10 Biggest WWE Main Roster Flops Before NXT | partsFUNknown - video Dailymotion

WrestleTalk

10 Biggest WWE Main Roster Flops Before NXT | partsFUNknown NXT call ups aren't what they used to be, but call ups weren't great before NXT either! This is our list of the biggest main roster flops from before the time of the black and yellow but make sure you let us know your most heartbreaking call up in the comments below!  00:00 - Start 01:09 - 10 01:59 - 9 03:02 - 8 04:00 - 7 05:01 - 6 05:55 - 5 06:58 - 4 07:57 - 3 09:01 - 2 10:13 - 1  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/ Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/ Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/

Transcript

00:00 Remember when NXT call-ups used to be fun? Yeah, we looked forward to 'em. Paige was

00:04 there and Kevin Owens was there. Good times, good times.

00:09 Anyway, those good times didn't last and now call-ups are less like the transition

00:13 from minor league baseball to major league baseball and more like NXT stars are going

00:17 into f***ing witness protection, complete with new identity, wardrobe and taste in music.

00:22 Needless to say, there have been many flops on the main roster coming out of NXT through

00:25 no fault of the wrestlers, but that got me thinking about who the biggest main roster

00:30 flops were in the days before WWE decided to spit on NXT's Peach Cobbler. And just

00:34 to clarify, rather than spend a whole 744 seconds talking about every Nathan Jones,

00:39 Mason Ryan and Vladimir Kozlov to have a cup of coffee in the Fed, I'll be using this

00:43 time to focus on those who have shown before or since that they have had the ability to

00:46 be major stars before WWE bollocksed it up. A tale as old as time.

00:51 I'm Tempest Hailing from PartsFunknown and these are the 10 biggest main roster flops

00:55 before NXT.

00:57 Are you ready for your main roster call-up? Well if you are, make sure that it's not

01:00 a flop by subscribing to PartsFunknown. That was a really bad segue, I'm really trying

01:04 to do these things. Just subscribe, maybe then at some point I'll be able to stop doing

01:08 them.

01:09 Number 10, the entire Spirit Squad. So that's it, what, we some kind of Spirit Squad?

01:15 What better way to start off a list of WWE completely bungling young talent than with

01:20 a 5 for 1 special. Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Ziggy and Mikey were 5 of Ohio Valley Wrestling's

01:25 best when they hit the road dressed as a sitcom dance group, the half-time dance crew of the

01:29 National Lacrosse League's Chicago Shamrocks. One of WWE's most infamous gimmicks, the

01:35 Spirit Squad, unfortunately killed the careers of some of WWE's best prospects.

01:39 Johnny Jeter, at 19 years old, packed everything he owned in the trunk of his car and drove

01:44 from San Diego to Louisville and waited tables at Chili's to pay for wrestling school.

01:48 Considered by OVW management to be Ricky Morton for the 21st century, Johnny joined Task Force

01:53 Flex over here and within a year he had quit the business. Suddenly, Butch doesn't look

01:58 that bad.

01:59 Number 9, Doug Basham. Doug Basham does not get brought up nearly enough in conversations

02:04 of the best real life names turned ring names. He sounds like a cartoon tough man from Looney

02:08 Tunes or something. It's such an awesome wrestling name and it was befitting of the

02:12 man himself. Yes, the Basham Masham Robot was considered to be another of OVW's top

02:17 prospects as one of the first class of students at the OVW school. A cocky top heel with long

02:22 blonde hair. Basham went on the road and just in case you needed a reminder that the WWE

02:27 creative process has always been a room of monkeys on typewriters, they had him shave

02:31 his head bald just to see what it would look like. You know, there's this wonderful thing

02:35 called imagination. Perhaps you can give it a try. You need a tutorial from Spongebob?

02:40 Look at him do the thing.

02:41 Basham made his way to the main roster for realsies in 2003 with fake brother Danny and

02:46 well, they were a team in the 2000s. It went about as well as you would expect. They were

02:49 part of JBL's cabinet. That's notable, I guess. But by the end, Doug was hanging out solo

02:54 on Velocity calling himself the Bashman. You guys remember the Bashman? I think the Bashman

03:00 2 just got announced for 2024.

03:02 Number 8, Slam Master Jay. You would never know that known Festus Handler and attempted

03:07 white hip hop something or other, Jay Jesse "Slam Master" Jay Jr. was actually a second

03:12 generation wrestler. Ray Gordy, son of Fabulous Freebird's legend Terry Gordy, made his Smackdown

03:17 debut in 2007 along noted sex man Segs Ferguson. Jesse and Festus probably have some sort of

03:23 nostalgia working in their favor at this point, but man, this really was quite an idea, wasn't

03:27 it? Now, granted, during his time in Deep South Wrestling, Jesse wrestled as Ray Jeezy,

03:32 a takeoff on real rapper Jeezy. That's certainly bonkers. And then Cousin Ray, who was a hillbilly,

03:39 so it's not like his developmental gimmicks were anything to go by. But after CM Punk

03:42 sobered up the world's horniest sleeper agent, Jesse once again looked to hip them hops,

03:47 calling himself Slam Master Jay and hanging out with Crime Time. I don't know, what's

03:51 wrong with the story of son of legendary wrestler doing his best to honor his father's legacy?

03:55 You know the Cody story? I like that story. You can do it with more than one person, too.

04:00 Number 7, Trent Beretta. In the years since Trent Beretta left WWE in 2013, he has been

04:05 as solidly consistent as any of his peers. He's been a standout in New Japan, Ring of

04:10 Honor, PWG, and AEW. The man can go, and he gets bonus points for introducing the wrestling

04:15 world to Sue. The world needs more Sue. For as much of a standout as Trent has been everywhere

04:20 else he's gone, he was never given the chance in WWE. Debuting on ECW with Cale and Kroft

04:26 as the Dude Busters, a team that The Force tells me Luke Owen would have been a fan of,

04:30 the team didn't last more than a year before Kroft was released. The only time WWE tried

04:35 to give Trent anything was when he randomly beat Drew McIntyre on SmackDown in January

04:39 of 2011, which unsurprisingly, no one knew how to react to because no one watching SmackDown

04:44 in 2011 knows enough about Trent Beretta to care about a win over pre-buff Drew McIntyre.

04:49 WWE then looked at his lack of reaction and went, "Oh well." And that was the tale

04:53 of Trent Beretta's main roster push. I would say it's about the friends we made along

04:58 the way, but Trent's best friends came later in the story.

05:01 Number 6, Vance Archer. With a name like an especially tall vampire, Vance Archer was

05:06 the WWE iteration of the man better known as Lance Archer, or perhaps Lance Hoyt if

05:11 you're one of them TNA diehards. Granted, Archer has aged like a fine wine, properly

05:16 coming into his own as an in-ring performer in the last three years. Working with the

05:20 greats in New Japan will do that to you, but working with the folks in FCW and WWECW? Maybe

05:26 not so much. Vance's WWE run was extremely dull, at one point teaming with Curt Hawkins

05:32 and beating Matt Hardy and Christian. That's almost an AEW match. It does strike me as

05:36 odd every time a big, tall, decently talented wrestler walks through WWE's doors only

05:41 to be turned away. Did you guys miss the memo? He's big! I thought you loved that! Vance

05:46 Archer didn't last long in WWE, being released only a year and a half into his deal. Thankfully,

05:51 he walked right into New Japan, where he was adopted by the fine folks at Suzuki-Goon.

05:55 Number 5, Brayden Walker. He was a superstar who captured the imagination and rebellious

06:01 spirit of a couple of weeks in late July. A name synonymous with having matches with

06:06 Armando Estrada and that other guy he had a match with, and talking with Matt Hardy

06:11 backstage. Knock knock, who's there? Brayden Walker, and I'm gonna knock your brains out.

06:16 All courtesy of the three-disc Brayden Walker DVD set. Copyright trademark that one guy

06:21 who made the awesome YouTube video like 14 years ago. The old ages of YouTube. Anywho,

06:26 much like the last entry, WWE was just whipping their big, silly dicks around whenever TNA

06:32 stars had the audacity to sign with them in the 2000s. Lance Hoyt? Nothing. Chris Harris?

06:37 Knock knock, Brayden Walker's coming to knock your brains out. Like, this was America's

06:42 most wanted, partner of James Storm, Chris Harris. He shows up for a few weeks on ECW,

06:47 then steps into the ether never to be seen again. I started to write "imagine if this

06:51 happened these days" and then I realized that's how this list started in the first

06:55 place and maybe this company has always been this way after all.

06:58 #4 - Scotty Goldman Boy, you were f***ed if you were an indie

07:02 star in the 2000s looking to sign with WWE. A few were able to get by, but for every Daniel

07:07 Bryan you unfortunately had a Scotty Goldman. The much lesser known, former alias of AEW

07:12 star and independent wrestling legend, Colt Cabana. Another dude who is like, super talented

07:17 and could be a real addition to your roster, especially as stars like Triple H, Shawn Michaels,

07:22 The Undertaker, Edge, and Batista were starting to take more time off. But no, rather Colt

07:26 Cabana debuted as Scotty Goldman and lost to The Bryan Kendrick in August of '08. He

07:31 then lost to The Great Khali and lost a few battle royals before being killed by Umaga

07:34 in his final WWE match. Unless you count his dark match with Wade Barrett in 2011, but

07:38 give me a break you cheeky sausages, I'm the fact checker here.

07:41 But those 6 matches made up for the entirety of Colt Cabana's WWE run. Thankfully, Colt's

07:46 ability to market himself and his podcast would be his biggest contribution to the business,

07:50 truly pioneering a wave of indie wrestlers able to make a full time living without needing

07:55 to be signed to a major promotion.

07:57 Number 3, Evan Bourne. Another of those indie stars that signed with WWE during the wrong

08:02 time frame, the indies Matt Sydal was one of the best high flyers of that scene and

08:06 was still pretty awesome as WWE's Evan Bourne, even if the company was determined to keep

08:11 him super glued to the floor as they made him reach for that brass ring. A nice shooting

08:15 star press went a long way in 2008, which earned Bourne a lot of points with the audience,

08:19 but he was beaten like a drum for the vast majority of his WWE tenure, only getting the

08:24 occasional surprise win hearing there, like at Fatal 4-Way beating Chris Jericho. He won

08:28 the tag titles with Kofi Kingston in 2011, but it was the WWE tag titles in 2011 and

08:32 the less said about that the better, but it was also right at the end of his run, and

08:36 their team was called Air Boom, and I'd simply rather neuralize myself thank you.

08:41 I have a lot of really fond memories of Evan Bourne, and he definitely has more incredible

08:45 moments than others on this list, but at the same time the best one is him getting hit

08:49 with another dude's finish. You know the one.

08:51 Matt Sidell has continued to be insanely talented everywhere he's worked, which has never

08:56 really been surprising. He's a flippy man, look at him do his flippy flips. Weeeee.

09:01 Number 2, Nick Dinsmore. There's probably a bunch of people listening to this list that

09:05 are hearing the name Nick Dinsmore for the first time, and my good friends that is because

09:09 WWE is a place where they will look at a guy named Nick Dinsmore and say that's not the

09:13 name of a star, we need to call him Eugene.

09:16 There is probably a good deal of nostalgia around the Eugene character. He has some good

09:20 segments like that musical chairs bit, that's a banger. However, I cannot look at the act

09:24 of taking Nick Dinsmore, a very talented technical wrestler who was having great 20 minute battles

09:30 with Chris Benoit on OVW, and giving him the character of Eugene.

09:34 I want these lists to be a fun happy time with jokes and laughs and good times and happy

09:38 memories, but this entry is just so goddamn sad. I know we as a society have evolved a

09:44 lot in these last two decades, but that also just sounds like an excuse for people to get

09:48 away with being gross, and the Eugene character was very gross for a multitude of obvious

09:53 reasons. Aside from being among the most distasteful characters WWE has ever put on screen, and

09:58 think of the ground that covers, but it effectively killed the career of the man himself Nick

10:03 Dinsmore as no one could believably bring him into their promotions after being tainted

10:07 with such an awful gimmick. I hope he got paid a lot of money, he damn sure deserved

10:12 it.

10:13 And number one, Ultimo Dragon.

10:16 Had Ultimo Dragon wrestled on bigger stages more consistently and not had his arm injury

10:19 derail his career, I think he would get a lot more talk in conversations of the best

10:24 junior heavyweights of all time.

10:25 We'll never know for sure, but his run in WWE sure didn't help his position. Ultimo

10:29 Dragon had spent the 90s being one of the best wrestlers in the world, training with

10:33 New Japan before traveling to Mexico and WCW, along the way having some of Jericho's best

10:38 matches, and I'm not just saying that, he'll tell you that himself. He'd hurt his arm

10:42 in a botched surgery left him with nerve damage that would need to be corrected years later

10:46 before signing with WWE.

10:48 They had hoped that he could rival the impact of the signing of Rey Mysterio, who they had

10:51 brought in a year earlier, only I seem to recall Rey jumping off of a steel cage his

10:55 first night in the company and facing Kurt Angle at Summerslam. And for Dragon, it was

11:00 um...

11:03 Instead Dragon's WWE run is best known for him falling down at WrestleMania 20, and I

11:07 can't help but die inside and try to smile through my tears as I say that.

11:12 WWE never gave Ultimo Dragon the chance to get over, which unfortunately is the case

11:16 with virtually every main roster flop this century. But in Ultimo Dragon's case, it is

11:21 that much more heartbreaking, because he could have been on Rey Mysterio's level. He could

11:25 be in the top tier with the Jushin Thunder Ligers and Rey Mysterio's and Dynamite Kids

11:30 of the World, but unfortunately, he'll have to settle for just being number one on a list

11:34 like this.

11:35 And I mean, yeah, being one of the best goddamn wrestlers of all time is a bigger accomplishment

11:39 than this list. If only by slightly.

11:41 And that's our list. If you're as frustrated with WWE's call-up practices as we are, well,

11:46 just come subscribe to Parts of Unknown and we can all join in on the hate together. In

11:49 the meantime, make sure to like this video, leave a comment if you liked it, and share

11:52 it around with your friends. Maybe they'll enjoy it too. And if they do, tell them to

11:56 subscribe too. More the barrier.

11:58 (gentle music)

12:00 (upbeat music)

10 Biggest WWE Main Roster Flops Before NXT | partsFUNknown

Category

Transcript

Recommended