8 Wrestlers WWE Pushed In The WORST Way Possible
Broken down by a WWE system designed to build you up, starring Roman Reigns, The Fiend and...Mr Ass?
More than ever before, WWE is hell-bent on giving off the impression that it is the all-seeing eye of professional wrestling. They know us their fans, they know their performers, and they know how to connect the two in the most effective way possible because they are the all-knowing WWE. Only we all know this is a big old load of baloney, and sometimes, WWE sabotages itself and its performers.
WWE are as guilty as anyone of not seeing what they have with world class performers. They're only human after all. There has been some incredible misjudgment of what makes a superstar great over the years, leading to botched pushes that have sunk even the best of wrestlers in the eyes of the audience.
At its worst, WWE can push a character that is so far from the zeitgeist that it's truly a wonder how a character ever made it to television. Plenty of other times, the world's biggest wrestling company has failed to understand what makes someone great in the first place or what will make the audience connect with that superstar. These are some of the worst pushes that WWE creative have ever cooked up.
8. Dean Ambrose
If you've read Jon Moxley's excellent 'Mox' autobiography, you'll know that he is deadly serious about the art of professional wrestling. The smell of the canvas, the contrast of styles that each performer brings to the table, the sheer physicality and grit of combat; these are the reasons that Moxley is in love with the squared circle. Nothing about the man is contrived or wacky, and his ridiculous run as Dean Ambrose is largely why his post-WWE career has evolved around gritty realism.
Dean Ambrose is one of the most egregious cases of WWE fundamentally misunderstanding a character in company history. When debuting in The Shield, Ambrose was the group's unhinged agent of chaos. WWE creative saw this psychotic menace and decided to turn it wacky.
Ambrose went from being viciously maniacal to being portrayed as an idiot who was out of control. The "Lunatic Fringe" (shudder) was no longer a feral berserker; he was so out of his mind and "zany" that he'd have a feud over a potted plant or bring a hot dog cart to the ring, squeezing ketchup and mustard into people's faces like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. WWE had a killer on their hands, but instead decided to turn Pennywise the Clown into Krusty the Clown.