10 Former FCW Standouts Who Flopped On The WWE Main Roster
1. Eric Escobar
When the FCW Heavyweight Championship was created in 2008, it was immediately given credibility with its first two champions: Jack Swagger and Sheamus, two men who went on to win world championships in WWE. And then there was Eric Escobar.
Long before the birth of FCW, Escobar had been signed with WWE under a developmental contract dating back to 2005. He spent time in Deep South Wrestling and was later moved to FCW in 2008 where he became a fixture in the tag team division.
Similar to Manu, he was a glorified tag team competitor and had no business in the upper part of the card, though he went to capture the gold in late 2008 and hold it for two months. He worked dark matches for the better part of 2009 before being called up that October to join the SmackDown brand where he was aligned with Vickie Guerrero.
When not even Vickie can help you elicit a reaction, that's when you know there's an issue. His only claims to fame on WWE TV were beating Matt Hardy in his debut match and contending for the Intercontinental Championship against John Morrison.
They rushed his split with Vickie because they knew he had been a massive failure. He worked briefly as a babyface before being abruptly released in January 2010.