Consider it the spin off. Who are those wrestlers, that just lost you?

Did they never live up to the hype? Just bad people outside the ring? Never evolved beyond a certain point? Or worse yet, became jokes.

Kane.

Another one...

Chris Jericho

Kane is a good call. He was great at first. Haven't cared for him since approximately Wrestlemania 2000. The king of 2000s Wrestlecrap.
Al Snow & William Regal as covered in the other thread
Val Venis & The Hurricane- the wrestling equivalent of Bart as the "I didn't do it" boy
Brian Christopher
Disco Inferno

Omega

Shinsuke Nakamura is the first name that comes to mind. I've told the story before about how his entrance, presentation, character and performance at Wrestle Kingdom 9 back in 2015 stole the show and single-handedly made me a fan of NJPW. Naturally I was high on Nakamura for a while, but I doubt I was even a year into my NJPW fandom before I started to realise he wasn't all that great. Yep, great character, great presentation, but between the ropes - which is more or less everything in Japan - he phoned it in a lot of the time. Got bored pretty quickly, and he didn't get any better when he hit NXT. Now I'm completely indifferent to the guy.


Tetsuya Naito - He's not lost me yet, but he's losing me, and has been for a while. His debut as El Ingobernable in mid-2015 is perhaps the best character work I've ever seen in NJPW. Around 2017-2019 he was my favourite wrestler in the company. He's really cooled off in the past few years. He's stagnated. No real evolution to his character or ring work. Just the same old Naito, who's a great wrestler, but other top wrestlers have started to shine brighter.

He reached the top of the mountain in 2020, just before the pandemic hit, and he's coasted since then. He did an admirable job in carrying the company through 2020, but booking was awful as this was the time they turned EVIL heel and made him into the single most boring wrestler in the company, giving him an extended feud with Naito. So not really his fault, but he's not done much to stand out since then.


Sheamus - Loved Sheamus when he debuted. Unique look, great physique, convincing brawler. Had great matches in WWECW. Soon got promoted to RAW and beat Triple H for the World Championship. I don't remember when exactly Sheamus lost me, but it wasn't long after that, he just became kinda boring and has stayed that way ever since.

Aug 12, 2022 22:03:04 GMT @ness said:

Omega

Great shout, Omega lost me too, the moment he left NJPW and joined AEW. He was never the same Kenny Omega, the best bout machine who had that god tier series with Okada and many other amazing matches. I've only seen hints of that Kenny Omega in AEW.

Aug 12, 2022 21:48:37 GMT 🤯 said:

Another one...

Chris Jericho

Jericho was one of the few guys I instantly gravitated to in late 99 when my fulltime fandom set in. He was new, I was new.

In 2001, I would have said he was my favourite wrestler. He had that fantastic program with Benoit v The Power Trip, etc which culminated with The Chris' beating The Power Trip on RAW in arguably the best match on television that year.

And while it was a second fiddle 'World ' Title program, he and Rock traded the WCW belt during 2001 and finally taking the Undisputed title made for his best year.

Then as time progressed and they allowed more of Chris Jericho to be Chris Jericho, the more I tuned out. His troll gimmick (where he popped the crowd for 15 minutes, until they turned on him) was one of the wankiest, self absorbed angles in history. Fortunately he always had a leash on him in WWE, and was never allowed to really run wild and start snorting his way to calling himself a wizard or anything...

Aug 12, 2022 22:14:36 GMT Emperor said:

Aug 12, 2022 22:03:04 GMT @ness said:

Omega

Great shout, Omega lost me too, the moment he left NJPW and joined AEW. He was never the same Kenny Omega, the best bout machine who had that god tier series with Okada and many other amazing matches. I've only seen hints of that Kenny Omega in AEW.

I think it was me not wanting him to change. I fell in love with the goofy Omega from the early 2010s and I was still in at the start of his serious heavyweight push as the cleaner... something about getting AEW started and I just wasn't feeling it. Around the time I stopped caring about wrestling and I wonder if he was a catalyst. Because a fed of him, the Bucks and their ilk were something I used to eat up with a spoon. Maybe it's the post-NXT chic phase where I saw all my "boys" hit their endgame on Raw and I was done with them all.

From more of a personal stand point, Maria and Mike.

That Wedding angle in Impact was great. It was so over the top with super-diva Maria, bridezilla LVN and Sutter being in love with Allie. Mikes a mess living with Maria, it's awful, but great stuff.

So, I'm expecting big things from these two when they were signed to WWE.

So, I followed his journey when he was off. These two lived in a modest home, didn't have a lot of money and looked to be more of the two relatable personalities in wrestling.

Reality: Mike refused to go to NXT, despite being out of shape. And in true drug addict fashion, they lied about his problems and worked the WWE to get him clean and pay for 2 maternity leaves. Quality people.

Kane did cross my mind as well.

But the people who lost me were
Ryback I believed the hype then later realized he was kind of not all there.

Victoria I loved the psycho version that came out to t.A.T.u. Once she came back from injury she was never the same character or ring wise.

Oh one more can't believe I almost forgot him Ambrose/Moxley. This is solely for his matches not his promos. I can barely stand watching his matches anymore

I’ll echo Kane and Shinsuke Nakamura for the reasons already laid out in this thread. And while Chris Jericho hasn’t lost me, he for sure has a “don’t meet your heroes” energy ever since Jan 6th. Donating is one thing, I’m not going to fault people for political leanings just because I disagree with them, but supporting straight up fascism and terrorism I can’t abide.

A couple not mentioned yet:

The Undertaker
Loved The Phenom as many did. But after WM 30 he lost me. I didn’t think he should have retired after the streak ended, but everything he did afterwards was pointless and had huge “go away” energy. Hated that he beat Bray Wyatt. Hated his nonsense with Roman Reigns. Hated whatever the fuck else he did. Random appearances, awkward promos, bad matches. Dumb.

Oh and his “wrestler’s court” bullshit finally getting exposed for what it really was (bullying) made me so happy. I knew that shit was whack and all the “old school” guys were just sticking up for him.

Big Show
This guy didn’t know when to retire and then when he realized he should retire he wrestled for like 3 more years. And he turned heel and face like every time he showed up on TV. I loved Show (SHOW!) in WCW and in the 2000’s but man did he just not know when to quit.

Rey Mysterio
I haven’t cared about Mysterio in over 10 years and I don’t know why anyone should. Does he need money? Why isn’t he a trainer that retired in 2010? He can’t go anymore and his dumb kid makes him look like a bad father on national television.

Bayley
I think I’m the only person on the planet that doesn’t like her anymore and actually think she's progressively got worse since she murdered the Bayley Buddies on live television (she should be in prison). I feel like none of her character work has been good and she doesn’t have heel energy that I want to see, like MJF or Seth Rollins or countless other actually good heels. She just bugs me and when she returned at Summerslam I was like “ugh this bitch again.”

I echo Rey Mysterio. His continual returns must be a cash-grab. He barely works beyond the mid-card which suggests it's not about accolades or legacy and more about moving merch.

And his son is awful. There isn't a redeemable quality about the kid. He looks terrible, wears a fat band to keep the gut in and despite 3 years on the roster, appears to have refused to work out to build a decent look or appears to have been trained beyond bouncing around what I'd assume is a ring in Rey's backyard.

Loved Paul London in ROH. Lost interest pretty quickly on him in WWE and he never won me back.

Henry Godwinn was actually good as a hardnosed Southern hoss with a gimmick tailor made for feuds with snobby rich guys like Dibiase & Helmsley. Pairing him with doofus Phineas caused me to lose interest and it only got worse from there.

London even before Punk was probably the first guy that wasn't in TNA at the time that I knew of. Had an interview on Byte This and I just thought he was really cool. The limo smile and that weird self indulgence on high spots after his release really sold him as anti-empire WAY before Punk did. Plus he had that great promo with Dragon about the Danger Bees and I'm SORRY but the dream match with him being replaced by Roddy is the BIGGEST letdown in history. Like imagine we're getting Brock/Rock or Rock/Roman and then Seth "fricken" Rollins music hits...

Zack Ryder

I absolutely LOVED him in WWE. I didn't care about the Major Brothers, but I thought it was kinda funny when him and Hawkins were the Edgeheads.

Then he moved to ECW, started wearing those asymmetrical trunks and hanging around with Rosa Mendes and I thought he was awesome. So did a lot of other people, because he got SUPER over in the next couple of years.

It got kinda hard to keep supporting him because he was always presented as kinda a loser but it was all kind of endearing. He got his Mania moment winning the IC title, then another winning the tag titles with Hawkins, so he wasn't a total lost cause.

But since he's started all the deathmatch/GCW stuff, I really couldn't care less about him. I get that it's all supposed to be meta or ironic or whatever, but I really really can't stand deathmatch stuff, so I'm just not interested. He may as well be playing lacrosse or cricket or something - I just don't care.

He's gonna be on two shows in my city later this year - a few years ago, I would have been all in with the best tickets and VIP package and paying to hug him and whatever. But they're both deathmatch shows and screw that.

Bret Hart, particularly in the last few weeks. I don't know whether he has a book coming out called " What Bill did. " but for whatever reason, he can't stop talking about Goldberg in interviews recently.

Three things happened in Bret's life. The Screwjob, Goldberg kicking his head off and Seth Rollins hitting a buckle bomb on Sting.

Aug 13, 2022 20:29:30 GMT NATH45 said:

Bret Hart, particularly in the last few weeks. I don't know whether he has a book coming out called " What Bill did. " but for whatever reason, he can't stop talking about Goldberg in interviews recently.

Three things happened in Bret's life. The Screwjob, Goldberg kicking his head off and Seth Rollins hitting a buckle bomb on Sting.

You mean to tell me that you of all people aren't totally reveling in and appreciating Grumpy Old Man Bret?

Aug 14, 2022 17:36:44 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 13, 2022 20:29:30 GMT NATH45 said:

Bret Hart, particularly in the last few weeks. I don't know whether he has a book coming out called " What Bill did. " but for whatever reason, he can't stop talking about Goldberg in interviews recently.

Three things happened in Bret's life. The Screwjob, Goldberg kicking his head off and Seth Rollins hitting a buckle bomb on Sting.

You mean to tell me that you of all people aren't totally reveling in and appreciating Grumpy Old Man Bret?

I saw an article called " Bret Hart reveals what he said to Ric Flair after last match "

The top comment was " Goldberg kicked my head off " and rightfully so, everyone had a laugh.

I don't what it is, he's just doing the rounds talking about Goldberg atm. Did the mark journalists stop caring about " Montreal " ?

Matt Hardy was always the lesser Hardy but at least was elevated by association with Jeff during their heyday. Everything outside of their team though? My god. The broken character was some of the cringiest "I'm embarrassed to be a wrestling fan" content there's ever been, and his essentially pointless stable was by far the worst part of AEW for a year or so. Oh and his wife is terrible too.

Most recently probably Bronson Reed/JONAH. Thought he was a solid midcard guy, didn't even care about his weight or whatever. He just grew a massive ego and bighead online and when he was let go by WWE, instead of taking the high road, went and shit all over his former coworkers(Most had zero to do with his firing) and acted like a professional cunt to say the least. I responded to him on Twitter saying "Way to throw your ex coworkers under the bus" after he said "This show sucks" in a Simpsons gif and he blocked me.

He's practically the Australian Ryback, he's change the channel now for me anytime he is on. And I (actually) still like The Big Guy when he isn't badmouthing the WWE or whoever. He's entertaining and brings good health & fitness talk so I am being very cruel to Ryback to compare that malcontent to him. That and Ryback is/was a bigger star.

I despise people like this so it becomes hard for me to root for him. I seriously hope he isn't brought back by HHH. Not worth the hype, the way he talks you would think this is fuckin' Hulk Hogan or Macho Man or something.


CM Punk also probably should be on here too because I liked him in his WWECW stuff and his work up until New Nexus and even Summer of Punk had moments. He's just such a fucking virtue signaling SJW miserable piece of shit who can't back up his words in and out of the ring. He lost he when he threw Miz under the bus, this after Miz put him over on his own DVD...such a garbage person. When he cameback to AEW, I felt nothing. What a jerkfest that was, had grown men crying over his return. Way to stroke this dick's ego.

Completely agree with CM Punk, I became a fan of his during his ROH run when i read an interview with him in a magazine and I was wondering what the hell straight edge was, which has a positive impact on my life.

Loved his run in ROH & WWE, now he’s just like a re-married guy that bitches about his ex-wife. You have a new life now, move on.

WWE changed his life dramatically especially financially yet he acts as if he was on the front lines.

Much like Cena he eventually became the Yankees despite seeing himself as the Red Sox.

Punk may be the most miserable prick in all of wrestling.

He was cool on debut in WWE and that edge held up all the way through his heel work against Jeff, and even The Nexus angle. And, his Summer of Punk was of course, one of the best things in years.

But outside of the ring, he's just a bastard of a man too happy to bitch and moan about everyone else being responsible for his apparent lack of opportunity and success.

I also want to know, how someone who is straight edge can look so much like a crackhead.

And Matt Hardy, is one of those guys who needs a filter. His V1 gimmick was good, and even his return opposite Edge was almost great.

Outside of the WWE, as said.. the deletion thing was fucking horrendous and one of the stupidest things ever conceived in wrestling. And most likely a result of some relax drug testing in TNA and a lot of down time.

Speaking of which. Jeff 'fucking' Hardy.

Hands down, the biggest fuck up of the last 20 years. He has been afforded more opportunities than almost everyone, and shits on his employer every time.

I've said Jericho was my top guy when I started watching full time. The Hardys were my tag team during that period and only ever wanted success for them.

Kane - doesn’t really have anything to do with his wrestling career tbh, but he came out in support of women losing their right to safe abortion and considered it a ‘win’. So fuck that guy.

Jeff Hardy - I still love him, not gonna lie but I have lost respect for the guy with his drug issues and he always takes on the ‘it’s everyone’s fault but mine’ attitude. He jumps between promotions as if that’s going to magically fix it, but it’s hard to fix the problem when it’s him.

CM Punk - I’m surprised he hasn’t broken his wrist with how much he yanks his own dick.

Fergus Ferguson. Wanker never sells, his finisher is overrated (only ever seen in video games) and that **** match Meltz gave him HAD to be a mistake. Needs serious retooling in developmental. Whoever is in charge at the Kangaroo Kingdom Wrestling School needs to be fired.

Aug 15, 2022 23:57:31 GMT @ness said:

Fergus Ferguson. Wanker never sells, his finisher is overrated (only ever seen in video games) and that **** match Meltz gave him HAD to be a mistake. Needs serious retooling in developmental. Whoever is in charge at the Kangaroo Kingdom Wrestling School needs to be fired.

Pfft. You and I both know he'd win you back in a heartbeat with one match against BOBCORE. 

Aug 15, 2022 23:57:31 GMT @ness said:

Fergus Ferguson. Wanker never sells, his finisher is overrated (only ever seen in video games) and that **** match Meltz gave him HAD to be a mistake. Needs serious retooling in developmental. Whoever is in charge at the Kangaroo Kingdom Wrestling School needs to be fired.

First he starts off with a Scottish gimmick despite having an Aussie accent and beats Alex Titan, enters a tournament to become HVW champion despite it being only his 3rd match…then after winning a fatal four way is suddenly in the 5v5 main event at the next show?
Clearly played politics to get those Ws.

Then he tags with Bubbles who was clearly the Shawn Michaels of the team and turns on him suddenly with a hypebeast gimmick then stops wrestling shortly after (thankfully) after pulling a “that doesn’t work for me brother?”


Then comes back with a President gimmick in Kingdom? Kingdom’s don’t have presidents! Plus he still does that stupid Scotsman gimmick at AWF despite everyone have to hear his voice at Kingdom.

Overrated AF.

Aug 16, 2022 5:26:46 GMT System said:

Aug 15, 2022 23:57:31 GMT @ness said:

Fergus Ferguson. Wanker never sells, his finisher is overrated (only ever seen in video games) and that **** match Meltz gave him HAD to be a mistake. Needs serious retooling in developmental. Whoever is in charge at the Kangaroo Kingdom Wrestling School needs to be fired.

First he starts off with a Scottish gimmick despite having an Aussie accent and beats Alex Titan, enters a tournament to become HVW champion despite it being only his 3rd match…then after winning a fatal four way is suddenly in the 5v5 main event at the next show?
Clearly played politics to get those Ws.

Then he tags with Bubbles who was clearly the Shawn Michaels of the team and turns on him suddenly with a hypebeast gimmick then stops wrestling shortly after (thankfully) after pulling a “that doesn’t work for me brother?”


Then comes back with a President gimmick in Kingdom? Kingdom’s don’t have presidents! Plus he still does that stupid Scotsman gimmick at AWF despite everyone have to hear his voice at Kingdom.

Overrated AF.

I mean, no one complained about Foley's Three Faces, so I personally still see no issue with President King, Braveheart Bartender, and System versions of Fergus Ferguson all existing at the same time in the same universe.