10 Most Wasted Talents In WWE History
The seed can only germinate in Vince's grapefruits.
Vince McMahon is the greatest promoter in the history of professional wrestling.
The competition is stiff. Paul Heyman is largely credited with being the Mudhoney to McMahon's Nirvana - the man whose ideas he co-opted to break back through into the mainstream consciousness.
His own father, of course, a famously fair man among crooks, left the WWF in such a strong position that his son's national expansion wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Nepotism aside, Cowboy Bill Watts' popularisation of episodic TV programming is imprinted inextricably in pro wrestling's DNA. WCPW's own Eric Bischoff is particularly notable given that he entered and changed the game as a relative outsider.
Vince Jr. is by no means perfect, despite his standing as the unchallenged king of pro wrestling sports entertainment. His recent track record is evident of that. While he gets something of a pass in 2016 - this week's RAW really was as good as everybody is saying it is - he still has an irritating knack of impeding a wrestler's momentum just when they really begin to make a connection with the audience.
Going even further back, Vince was famously loathe to go all in on stars who had the gumption to make their name elsewhere. If only he had some of them at his disposal right now...
10. Goldberg
The Goldberg character books itself.
Famously limited between the ropes, Goldberg's arc in WCW was planned out meticulously. Learning as he went along, he was protected in the short, dynamic squash matches in which he carved out his fearsome aura.
When he ascended to the main event, even the legendarily inept latter-period WCW were astute enough to keep his matches as short as realistically possible. He was no Ric Flair in there, so he was presented as a wrecking machine accordingly.
His treatment in WWE was more wilful obstruction than oblivious bumbling. Tasked with wrestling standard back and forth bouts exceeding ten minutes in length, Goldberg, exposed as a worker, blended into the background.
Wrestling fans are notoriously hard to please, but one thing we're almost unanimously in favour of is recycling. Wrestling is - or should be - simple. If WWE had replicated Goldberg's streak, it's unlikely that fans would have cried unoriginality. Goldberg wasn't comfortable wrestling epic matches. Fans were bored watching them.
He left after just a year, citing creative frustration. His heart was never in the business, and moreover, nobody else could afford him or were willing to pay. Unlike some of the entries on this list, he shrugged off the experience...