10 Wrestling Careers That Bombed After Their Biggest Match
Will a career highlight be the beginning of the end for Jey Uso? He wouldn't be the first...
Jey Uso, these are treacherous times. Your first world title shot was an absolute career highlight, but it is now up to you to ensure that it doesn't get the square peg in the round hole that is a career of consistency. It can be a highlight for now, but allowing your career to trundle back towards mediocrity from this point on would be borderline criminal.
If Jey never makes it within touching distance of the mountain once more, he won't be alone. Much of the wrestling business depends on the whims of the booking team, but success isn't guaranteed once a push is received. An individual still needs the talent, the ability, the confidence and the ability (it deserves to be mentioned twice) to make it count. If not, purgatory awaits.
WWE history is littered with men who have found themselves in a spotlight that they weren't ready for, or a position that others deemed above them. Careers have fallen apart in the face of a poor performance or even a good one, when the shine wears off and Vince McMahon sees another magpie crossing the road.
'Bombed' is a strong word, but the records speak for themselves. Tread carefully, Jey.
10. Jack Swagger
Jake Hager has carved out a fairly decent niche for himself on AEW as the silent heavy of The Inner Circle, but it could have been oh so different for the man formerly known as Jack Swagger. The All-American American was the victim of a premature push in 2010, winning the Money in the Bank briefcase and subsequently the World Heavyweight Championship long before he was ready. His reign was a joke, and Swagger was soon floating around in midcard purgatory.
Swagger took some time off at the end of 2012 and returned with new vigour in early 2013, with a new manager, a new attitude and a new gimmick. Swagger's patriotism had veered right, and Zeb Colter's antagonistic promos seemed to imbue him with a new energy and freshness. He got the push to match, winning the number one contender's Elimination Chamber and inking himself into a world title match at WrestleMania 29.
Swagger was rumoured to be walking out of 'Mania with the belt, but a DUI a few weeks prior to the event put paid to that. The match itself was a lumbering two-star classic, the renewed vigour around Swagger nowhere to be seen. That was it as far as his main event hopes in WWE were concerned, and it is difficult to see him reaching these heights ever again, bubbly or no bubbly.