Heres another example of a performer who felt like his career trajectory was leading somewhere different than it actually did. Chris Masters had an incredible chiseled look, like a new millennial version of Lex Luger, and we all know how Vince McMahon feels about bodybuilders. But after returning to the active roster obviously off the juice, he was noticeably smaller, so much so that Triple H called attention to it by mocking him on Raw. He was released in August of 2011 and has been plying his trade on the independents ever since, showing marked improvement and hitting his stride as a worker. The Masterpieces beef with John Cena is not an actual personal conflict, but just his lack of desire to wrestle him due to how stiff he found him. He had this to say about working with the former Dr. of Thuganomics: That guy had some heavy fists. Carlito and I used to joke around that in tag matches with Cena and HBK, we would literally rush to get to Shawn Michaels, because he wasnt as heavy with hands and the other guy would be stuck with Cena and youd be potatoing each other left and right. I remember at the Elimination Chamber I felt like I was in a real shoot fight. Its not that hes bad, he just gets really fired up and hes got big hands, he doesnt realise his own strength. For anyone whos ever seen John Cena apply the STF, you probably find it hard to believe that someone is accusing him of working stiff. But if a hoss like Chris Masters dreads working with you, youre probably throwing some heavy hands around.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
