10 Hyped WWE Debuts That Were Total Misdirections
8. Hade Vansen
A success-story from the formerly influential Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, Hade Vansen had barely spent a year in WWE's Florida Championship Wrestling developmental outfit before Freddie Prinze Jnr would give him the news he thought would change his entire life in late-2008.
The movie star had taken on a role in WWE's writing team at the time, and had been involved in a pitch which would see Vansen lead other unknown quantities from the feeder system into the company with a view of destroying The Undertatker.
Hade's minions would all eventually fall, but the angle would lead to a match between Vansen and 'The Deadman' at WrestleMania 25.
It was an enormous opportunity for the aspiring performer, but after a mysterious and provocative Vansen monologue video interrupted a December edition of Smackdown, the character was never seen, heard from nor mentioned ever again.
Despite all the planning and preparation, Hade's unceremonious dumping was allegedly down to Vince McMahon deeming Vansen physically ill-equipped to believably feud with The Undertaker. He was 'too small'.
Taking his talents elsewhere, the real-life Hadrian Howard left the industry entirely, and has fittingly joined Prinze Jr in Hollywood, who's own WWE tenure was rather sharply abbreviated.