10 Major Signings That WWE Totally Wasted
Abandon hype all ye who enter here.
WWE's "hottest free agent in sports entertainment today" line became cliché a long time ago, and is now thrown at too many middling signings to carry any meaning. Regardless, if you follow Vince McMahon's promotion, few things are more exciting than when the company scoop a major player from one of wrestling's smaller promotions.
It's the intrigue at seeing how they'll look through sports entertainment's character-first lens, and the excitement of finally watching them go toe-to-toe with WWE's biggest stars. When Shinsuke Nakamura joined in 2016, the online discussion immediately turned to potential dream matches, and while some of 'The King Of Strong Style's sheen has since worn off, the excitement has largely been justified.
Such wrestlers don't always prosper in WWE, though. Sometimes it's because of their failure to adapt to a new style or connect with the audience, but it's often down to the company. It never gets any less disappointing, but fans have become accustomed to WWE dropping the ball with hyped signings, and it continues in 2017.
Some of these guys should've been headliners, while others had an upper-midcard ceiling: either way, they were all let down by the booking team.
10. Raven
A cult hero among '90s wrestling fans, Raven's career didn't go half as far as it should have. By all accounts, the former ECW Champion wasn't the easiest guy in the world to work with, but his shortfalls had more to do with mishandling by mainstream American promotions than anything else.
It started in WCW, where Raven became a bland, diluted version of the intoxicating figure he was in ECW, prompting him to return to his old home promotion in 1999. He left upon the expiration of his one-year contract, signing with WWE in September 2000, where he was immediately inserted into Tazz's dreadful feud with Jerry Lawler.
From there, WWE placed Raven in the trashy hardcore division, where he became a 27-time champion, but struggled to differentiate himself from the myriad of garbage brawlers he was forced to wrestle. Character work was always his strong suit, but the company rarely turned him loose on the microphone, and he became indistinguishable aside from his oddball look.
Raven debuted a promising "puppet master" gimmick prior to his WWE release in January 2003, but was left to rot on Sunday Night Heat. A performer of such charisma should never have been so neglected.