10 Incredible Wrestlers Fans WROTE-OFF Before They Were Famous
8. Mike Bennett
This comes from a good place, but a lot of hardcore, traditional Ring Of Honor fans took their pro wrestling so seriously that it got awkward on occasion. That was never more true than back in 2008 when a young Mike Bennett debuted on the roster and was rejected like a babyface Doink The Clown from 1995 had just walked in and squashed Bryan Danielson.
ROH fans adored a certain brand of wrestling. They demanded it, and Bennett didn't fit the bill. He was more in line with a WWE developmental project, or something they'd expect to see from TNA. It was strange, because Mike was only guilty of one thing: He wasn't as scientific or technical between the ropes as some of the Honor fanbase's favourites. Simple as that.
Of course, Bennett played up to the derision by dubbing himself a superstar who was ready to revolutionise a brand that prided itself on being no nonsense. As usual, an elitist mindset coming from the stands was flawed. Mike was actually a pretty good worker, and he was only going to get better with more reps in a company like ROH. That was something wrestling message boards of the era pre-Twitter/X boom simply didn't want to admit.
Eventually, the sniping towards Bennett softened and he started to earn some respect, but not before he was made to feel totally unwelcome by a small-ish and fairly insular community that shunned anything that reminded them of 'the WWE style'. Unless you were Eddie Guerrero, obviously, but then that was Eddie Guerrero!