10 Greatest WWE Underdogs Of The 21st Century
7. Tye Dillinger
Is it presumptuous to call Tye Dillinger one of the greatest underdogs of the 21st Century? Maybe. He might have only just made it to one of WWE’s two main rosters, but it’s hard to argue that 'The Perfect 10' hasn’t had one of the longest and most frustrating roads to the top of the business.
Outside of a very brief stint on WWECW and a one-time cameo as ‘Stan’, the production worker who was unwittingly superkicked by Shawn Michaels backstage, Dillinger spent the better part of his wrestling career down in developmental, appearing between Ohio Valley Wrestling, Florida Championship Wrestling, and NXT for roughly seven years.
But upon debuting his ‘Perfect 10’ gimmick, it appeared Dillinger had finally found his ‘x factor.’ When WWE tried to turn him heel, fans revolted. When referees (or anyone) tried to count a number of any kind, fans screamed “TEN” at the top of their voices, in the hopes that Dillinger would get the call-up he had chased for all those years. Lesser men would have given up on WWE, and tried to make a go of something else. But Dillinger persevered despite suffering a string of losses both in and out of kayfabe. That’s what a true underdog is all about.