10 Superstars Failed By The WWE System
4. Shawn Stasiak
As hard as it must have been to break out from the chasing pack in WWE's monstrously competitive 'Attitude Era', Shawn Stasiak was saddled with an abysmal run of gimmicks that hamstrung any progress he could have made.
First performing as 'Meat', Stasiak was the property of Terri Runnels, Jacqueline and Ryan Shamrock's 'Pretty Mean Sisters' stable, generally only defeating equal nonentities on Sunday Night Heat and squashed when tested against stronger opposition.
The gimmick was passable fare for the era, but did nothing to gain credibility for the talented youngster, who spent a brief period under his own name (including on-screen defeat by a debuting Kurt Angle at the 1999 Survivor Series), before getting released after being discovered recording backstage conversations for his own amusement.
A WCW run was kinder to Stasiak, his 'Mecca of Manhood' gimmick was diffused upon his 2001 return to WWE after the WCW buyout, when he'd be portrayed as a total buffoon, attempting to take out The Rock without 'The Great One' ever even noticing.
Sticking around post-Invasion, a brief 2002 'Planet Stasiak' reinvention again positioned Shawn as a comically deranged idiot, but after achieving little of note on Monday Night Raw's lower card, Stasiak was released later that year.