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| top ten wrestlers |
When the subject of overrated wrestlers is discussed, there are a number of criteria that can be used to make any list.
There are guys who simply didn't work hard enough to reach their potential, guys who got pushed to the moon while lacking either talent or charisma, and guys who were at the top of the business who never deserved to be there.
This list features wrestlers who fit all three of these categories.
10. Marcus "Buff" Bagwell
Buff Bagwell seemed to have everything needed to be a superstar in the wrestling industry: he was fairly charismatic, had solid mic skills, was well built, and could work a decent match.
However, he never advanced past the level of a mid-carder.
The problem with Bagwell was his attitude which was at best juvenile and at worst horrible. Behind the scenes, he was a notorious a-hole who refused to job to certain wrestlers and was abusive to nearly everyone he encountered.
You can get by with this behavior when you are an established main-event talent, however as an up-and-coming performer you will quickly find yourself either buried in the mid card or out of the mainstream business. Those are two fates Bagwell has experienced personally.
9. Greg Gagne
There is no denying the fact that in terms of technical wrestling, Greg Gagne was one of the best who ever lived.
However, he simply lacked the charisma to carry a promotion (imagine Shelton Benjamin or Lance Storm as the cornerstone of a major promotion) and never would have done so without the help of good old-fashioned nepotism.
Gagne's father ran the AWA and always had a spot at the top of the card for his son, who was pushed to the hilt over bigger draws like Hulk Hogan and Curt Hennig, even though he was never capable of carrying a promotion.
In the end, Gagne should probably be discussed in the same sentence as a Dean Malenko, and his ability is tarnished by the fact that his father gave him a task he was unfit to carry out.
8. Jeff Jarrett
Like Gagne nobody can deny that "Double J" is not a good worker in the ring and a solid heel, however he's a lesser wrestler and everything he's achieved in the business has been through politics and nepotism.
Jarrett should have never been more than a solid mid-card performer, however he got a major push early in his career in the old Memphis territory as the successor of Jerry Lawler's throne because his dad was the promoter and owned the company.
In WWE and WCW, he was pushed non-stop because he developed a friendship with Vince Russo, and without Russo's friendship giving him a spot at the top of the card, his dad started another promotion (TNA) just to push his son.
The sad thing is that as much as Jarrett is pushed, the fans never bought Jeff Jarrett as a main event, championship caliber wrestler.
7. Bill Goldberg
No wrestler ever received a bigger push without paying ANY dues in this business than Bill Goldberg.
There is no denying the fact that he was the biggest superstar in WCW for a few years or that he was a great face who could pack 30,000 fans into the Georgia Dome.
The problem with Goldberg is two-fold; first he had almost no charisma or mic skills, and second he had almost no wrestling skills.
Goldberg was packaged by Eric Bischoff as an unstoppable monster who won squash match after squash match.
However, once he was booked to start losing matches his gimmick was gone and he didn't have the charisma or wrestling skills to get over any other way.
6. The Big Show
There is a YouTube clip of a Canadian interview show called Off the Record where The Undertaker is asked about wrestlers who failed to live up to their potential, and he mentions only one name: The Big Show.
Many fans have wondered with Paul Wight has never been given a bigger push, given the fact that he's the biggest performer in wrestling history and has a good amount of athletic ability.
Answers to this question are simple: Vince long ago learned his lesson that you don't put over lazy performers when there are guys on the roster willing to work their butts off both inside and outside of the ring (see numbers 3 through 1).
The stories of Show's laziness outside of the ring are legendary, and he's well known as a guy who prefers smoking, drinking, and eating over staying in good condition.
5. Hulk Hogan
It is blasphemy to many fans to ever put Hogan on a list of this nature given that it's not deniable that Hulk is both the greatest face and biggest draw in the history of the business.
However, it's also not debatable that you can count the number of good matches he ever worked on both hands, and as the legendary Lou Thesz once said, "Hulk Hogan doesn't know the difference between a wrist lock and a wrist watch."
One can overlook the fact that Hogan wasn't a good worker, however his biggest sin is that for all the wrestling industry did for Hogan he never gave anything back to the business that made him rich and famous.
During his nWo days when Hogan said he was bigger than the business, he wasn"t cutting a promo; he actually believed it.
Hogan could have made dozens of careers by putting younger guys over like Flair or HBK have, but he didn't.
That's because he thought, even well past his prime, that he was above helping the industry that took him from playing bass in a Tampa bar band to a world wide celebrity.
4. Kevin Nash
No wrestler has ever been more politically astute backstage, and benefited more from his stroke than Kevin Nash.
Early in his WWE tenure as "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel, Nash, a wrestler of average skills at best, befriended Shawn Michaels who had Vince McMahon's ear at the time backstage.
Later in WCW, he was closely aligned with Hogan and Bischoff and somehow managed to parlay those relationships into the job as a booker. Later, when he went to TNA, he befriended Jeff Jarrett who's father owned the promotion.
Nash's problem wasn't that he was a good networker, but rather that he used his backstage stroke to not only push his own career but also to hold down wrestlers who he felt were not at his level (and ironically almost all of the guys in question from Chris Jericho, to Bret Hart, to A.J. Styles were vastly superior wrestlers to Nash).
For those who believe that the ability to act cool and cut a good promo is what makes a wrestler truly great Nash, might have a case.
However, he was a pitiful wrestler, and even where he was strong (charisma and mic skills) he was still always overshadowed by the likes of HBK, Triple H, Scott Hall, and Hogan.
3. Sid Eudy
Call him Sid Vicious or call him Psycho Sid, but either way, this guy is almost a textbook on how stupidity can ruin a career.
In some ways you can cut Sid a break because it's clear from his track record that not only was the guy a terrible wrestler, but the guy just wasn't all that bright (go to YouTube and watch one of his promos).
The classic Sid story as told by Jim Ross is that when contracted by the WWE in the 90's, Sid called Ross with a sob story about how he was hurt and couldn't work some weekend house shows.
The following week, Ross got a newspaper clipping from a fan, showing "guess who" playing in a softball tournament the same weekend he called in with an injury.
Of course, the other classic Sid story took place in WCW where he took offense to Arn Anderson insulting him at a bar while on tour in England, so he went to his room, grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed Arn in his hotel room.
To make matters worse, Anderson was one of the most well respected and well liked guys on the roster, and Sid was set for a World Championship run.
Needless to say Sid was fired from WCW the next day.
In fact the only reason why Sid (who couldn't wrestle to save his life, couldn't cut a good promo to save his life, and couldn't even exhibit any common sense to save his own life) isn't higher on the list is because most fans have forgotten who he even was.
2. The Ultimate Warrior
Jim Hellwig (and no I will not call him by his legal name of "Warrior") is a textbook case on how arrogance can ruin a career.
For two or three years, there was nobody bigger in the business than Hellwig; however, five years later he found himself as one of the industry's biggest jokes.
The WWF gave Hellwig one of the biggest pushes anybody had ever received, even demanding that Hogan job to him and "pass the torch" to Hellwig who was a worse wrestler than Hogan.
However, soon enough Hellwig decided that he could work when he wanted to (or not work when he didn't), pulled a number of no-shows, was a cancer in the locker room, and proved himself to be more trouble than he was worth.
Only a few years after Vince fired him, he was given a second chance in the WWE where he...pulled a number of no-shows, was a cancer in the locker room, and proved himself to be more trouble than he was worth.
If Hogan believed himself to be bigger than the business, he was somewhat justified. He did pay his dues, his star power did take wrestling to new heights of popularity, and he did draw more money than any professional wrestler who ever lived.
Hellwig, on the other hand, was a flash-in-the-pan whose own arrogance and sense of self-importance turned an entire industry against him. You will still find wrestlers who defend Hogan, but nobody will ever defend Jim Hellwig.
1. Lex Luger
Lex Luger on the other hand is a textbook case of how just not giving a crap about the business cannot only NOT ruin your career, but how your career can thrive and prosper from acting this way.
Despite not being a good worker and having very limited mic skills and charisma, Luger was pushed to the moon in both the WWF and WCW.
While working for Vince, the WWF pushed Luger so hard that they actually arranged for a bus tour where Luger would travel from city-to-city, meeting fans and building his reputation as an All-American face leading up to an encounter against then-WWF Champion Yokozuna at SummerSlam in 1993.
All the while he was secretly negotiating his return to WCW for a substantial raise in pay, while telling Vince he was staying in the WWF.
In WCW, Luger spent a career wrestling lackluster matches, giving far less than 100 percent, and receiving the type of pushes and recognition that most wrestlers only dream of.
Throughout all of this, fans still cheered for Luger. WCW insisted on referring to a guy that could care less about being a professional wrestler and never committed himself to the business as "The Total Package."
If Lex Luger had committed himself as much to wrestling as he did to partying, steroids, and weightlifting, despite his in-ring limitations he might have been considered a legend in the sport.
Lex Luger is a cautionary tale for anybody looking to get into the business simply to make money, travel, party, and get laid.
Lex Luger could have been a legend in this sport. However, his lack of effort and respect for the industry have left him a physically broken down and forgotten has-been.
