10 Most Unlikely Contenders For The WWE World Title
2. Hardcore Holly
Hardcore Holly is wrestling's version of a grumpy old man. Despite being a lower card worker for the majority of his career, Holly was well-respected enough by his peers to consider himself a locker room leader.
This meant he felt like he could give rookies a hard time and beat the crap out them in the ring. Unfortunately for the former Sparky Plugg, he ran into a rookie named Brock Lesnar and Brock was not going to tolerate Holly's nonsense.
During a match on SmackDown in 2003, Holly sandbagged Lesnar on a powerbomb attempt, presumably to make Lesnar look weak. Instead, Lesnar powered Holly off the mat and dropped him on his head, breaking Holly's neck.
During his time off, Holly became a trainer on Tough Enough and proceeded to stiff rookie Matt Cappotelli, earning the ire of internet fans.
When he returned, due to a lack of better contenders, Holly was pushed to a world title match against champion Lesnar without ever being a main event wrestler.
Their match at Royal Rumble 2003 featured Holly working a full nelson, something that hasn't won a bout since about 1935. Thankfully, this would be Holly's only shot at the major title.