10 Failed WWE Wrestlers Who Became Cult Classics

1. PCO

R-Truth 24/7 Championship
MLW

In an effort to prove his inhuman endurance over WrestleMania weekend, Pierre Carl Ouellet's violent alter ego PCO took a powerbomb from the ring directly to the arena floor. Only when the Madison Square Garden crowd had fully absorbed the shock did he sit straight up, screaming with pleasure at the pain he'd just experienced.

This is his life now.

PCO's latter-career reinvention as this masochistic psychopath was for this very moment. He couldn't have predicted the specifics, but his intent to take a bow on the grandest possible stage available to him went better than he ever could have imagined - he'd landed back-first but he'd fallen on his feet in the world's most famous arena.

25 years earlier, he was a Quebecer wrestling Men On A Mission in the very same building at one of the most celebrated WrestleManias of all time. He wasn't, however, a talking point or a ticket-seller. Just as he wasn't as a super-worker that just happened to be a pirate a year later. It two over two decades for the industry to catch up with his potential offering.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett