Wrestlers Who Became Bigger Than Your Expectation

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

As fans we critique wrestlers and in instances even wrestlers we like and have decent expectations sometimes don't reach those standards. On the flip side, there are those who fly under the radar and make it big even shattering their own expectations. What are some you can think of?

Cody Rhodes. I always thought he was talented and was fringe World Champ material at his best. No way could I forsee him having the career he has had and be at the forefront of the wrestling industry and a guy who could potentially be in the record books as a sort of pioneer and industry figurehead 

On the somewhat lower scale, Juice Robinson. He left WWE and bet against himself and has become a star in Japan. He may never reach World Champ level but he has a connection with the crowd better then some homegrown stars and a job most likely as long as he wants it 

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

HHH!

I actually really enjoyed him as the Connecticut Blue Blood. I figured he was a gimmick wrestler at the time and would never go beyond the upper midcard at best.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

The Rock...when he came in as The Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia, I thought that he would have such a short shelf life as a good-boy high-fiving babyface.

When he turned heel and joined The Nation, I thought "OK...I like where this is going" and when he broke off from them and became "The Rock" he blew me away with all this hidden charisma and promo skills along with the ability to have the attention of an entire arena in the palm of his hands.

And look where he is now....good job Flex Kavana!

[Mike Strike]

Apr 23, 2020 14:24:18 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

The Rock...when he came in as The Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia, I thought that he would have such a short shelf life as a good-boy high-fiving babyface.

When he turned heel and joined The Nation, I thought "OK...I like where this is going" and when he broke off from them and became "The Rock" he blew me away with all this hidden charisma and promo skills along with the ability to have the attention of an entire arena in the palm of his hands.

And look where he is now....good job Flex Kavana!

You can thank the people for him becoming The Rock. They were all chanting "Die Rocky Die" which of course is German for "The Rocky The" & that's how he got the name.

[Gus Richlen Was Wrong]

Keith Lee. When I first saw him he was part of a tag team in ROH with Shane Taylor. I never thought much of him or the team then but then he goes out on his own and is now one of the hottest things going in NXT.

[Joe Neglia]

Back in 2000-2001 or so, there was an indy promotion in the Dallas region called PCW. At one point, it had one of the most talented rosters in the entire country. Jared Steele, Kevin Douglas, Iron Eagle, Jeromy Sage, Chris Chronic, Kris Germany, Gabe Roach, Martin Styles, Zane Morris, Mike Foxx. Just an insane amount of talented workers (several of them graduates of HBK's school) that deserved to be on a national platform. Hell, even Scott Putski went there and reinvented himself into something that worked better for him and was primed to re-emerge as someone to take notice of.

At the same time, PCW had a Ministry-ripoff stable called the Dark Circle, comprised of two serviceable but unmemorable journeymen (Tim Storm, Apocalypse) and two really, really green guys who just weren't very good (Shadow, Damien). There was no reason to see any of the four as really having a future.

No one in the first part above ever really made it out of the local scene. Jared got an ROH dark match, Foxx got a few local jobber gigs with WWE (he's the one Raven makes kiss his foot during the 7 Sins angle). None of them made it.

Tim Storm and Shadow, two of the never-going-to-make-its, became - respectively - the NWA Heavyweight Champion and Lance Archer.

[BorneAgain]

I liked Miz early on 2006 circa and I figured he'd have a solid little run for while, perhaps even getting a Honky Tonk Man esque run with the US or IC titles.

That he ended up main eventing a Wrestlemania, having almost the longest total days as Intercontinental champion, and still be an active/featured talent almost 15 years later was something I never expected.

[Dub H]

Hard to say I started watching in 2008-2009, which was when WWE started hating making stars and always underdeliver expectations.

I guess I never expected Adam Cole to run wild in NXT

[thehottag]

The Miz, definitely. He went from a guy who I wanted gone to a guy I wanted them to put the strap on. Amazing rise.

[bob]

The Miz

[A Platypus Rave]

Cena.

I expected him to be an uppermid card guy... never expected the WWE to trust him as THE guy especially not for as long as they did.


Batista... when he debuted as Deacon Batista... it seemed he was going to be one of those short lived body guards that go nowhere...

then when he was added to evolution only to get injured like right away...

when he came back they were still very hard pushing Orton as the new star in the group over Batista's muscle.

Did not expect him to be the star that actually came out of Evolution...

[XIII]

Mark Henry. Was always something of a bust. He was a big strong guy that wasn’t all that good and kept getting garbage gimmicks and angles(likely to try to make him quit) and then one day: BAM Hall of Pain Mark Henry.

[XaviersSS2015hair]

Apr 23, 2020 17:01:44 GMT -5 XIII said:

Mark Henry. Was always something of a bust. He was a big strong guy that wasn’t all that good and kept getting garbage gimmicks and angles(likely to try to make him quit) and then one day: BAM Hall of Pain Mark Henry.

For being so big and strong Henry was also seemingly made of glass. How many pushes did he have derailed by injuries over the first decade plus of his career? Not surprisingly even his WHC reign was ended early by yet another injury.

[XaviersSS2015hair]

Apr 23, 2020 14:41:02 GMT -5 Gus Richlen Was Wrong said:

Keith Lee. When I first saw him he was part of a tag team in ROH with Shane Taylor. I never thought much of him or the team then but then he goes out on his own and is now one of the hottest things going in NXT.

I made the mistake of judging a book by its cover the first time I saw Lee and Taylor. I saw them do a dark match for ROH in 2016 and said, here's 2 big generic guys, this is gonna suck. I became a fan in that one match once Lee started flying around the ring. To this day I continue to eat my words. Not only about Lee but Taylor has far exceeded my expectations for him. I really enjoyed his ROH TV title run.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

The Miz. He cut one of the worst promos ever as a host of raw early on and I was surprised he didn’t get fired.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

I have a few guys I can talk about here. Some on the indies level and in the big leagues.

Delirious comes to mind. I saw this guy in 2001 in the local indy federation in St. Louis. Sure the federation at a handful of guys you may have seen, RVD and Nova had a pass through before they signed with WWE. Like once WCW went out of business Elix Skipper and former Jobber Ron Powers who in 97 faced Luger and The Giant on Nitro. Never did I expect to see him have a short run in TNA and become a big part of ROH for so long as a trainer, wrestler, and creative booker over the years. He wore a lot of hats and in the early to mid 00's took over the indies by storm was in all the big companies at the time.

Kane: Regardless of how badass his debut was and everything about him. I felt he was going to be another big monster that once Taker was done beating him. He be gone like others before him. Like Kamala, Giant Gonzalez, and ext. Little did I know 20 years later he still around.

Goldust/Dustin Rhodes: How the user thought of HHH, I felt once the attitude era ended and after he left back to WCW, That we would never seen Goldust again. Would I ever guest he come back in 2002 and have a good run. That later in the 2010s to just a couple years ago, we get another good run from him and him being in amazing shape. Now he is in AEW still wrestling as if he was 30 and not 51.

You can say that I never would thought back in 98, that 2/3 of the Brood One become one of biggest starts in WWE history in Edge. That Christian would had a solid upper midcard career in the WWE and ME TNA. That the two bright colored plaid tight tag team jobbers The Hardys that they both become a very popular tag team and later very successful singles guys. Even one became a MEer even with his problems.

I agree with a lot of others said.

[Raskovnik]

I've always been a massive fan of Kenny Omega but I never thought he'd become one of the biggest stars in the sport and one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time. I mean, he was always really charismatic, and definitely a good wrestler, but once he returned to NJPW and moved up to heavyweight everything just clicked and he reached that Ultra Instinct shit.

[Instant Classic]

Seth Rollins, when the Shield broke up I remember myself and others thinking he’d be Kofi Kingston pre New Day.

[WR91]

Cody Rhodes and Edge come to mind right away.

[Shark]

Rey Mysterio. The guy was absolutely a phenom in WCW, but he was still small. How much of a star could he really become? Not only has he become a massive star, but is arguably a legend now. Think about how many men and women in wrestling list him as a huge influence. There was a PPV that Rey appeared on, like his 2nd or 3rd WCW PPV and Dusty called Rey the future of pro wrestling and he was not wrong.