10 Failed WWE Pushes One Tweak Away From Excellence
They tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it didn't even matter...
The "failed WWE push" has become such an omnipresent force in 2019 that it's practically an expectation rather than an unfortunate realisation.
Across the year on Monday Night Raw, Ricochet, Cedric Alexander and Humberto Carillo have all found "success" seemingly from nowhere in their early days, debuting not necessarily with winning streaks but winning mentalities. Naturally, that means nothing to fans looking to back winners From there they've entered the 50/50 results churn before settling into life on the treadmill, occasionally lurching above the pack to get half a push like a whack-a-mole machine trained to a hard camera.
This is the rather moribund journey of the modern day WWE star, yet there was a time when all of this would have been a worst case scenario start for a wrestler looking to make it into the regular circulation of television and pay-per-view.
These tragic cases can't boast a winning route - at least not one that led them all the way to the promised land. WWE's topline is reserved for a revered few, and every victim in the following list was made to learn that lesson the hard way.
10. Lex Luger
Why it failed: Because it couldn't really possibly succeed.
Shortly after Hulk Hogan left WWE in June 1993 following a period keeping the company's top title hostage, Vince McMahon was so obsessed with the indifferent numbers former talisman Bret Hart had posted that he believed finding the next 'Hulkster' was the only way to go. Then a heel, Lex Luger didn't really want to be like Hulk Hogan. Then desperate, Vince himself probably didn't want to have to create a new Hulk Hogan. It wasn't even proven that audiences even still wanted Hulk Hogan, but the familiarity hadn't bred so much contempt that the Chairman didn't think it worth a go anyway.
One Tweak: Put him over in his first big title match.
Pardon the simplicity of this, but after spending more money on this push than virtually every other one in company history whilst taking Luger off the house show loop and onto his own personalised bus, why not actually have him win the WWE Championship in his eventual title clash? "Saving it for WrestleMania X" was a gamble too far for the money already spent, as proven by the crowd's indifference towards Lex by the following January's Royal Rumble. USA was eh-okay.