10 Biggest One Hit Wonders In Wrestling History
Examining some of pro wrestling's biggest what-ifs, from Anthony Ogogo to Tom Magee and beyond.
What is needed to survive as a professional wrestler?
An investable character.
Austin Theory was pushed hard during Vince McMahon's final months in the WWE office because Vince saw something in him that nobody else did, and Theory, hardly a future WWE Hall of Fame inductee, came out the other end no more over than he was going into it. He lacked any ounce of a foundational character base with which the fans - the people who actually matter! - could get behind. The ability to actually wrestle helps, too. Anyone can see through a wannabe stuntman who spams "cool moves" like they're circa-2000s Jack Evans, the difference being that Jack could also nail the fundamentals.
Finally, there is the notion of a good ring name. LA Knight would not have gotten as over as he miraculously did had he retained his original 2013 NXT moniker of Slate Randall, but Eli Drake, which rolls off the tongue as much as LA Knight does, gave him a much-needed boost that resulted in a monumentally star-maker of a TNA stint.
Bret Hart, it could be argued, demonstrates each of those abilities to the greatest degree, and has stood the rest of time as a result. Unlike...
10. Karl Anderson
Known for: a fine - not best in the world-level, like it is oftentimes touted as being - outing opposite a still-green Kazuchika Okada.
In the finals of NJPW's puroresu smorgasbord G1 Climax in 2012, Anderson and Okada crafted an awesome blend of the stiff, potent, brain damage-inducing style with which New Japan had built an empire upon, and the flashier, counter-laden sequenced structure that was beginning to emerge. What came of that was a legitimately mesmerising closing sequence - there is a mint set of Gun Stun-Rainmaker reversals in the final minute that is always worth seeking out - and the first G1 ascension for NJPW's next big thing.
Why didn't he thrive after: Karl Anderson is a skilful, adaptable, deft worker...when he's paired with a similarly talented colleague.
There is nothing disingenuous in saying that. His pairings alongside Doc/Luke Gallows and Giant Bernard are what he is best known for, and triumph followed because of it: he is a fourteen-time Tag Team Champion across multiple territories. Would similar success have followed 'The Machine Gun' had he developed the necessary traits to break out as a headline New Japan act?
Realistically, no, but if you are to believe his tales, he was to New Japan in 2012 what Hulk Hogan was to the WWF in the early 1980s.