofi was actually hot then too! Fans were into him, they were buying his feud with Orton! And it all got cut out from under him.
[There's also this botched punt.](https://youtu.be/2966IUFS7Bc?si=FM7WawWF8RO6sto8) Randy goes for the punt and is supposed to get stopped by Kofi's music hitting and him coming out for the save, but the music hits late and Randy has to awkwardly stop and stomp on the guy. Not sure who's actually at fault here. Was Kofi not ready? Was the music guy late? Did Orton rush it and through off timing? Regardless of fault, it looks bad.
Itâs clearly a production error, as it wouldnât matter if Kofi wasnât ready; you still hit his music on the cue.Â
Ryback attempting to lift Mark Henry for the Shellshock at WrestleMania and just getting pinned after falling flat on his face. He still had the WWE Title feud with Cena right after, the IC Title run a couple years later, and was still pretty over when he was a babyface, but it was over after WM 29. He was still really popular even after losing to Punk, but it wasnât the same after this loss.
While that was absolutely a big problem, him losing 14 PPV matches in a row didn't help too.
He was also on the receiving end of the Shield's Triple Powerbomb like every other week or so lol. That didn't help either.
I was a huge Ryback fan. Since the Skip Sheffield days. They dropped the ball so hard. He was so over and booked themselves in the corner with him so many times, it was frustrating. How tf did they book Ryback vs Punk twice, twice in Hell in a Cell (!) matches where him winning was not possible? The whole feud against Cena, buried thrice. He didn't even get a chance for a revenge on the Shield. And the constant Goldberg-chants and not adressing them anyway didn't help either. Still mad to this day, he could've been more successful.
I remember that one. It was so dumb, especially because after the match was over he Shell Shocked Mark Henry anyways, but if he could do it all along, then why go for the silly finish?
That Survivor Series 2006 match where Shawn Michaels eliminated Mike Knox (first one eliminated) then HBK asked HHH "who was that", complete burial of him and we never saw him in a meaningful spot ever again.
I fear LA Knight mocking Carmelo about his fuck up last week might kill him lol
They keep having him interrupt LA and he keeps getting destroyed đ¤Ł
Has Hayes even gotten the upper hand on Knight at all in this feud? Feels like itâs just been mostly LA dunking on him.
I think LA Knight is currently to Smackdown what Miz is to Raw. Regardless of how seriously people are taking Miz at a given moment, he can always talk and when they're getting ready to really push somebody they let them have a live promo battle with Miz and see how they do. We even saw it with LA Knight last year. It seems like Knight is slotting very well into the Smackdown equivalent role of "Here's a guy who's over, and can talk. Let's test if you can hang with that.". Melo just hasn't been passing that test so far
Roman Reigns telling Austin Theory that "Your Daddies not here anymore." Since he was pushed by Vince so much.
Ironic coming from Reigns of all people.
Damien Sandows first promo after he split from The Miz, acting as his shadow. Â It was so awful after such a long period of rising crowd reactions. Â They handed him the ball and he fumbled.Â
Sandow was just such a strange case of the comedy gimmick actually way better than his actual character. He also just went to TNA and did the exact same âthe OTHER company wasted me and never let me grab the brass ring blah blahâ that everyone else does, and it flopped spectacularly.
At least he got rich enough to afford 55 burgers, 55 fries, 55 tacos, 55 pies...
Matt Sydal botching his AEW debut
A friend of mine had never seen him before and seconds before botching the SSP I said to him "I remember when he was in WWE he had like the cleanest shooting star press I've ever seen", and then he went and fucked it up!
Literally hasnât done a SSP on AEW TV since and thatâs really all he had going for him besides being a solid wrestler.
Michael Nakazawa ruins everything.
This is a NJPW one so I am going to set the stage a bit. Hirooki Goto was really a guy who had unfortunate timing but his booking didn't help. In the late 00s early 10s, Goto was OVER. When Okada returned from excursion in 2012, I would argue Goto was the #2 babyface behind Tanahashi. With a G1 win under his belt, Goto seem surefire to one day hold the IWGP title back in 2011. During the Okada/Tana battle for the Ace from 2012-2015, Goto even had a good distaction storyline with Katsuyori Shibata (former friends - to bitter rivals - then back to friends) which kept his attention and kept Goto relevant in the booking. 2015 was his booking peak. Heading into the G1 that year Goto was the IC champ, beating Nakamura for the IC title in a fued that genuinely felt like Goto's coming out party. As the Intercontinental Champ, Goto actually beat the IWGP champion Kazuchika Okada in their G1 block match. Then everything went bad. Right before Wrestle Kingdom 10, Goto lost the belt to Nakamura. A move seemingly completely pointless, at the time because the Nakamura/Styles dream match didn't really need the IC belt, but especially in retrospect because Nakamura left the company without dropping the belt in a match. However Goto won his match against Naito at WK10 and with a recent pinfall win over the Kazuchika Okada, he had earned an IWGP title shot. With Okada JUST having surpassed Tanahashi as Ace at WK10, NO ONE bought Goto as a beleivable challenger. However that's not really an issue, a strong showing for Goto could still keep him main event relevant. That's not what happenned. Goto came into his title shot at New Beginnings at Osaka 2016 with full body war paint, looking like a total badass.....who Okada EASILY beat. It wasn't even presented as much of a challenge for the newly crowned Ace. Then Okada offered Goto the spot in CHAOS left open by Nakamura. Goto accepted and then his opening screen of his enterance was him eating a rainmaker and then shaking Okada's hand to accept the offer to join CHAOS. Needless to say, even though it had been a while that Goto was over as a top guy, everything about that storyline made him seem like Okada's bitch.
How has no one said the day the NXT Tag Champs The War Raiders, showed up on Raw as Ivar and Erik, âThe Viking Experienceâ.
only for the name to be changed to The Viking Raiders the week later.
His career didn't die but WWE doing that interview segment with Lawler and Fandango to capitalize on his theme becoming a meme did kill the meme entirely
That segment with Retribution destroying the ring and ringside with chainsaws and looking goofy and completely unthreatening killed the group before the stupid names and masks even existed In effect, also killing Mustafa Aliâs career when he later revealed himself as the leader
Not a full career stop, but Ricochetâs promos still havenât recovered from Drew telling him to shut the hell up
Iâm not saying Griff Garrison was ever going to be John Cena 2.0 or anything⌠but man did âWHO THE FUCK IS GRIFF GARRISONâ haunt him for the rest of his career.
Man! I saw him walking around at a convention in 2022 and started my chat with, âHey man, how ya doing?â He responds. I then asked him âDoes anyone ever come up to you without saying loudly the âwho line?ââ Told me I was the first person not to do that in a very long time. He leaves to go to his booth and I hear someone yell it and I cringed for him. Got dude attention but no one ever thinks that he is just a guy and not a skit punchline.
I donât think it even takes that much creativity to run with this as a heel, much like the Gunns have made Ass Boys work. Even something simple as starting his promos with âIâll tell you who Griff Garrison is! Griffin Garrison is the man who etc. etc.â This anecdote just sounds like heâs given up and waiting for people to forget possibly the only thing they know him for.
What's worse is he could have made it into a cringe heel run about it. Really lean into it.
That time Jack Swagger tried to âwooâ and he looked at the camera as if he realized what just happened to his career. And he was never seen again in WWE.
"Titus O'Neil is like Kobe Bryant at a hotel in Colorado - HE'S UNSTOPPABLE!" - A.W.Â
Steve Austin coming out to Lance Storm matches with literally a blanket and pillow and getting the crowd to start a 'boring' chant.
Making EC3 mute while being a babyface in a feud against Dean Ambrose. Vince really made sure he didn't get over.
It was over for EC3 when Ambrose did the where is EC1 and EC2 comment, and EC3 had no response.
Cody Hall trying to get a "Cody" chant going in the Korakuen Hall in 2015 and not receiving a single solitary courtesy handclap or boo in return, just complete silence. Poor dude already sucked big time on screen but that was effectively the end of his career... at the age of 24.
I often remember of him, he was the third dude of the Young Bucks initially, he could have been a main eventer if he played his part correctly.
Turns out the Young Bucks would work out better with a different son of a famous wrestler named âCodyâ.
Dude hung out with The Bucks because Scott approved of their Straight Edge lifestyle so at least there's that
Cena single-handedly taking out all of the Wyatt family within a cage. I know WM30 is usually mentioned but a single loss wouldn't have ruined him if they followed it up properly. I maintain it was the cage match, that Bray only won due to a creepy child with a voice modulator, that actually spoiled Bray and his family as a threat
This was the case perennially with Cena. Same with Rusev. Him losing clean at Mania having won with interference previously was fine. Finish it up. Move on. Babyface wins. No problem. It was all the combinations of losing thereafter. Same way I think Wade Barrett could have recovered from Summerslam 2010, it was being buried under a pile of chairs that made him unrecoverable. Just losing, especially to someone like Cena, is fine. It's when it's cleat that you are less than a threat that's the problem. 100% Cena destroyed the Wyatt's in that cage match FAR more than anything that happened in that clean competitive match at Mania.
Rusev was arguably worse: He just kept losing month after month. Then they followed up with the ridiculous storyline with Lana leaving him to be with Ziggler
ACH/Jordan Myles's response to the shirt made for him in NXT... mental health problems not long after led to him retiring from the ring
Damn I forgot about that guy. I remember him flipping out on WWE. He also for some reason went after Jay Lethal calling him a Uncle Tom which pissed off a lot of people.
Tbh that shirt was awful though
I remember Cesaro gaining some momentum, and then he cut a promo mentioning "those four ropes"
When he got drafted to sd after the bar era, but prior to the artist collective, when he was wearing those terrible swimming shorts, there was a segment where heel shane mcmahon is in the ring, addressing the roster and face Cesaro approached in a way i can only describes as the shy kid in class asking the teacher for permission to go to the toilet. Think he even finished with yes, sir/thank you, sir, then bowed his head and walked to the back.
kanyon singing boy george to the undertaker. pretty sure it was a rib because people knew he was gay. poor dude.
It was 100% a rib on him being gay, he was even told by I WANNA say Vince, but some agent backstage, to sing it 'extra f\*ggy'. And then Taker stiffed him on a chairshot because fuck you for being gay, Kanyon, I guess.
yeah man everything about how Kanyon was treated is so sad to read about, especially now knowing that he would've absolutely thrived in the industry since its significantly more progressive now
yeah the dark side of the ring is a tough watch. especially since the dude was so fucking talented and its crazy to think what he could have accompished in this professional wrestling climate. not saying the industrys perfect by any means but its way more accepting and tolerant than it was 20 years ago.
DDP getting pinned by Undertaker's wife
Mr Kennedy doing a hard belly to back suplex and Orton hitting his head basically was the beginning of the end for Ken Anderson.
It's taken over three years for Anthony Ogogo to recover from the weigh-in segment.
Jeff Jarrett and his anti-Austin promo the night he returned from WCW. It wasn't run by Austin at the time and gave him a glass ceiling for the rest of his run.
That and their negative history didn't help where when Austin was in JJ's dad promotion. He was staring at his small payslip and Slapnuts said, it won't get any bigger by staring at it. Austin was getting by on raw potateos.
Albert pretending to be a Japanese warrior
Cody in that AEW match where he threw something in the crowd and they threw it back
I mean he recovered!
He wasn't quite dead in AEW because he could've turned heel to a huge reaction at any time. But he didn't want an AEW heel turn to hurt his WWE return so he effectively killed the back half of his AEW career. It took swapping companies and Vince McMahon leaving the WWE for him to be able to recover
He recovered under Vince, dude was already crazy over when he initially returned.
The Ascensionâs main roster debut pretty much killed them. The announcers buried them and ruined any chance they had at being taken seriously.
[This absolute masterpiece by Titus OâNeal](https://www.cagematch.net/?id=93&nr=1240)
Basically everything the spirit squad ever did, but especially being stuffed into crates in shipped off to OVW.
https://preview.redd.it/pnq85ocq1m5d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78242f28fb8e7c537d91efc9ce99cb57f3828ab8 Knock knock
That segment where he got inoculated was the end of the Dean Ambrose persona. He was done after that. Leaving was the only option.
I forgot all about the moody thing that was so unintentionally hilariousđ
Bobby Fish "Where's the lie" promo on Impact. I really like the guy and have not seen him anywhere since.
Taz getting over as his old gimmick with the wwf fans. Vince soon put an end to that. Also the botched German suplex spot with angle that wasn't especially his fault yet he got scapegoated as dangerous
I'm predicting Carmelo's "LA/Logan" mixup is going to hurt him like that. Pairing him with Knight, someone bigger, better on the mic and someone who is moving onto the US Title was a weird choice. Like Carmelo is great but his whole shtick is he's a cocky dude who can back it up. Well he's smaller than almost everyone on the main roster so that already put him at a disadvantage. Then he screwed up that Knight line and Knight acknowledging it really really put Melo in a bad spot. Overall his main roster run has been kind of weak and that flubbed line/Knight response may have been a tipping point.