Who worked up the card from lower to main event status?

[Joe Neglia]

Really, especially if you look at their careers over various territories, most of them did.

Duggan started as a jobber in places like WWF before venturing off and working his way up the card, before becoming THE guy for Mid-South/UWF.

Shawn Michaels was a Mid-South and World Class jobber before getting a tag team break in AWA and going to the WWF/WWE from there.

Dean Ambrose was local jobbing talent for the WWE multiple times before getting a spot in Florida and going from there, even though he was already somewhat prominent elsewhere in smaller promotions.

Etc

[Deputy Muscle]

Bret and Shawn are definitely the 2 that jump out for me.
I'm not sure I'd class Jinder as there was no working up the card, more just a massive reality breaking jump.

[Hit Girl]

HHH

Went from the lower card to being the next owner of WWE.

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

Feb 15, 2019 19:51:09 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Feb 15, 2019 19:49:11 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

He's really not though. He came with a good push, and was almost immediately paired up with one of their biggest acts, Sable. Edge started in WWF somewhere in the middle, nowhere near the bottom.

Fair point, but then he nonsensically joined the Brood and was a random Ministry minion for awhile. Does go against my initial point though so that's fair.

Edge was also super protected for a while. Anytime Edge and Christian lost it was Christian that took the pin. That continued through Edge’s King of the Ring victory and into his run on Smackdown in 2002. I think Edge was sort of a project from the beginning.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

Gargano and Ciampa weren't even on the roster at first.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Feb 16, 2019 18:34:20 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

Gargano and Ciampa weren't even on the roster at first.

That goes for everyone, no?

[Joe Neglia]

Feb 16, 2019 19:03:38 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

Feb 16, 2019 18:34:20 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

Gargano and Ciampa weren't even on the roster at first.

That goes for everyone, no?

He means they were working NXT without any official contracts, they were getting paid per appearance like local jobbers do.

[Milkman Norm]

Kevin Nash went from WCW lower card guy, to a second in WWE to World Champion in a little under 3 years.

[RedSmile]

Kenta Kobashi lost like his first 60 matches and then went on to become one of the Four Pillars of AJPW.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Grappler Lynn Denton started as a jobber in Amarillo, Mid South, and Crockett, then two years later he became the top heel for Mid South.

[Big BosskMan]

I'd put Sting in this category.

Started off as part of Bassman's Powerteam USA, got put in MidSouth Power Pro/the good UWF with Warrior as a Dollar Tree Road Warriors clone, Warrior splits then Sting is tagged with a young Rick Steiner in Eddie Gilbert's Hot Stuff International where they eventually win the tag belts, splits from Gilbert, then begins his singles journey through the NWA when JCP buys out Watts.

He kind of meandered through the NWA midcard until he starts working with Flair, who absolutely made him as a top guy

[Joe Neglia]

He didn't quite make it to main event status, but Rick Steiner's rise was very gradual, with him beginning his UWF run as jobber Rob Rechsteiner before they redubbed him Rick Steiner and started using him as Eddie Gilbert's dim thug and then being used to replace Rock (Warrior) in the tag team with Sting. Then Crockett bought the joint and he just kept creeping up the ladder until he was one of their premiere tag workers and occasional NWA/WCW title contender.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Feb 16, 2019 18:34:20 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

Gargano and Ciampa weren't even on the roster at first.

Yea, if i'm not mistaken Ciampa had did TV tapings for Impact around then too

[Johnny Flamingo]

Mick Foley.

Started as a jobber on Superstars and eventually became WWE champion

[Larryhausen]

The Bucks.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

A lot of Japanese headliners worked their way up... you can find early jobber matches on YouTube for Mutoh, Chono, Hashimoto, Liger (unmasked as Keichi Yamada), Misawa (his first big break was masked as Tiger Mask 2), Kawada, Kobashi, Onita, Fuchi, and more. Some were sent to work in territories in the US and Canada and the UK to train (Hashimoto in Calgary and Puerto Rico as "Hashif Khan", Onita and Fuchi to Memphis, Kawada to Calgary, Hase worked in Calgary as "Viet Cong Express #1"). I've picked up a few 70's All Japan shows and you can see Onita and Fuchi working as assistants around the ring for bigger matches.

[Johnny Flamingo]

Feb 15, 2019 19:12:17 GMT -5 Magnus the Magnificent said:

Austin's WWE career went from curtain jerking to Top 3 Most Over Ever in the span of two years.

I’ve always felt one of the reasons that group (Austin, Rock, Foley) were so over was that they had to fight their way up. They learned how to work the crowd and was given the freedom to let their characters grow.

I find many wrestlers in WWE today do have that skill or aren’t given that creative freedom.

[Woo]

Yeah most of them?

Austin, Rock, Miz, Jericho, Shawn, Bret, Angle (started off facing Meat and Blackman), JBL, Orton, Christian, AJ Styles if you count his match on Heat, Jeff Hardy, Jinder, Warrior, HHH, Batista (sidekick to Devon), Bryan, Eddie, Punk started low too.