10 Wrestlers Who Could Have Been Main Eventers With Better Gimmicks
They had the skill, but the bookers dropped the ball.
One of WWE's most-told narratives - even 16 years after WCW went out of business - is that the company mishandled its talent terribly. Men like Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and Mick Foley all could've made WCW a ton of money, but they were cut loose in time to become some of the top stars of the Attitude Era. In later years, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, and Chris Jericho were similarly misused.
Still, WWE is far from perfect when it comes to managing talent - and in WWE's case it's sometimes because the creative team gets too creative. For instance, longtime fans will remember the early to mid-1990s, when every wrestler seemed to have a "day job" - the company's roster boasted plumbers, baseball players, clowns, and more.
Sometimes those gimmicks can overshadow some great workers. In the '90s, before, and since, there have been many WWE wrestlers whose careers ended up hamstrung by lousy gimmicks. Some of those men and women became forever associated with those characters, and in many cases, it prevented them from embarking on what could have been very successful careers.
Here are 10 wrestlers who could have been main eventers with better gimmicks:
10. Diamond Dallas Page
When Diamond Dallas Page came to WWE, he was already 46 years old, but that didn't change the fact that he was one of the top names the company got from WCW. He had emerged as among the company's most popular babyfaces during the Attitude Era, and he remained a hit with fans until the WCW's closing.
Upon joining WWE, though, he was given a complete character change of the worst kind - not only was he turned heel, but he was made into a predator who was stalking The Undertaker's wife, Sara. Fans - even hardcore WWE fans - knew and liked DDP, and they weren't invested in seeing him as a bad guy. The subsequent feud with Undertaker was terrible, and Page was soon repackaged as a motivational speaker. That also didn't go well.
Had DDP kept his babyface character - and had the members of the WCW/ECW Alliance been booked individually instead of turning everyone heel - he could have easily become one of the stars of the whole storyline. Instead, his WWE run was a sad end to an otherwise successful career.