8 Recent Wrestlers We Didn't Expect To Get Over This BIG!

Tiresome clichémongers will tell you that even a stopped clock is right twice a day (unless it's digital, in which case its chronoscope chimes correct just once). Anyway, the point of this banality is that not everything that initially seems hopelessly wrong is, despite how it may seem.

That is, with the possible exception of Bray Wyatt.

Although the cultist seemed to be ticking towards assured superstardom shortly after his WWE debut, his clock soon stalled, and then had its face smashed in. More often not, that was literally the problem.

When Matt Hardy said ta-ra to the world of wrestling last summer, the broken Broken one's body painfully ossifying, time seemed to have ran out for Wyatt to become anything beyond a mediocre sideshow. Years of gibberish promos and inevitable failure had dyed the cast, and the outcast had thoroughly died. There was no comeback.

As it happened, his tag partner must have spent the summer in his brother's Lake of Reincarnation, returning in February looking somehow fitter than ever. The vanished Wyatt promised a similar rebirth; Lord knew he needed one. But history suggested there was little hope he'd been bathing in Hardy's spa.

It turns out he had. Bray Wyatt is the best thing in WWE today. And he's not the only one who has confoundingly turned the most rotten rags into riches this year.

Ron Killings has long been an underutilised member of WWE's bloated roster, a veteran allowed to perish on the wayside based on his age or perceived irrelevance. When given the right material - and in many cases, even the wrong material - R-Truth has a habit of making it work. Just last year, Truth miraculously emerged from the abortive Mixed Match Challenge format with credit, his entertaining 'Dance Break' routine with Carmella frequently the most watched part of the show - once more proving that in WWE, so often the wrestling is the worst part of the wrestling.

So it's not Truth maintaining his usual high standard in 2019 that has come as a surprise, but rather his route to renewed relevance. When Mick Foley revealed the 24/7 Championship in May, few gave it a prayer of doing anything for anyone - especially once it became clear it'd be the sole demesne of the performers WWE deemed unworthy of higher accomplishment. Much like another man on this list - and largely thanks to their combination - Truth fully focused his unfettered endeavour and affability to make the dead-on-arrival belt appointment viewing.

Effectively, the veteran took ownership of the division - and defined it in his image. Everybody involved has benefited as a consequence.