10 Times WWE Completely Buried Ring Of Honor World Champions

6. LowCool

low ki wwe
WWE.com

Ribs.

Ribs everywhere.

NXT, at times, was just one giant rib. LayCool were literally just ribs and haircuts, toned in the extreme as they had to be in order to be believable ventriloquist dummies for writers that were ordered to call Mickie James fat.

But the biggest rib of them all was placing the supremely serious video game character come-to-life Kaval alongside the co-Women's champions for the second series of the dismal production.

The token Daniel Bryan equivalent for Season Two, the first ever Ring Of Honor Champion had built a reputation around his incredibly serious persona, honed in Japan and TNA as well as during multiple trips through ROH.

Part test and part p*ss-about, WWE saw fit to put the 'Mean Girls' knockoffs with the 'World Warrior' in an ode to Bryan's own mismatched relationship with The Miz, vaguely justifying it internally as a learning experience for the well-travelled star.

Yet again, their tacit reduction failed, with Kaval actually managing to 'win' the series and earn a title shot of his choosing to celebrate his main roster arrival. Unable to clip his wings on NXT, WWE instead got to him on the main roster, having him lose an Intercontinental Title match against Dolph Ziggler and fall further down the ladder until he negotiated his own release just to expedite his escape.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett