10 Wrestlers WWE Dropped The Ball On TWICE
WWE life proved to be a total flop for these wrestlers...more than once!
Succeeding in WWE is hard for multiple reasons. Firstly, you obviously need to be bloody good and connect with the core audience to have any chance of success. Second, workers have often had to battle against Vince McMahon's well-known whims. Triple H is clearly less of a problem there, but even some of his second attempts have been clangers too.
Wrestlers themselves need to take a portion of the blame as well though. McMahon and Triple H would argue that they only provide the platform, so it's really up to the workers to use it properly. That's fair, but...the creative needs to be spot on as well. Blaming a wrestler because they couldn't make two sh*t gimmicks work is hardly fair, for example.
Then, there are those who find themselves totally undermined by writers backstage. Some of Hunter's modern rehires fit in here - they've sailed a beautiful pass overhead into space, only to see WWE creative drop the ball and fail to meet them halfway.
That must be agonising to experience once let alone twice. Sadly, a ton of wrestlers have lived this nightmare over and over!
10. Hit Row
More like Sh*t Row and "Flop Dolla" (credit: Michael Cole), right?!
Seriously though, things are not going well for Top Dolla, Ashante 'Thee' Adonis and B-FAB. They, alongside ex-stablemate Isiah 'Swerve' Scott, gained some traction on NXT before jumping up to WWE's main roster during the 2021 Draft. Things fell apart quickly, and the entire group was released that November.
Scott became AEW's Swerve Strickland and hasn't looked back, but the remaining three members of Hit Row rejoined WWE in August 2022. This second attempt has been a bigger bust than the first; Triple H, like Vince McMahon before him, hasn't been able to find a workable spot for the faction on SmackDown.
Things are so bad that Hit Row top fan-made lists for the worst WWE acts in 2023. Things look bleak for the trio, because they haven't landed whether playing babyface or heel, and Dolla (in particular) hasn't improved in-ring at all.
Hit Row won't get a third chance.