Pretty simple thread idea who are some women wrestlers that you feel didn't/ haven't live/lived up to their potential.

I'll start by saying  I think one of the best examples of this is Mickie James. Mickie is someone who came up to the main roster wrestled an entertaining and fun style and had a great feud with Trish. Unfortunately, she hasn't really grown since then, her moveset has barely changed since her first WWE run, and ehr wrestling style just seems outdated and boring compared to the better wrestlers on the WWE roster who wrestle a more advanced/adventurous style. Also while her matches are not bad for the most part , they aren't exactly memorable either and are at best inoffensive. She's had boring matches with the likes of Asuka, Becky Lynch, and Ember Moon which is really hard to do.  

It's sad because she clearly has a lot of natural talent and knowledge about the business but she seems content with just kind of coasting on her reputation and her old glories. 

   


 

Most of the WWE ones that come to mind are mainly due to the way they were handled rather than their own failings. Summer is probably the one with the most potential that never got a chance to do anything on the main roster. She showed in NXT that she could be a really great character, her segments motivating Sasha were absolutely fantastic, and decent enough in the ring but they clearly never got behind her for some reason. Emma too is another obvious example.

There are a few better fits for the intent of the question that I can think of from the indy scene. I thought Jennifer Blake and Melanie Cruise were destined for upper echelon indy careers when they started to break out around 2008 but neither really got there. Jennifer had a bit of a run in Mexico for a while but really got surpassed by Taya, and Melanie has just been working in her local area when it looked like she had the potential to become a SDR type figure (albeit never nearly technically as good).

Apr 17, 2018 6:17:10 GMT @admin said:

Most of the WWE ones that come to mind are mainly due to the way they were handled rather than their own failings. Summer is probably the one with the most potential that never got a chance to do anything on the main roster. She showed in NXT that she could be a really great character, her segments motivating Sasha were absolutely fantastic, and decent enough in the ring but they clearly never got behind her for some reason. Emma too is another obvious example.

There are a few better fits for the intent of the question that I can think of from the indy scene. I thought Jennifer Blake and Melanie Cruise were destined for upper echelon indy careers when they started to break out around 2008 but neither really got there. Jennifer had a bit of a run in Mexico for a while but really got surpassed by Taya, and Melanie has just been working in her local area when it looked like she had the potential to become a SDR type figure (albeit never nearly technically as good).

Jennifer Blake is someone who just came into the scene about 5-8 years too soon.  She started making noise when the WWE was in a horrible place for women and TNA while more indy women-friendly was pretty weird about who they signed like they signed someone like Madison who had potential but also signed Josie who really wasn't tv material.

I'm thinking if Jennifer was an up and comer now and was the same age she was 8 -10 years ago, she'd at least get work with TNA due to the Canadian/ Scott D'amore connection. It's weird because Jennnifer had it all looks, ring skills, and from what I remember decent on the mic as well. 

You could make a case Shantelle never lived up to her potential either. You saw flashes of it in her short matches with Hamada and Sarah, but she never lived up to the face  of the division hype she had like 11-12 years ago. Talking about this make me feel old like I still remember reading reports Shantelle's short stint as a masked ninja  

Apr 17, 2018 7:09:04 GMT dex said:

You could make a case Shantelle never lived up to her potential either. You saw flashes of it in her short matches with Hamada and Sarah, but she never lived up to the face  of the division hype she had like 11-12 years ago. Talking about this make me feel old like I still remember reading reports Shantelle's short stint as a masked ninja  

Do you think that was due to her own personal performance or just the way the creative cards fell in TNA? I kinda see her run there a bit like what Zelina is going through in NXT right now - someone who never achieved as much as they perhaps could have had things played out differently, but at the same time got a little bit lucky to have a part B to their career.

It's fairly astonishing that Shantelle is the same age as Charlotte!

Audrey Marie. Destined for greatness. Now her highlight is the... Princess(?) of Pretty.

Apr 17, 2018 7:27:51 GMT @admin said:

Apr 17, 2018 7:09:04 GMT dex said:

You could make a case Shantelle never lived up to her potential either. You saw flashes of it in her short matches with Hamada and Sarah, but she never lived up to the face  of the division hype she had like 11-12 years ago. Talking about this make me feel old like I still remember reading reports Shantelle's short stint as a masked ninja  

Do you think that was due to her own personal performance or just the way the creative cards fell in TNA? I kinda see her run there a bit like what Zelina is going through in NXT right now - someone who never achieved as much as they perhaps could have had things played out differently, but at the same time got a little bit lucky to have a part B to their career.

It's fairly astonishing that Shantelle is the same age as Charlotte!

She definitely had a ceiling on how far she could be pushed due to a lack of charisma, and non-existent mic skills. However, she was a strong hand in the ring and was only getting better. She was also super young even at the time she left TNA, and could and should have served as a foil for Madison for years. 


Zelina is just weird as seemed to put little to no effort into making herself more noticeable to WWE after leaving for TNA until like 2 years ago. Like her indy wrestling career was super sporadic until she started wrestling in Florida and training with Santanna.  

Paige is a recent one who I felt had a lot of potential to be something different in the ring. Her aggressiveness as a heel stood out a lot in FCW and it was a breath of fresh air. Her face work from a few indy matches that I saw, as well as her face work from the beginning of her main roster run in 2014, had some exciting aspects to it. But eventually her aggressiveness was scaled back and she lost that excitement, instead becoming pretty stale in the ring. It seemed like 75% of her offense were kicks, but they weren't anything stiff, fast-paced, or fun to watch like other wrestlers who use a lot of kicks - Asuka, Ayako Hamada, etc.

Kaitlyn also popped into my head. It felt like her and WWE never really gelled on what she was supposed to be in the ring...which made it quite appropriate that she was called up to NXT 3 as a replacement and years later won the title following a number one contendership win/storyline that happened by accident. I think if she debuted today, she would fare much better because it would have been a joint effort from herself and WWE in figuring out what she is supposed to be. I think she had a ton of potential as the 'hybrid' diva persona that was lightly referenced throughout her career, someone who was physically strong but also could be explosive and quick. When she ended up getting her push against Eve and AJ in late 2012-2013, she relied a lot on a couple of the same moves - but if you look at her older matches from 2011 to the first half of 2012 on NXT Redemption, Superstars and SmackDown, there was the potential for her to perfect a pretty interesting hybrid style. I really liked and appreciated that she tried to combine a few different styles but WWE wasn't exactly nurturing her during that time.

Even the Chickbusters tag team was such a missed opportunity - I've maintained for years that the "model divas" vs. "real divas" story (Divas of Doom vs. Kelly and Eve) should have culminated with Nattie and Beth against AJ and Kaitlyn. From the times Kaitlyn and AJ did team, their speed and explosiveness together, plus their quirky personalities, was a breath of fresh air. Would have made a lot of sense to have the Divas of Doom get their comeuppance from someone like Kaitlyn who checked both boxes of the debate they were running with - she's good looking with a modeling background, but could still be a threat in the ring.

And speaking of tag teams - and again, this is more of a missed opportunity on WWE's part - but the Bella Twins as a babyface tag team had a lot of potential.  Unfortunately, WWE booked divas tag matches more than they did divas singles matches, so tag team matches were completely diluted during that time...but I don't think Brie and Nikki got enough credit for really studying and working a fun, cohesive tag team style.  Admittedly, a lot of it probably went under the radar because it was happening on Superstars...but their Superstars tag matches with Jillian, Katie Lea and Alicia Fox back in 2010 were enjoyable for the amount of time they got and some of better tag matches from that time period. Not saying they did any offense that was advanced, but I liked that instead of relying solely on dropkicks and headscissors takedowns (which it seemed like quite a bit of the women from that time were doing), they would do some tag team moves, armdrag variations, the flying snapmares, etc.  Like Kaitlyn, I wish they would have been nurtured during their first WWE run because the potential was always there in terms of in-ring ability and personality.

Yeah I agree with Paige. Really go back in WWE and try and find some great Paige matches, there aren't that many. Of course Paige was kind of just on the edge of that wave where WWE started treating women like actual competitors and not the piss break of a ppv but she came in just before they really got that going and once they brought over Becky,Sasha, Lynch, and Bayley she just seemed lost in the shuffle and her style did feel very dated in comparison to what like Sasha and Charlotte were doing. Then of course her injuries and the falling out with WWE and all the del rio shit. I really don't think Paige would have got back to where she was even if she hadn't got hurt and had all the shit with Alberto but she could of stretched out her time underneath someone like Sasha and just build her up more while keeping herself relevant but I think her days of being a cornerstone "diva" died when the four horsewomen came in and she just would settle into more of a Nattie kind of role.

Not really sure Paige really was ever that good. She was better then most of the current crop when she came up. When she came back she nothing that special in any area. I don't know that much about Ruby Riott nXt days but from the little I have seen she pretty much a better version of Paige.

Kharma in WWE. What a bummer.

Apr 19, 2018 22:45:41 GMT 🤯 said:

Kharma in WWE. What a bummer.

It didn't help matters when she got pregnant.  Who knows if she would've reached those potentials had she stayed longer.

Kharma/ Kong was shot by the time she got to the WWE. See her second TNA run for proof.

Someone else who didn't live up to their potential imo was Layla specifically her face run. Her work with Laycool was great, and made people think she'd do really well as a face. But aside from a couple solid matches her first few months back from injury her face run was mostly disappointing as she was too cartoony and her skills started to get worse over time