10 Wrestlers Who Saw WWE As A Vacation
Happy Holidays.
Many will consider Kevin Nash a rather glaring omission on this list, but there's more than just your writer's fawning admiration of 'Big Sexy's back catalogue keeping him from joining some of the industry's most chilled out entertainers.
As 'Big Daddy Cool', Nash worked as hard as he could to get over a Diesel gimmick stripped of its cool by Vince McMahon's dated vision of a topline babyface. The first true tweener the second he fought for the character's agency late in the year, Diesel was instantly red hot and super cool - so much so that WCW were able to take him and Scott Hall and harness a real life disconnect for business-altering transcendance.
The workrate frustratingly went in the opposite direction of the bank balances shortly after, but the old Vinnie Vegas lurked below Nash and the seven-footer had beaten the house. In a monied industry that still tries to block off the potential beneficiaries of a trickle down effect, the former gimmick factory was now enjoying the fruits of his former labour. Gaming the system once in a while should be celebrated, rather than shunned, not least when you're pilfering pretty pennies from the man best equipped to dish them out...
10. Brock Lesnar
A disinterest in doing too much so well known that it became part of the gimmick, Brock Lesnar's relative indifference towards WWE is almost to be admired - the Universal Champion perhaps cares a little more than some particularly pernicious perceptions, but the manner in which he's secured deals for so much over the past several years has been mesmerising.
A multi-time champion in recent times because he's one of the few stars credible enough to carry a top title in absentia, Lesnar's reigns have been loathsome but lucrative. Though his eventual losses to Roman Reigns in at SummerSlam 2017 and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35 did at least allow both men to leap out of the looming shadow left by 'The Beast', he was often guilty of not giving a single f*ck about the task at hand.
Braun Strowman, The Big Show and several others were barely given breathers against the unmotivated millionaire, so much so that filler opponents were found in the likes of AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Finn Bálor to do literal heavy lifting. His selling, predictably was much better there - he was going over no matter how exhilarating the battle proved to be.