Rene Dupree was a young star that WWE officials clearly had high hopes for when they signed him. Thick and well-muscled even in his teens, Dupree was introduced as part of the La Resistance team with Sylvain Grenier in 2003. The next year, Dupree was transferred to Smackdown in the annual WWE Draft, which signalled to fans that the company were interested in pushing him on his own. That didn't happen (despite a brief US Title feud with John Cena), and the guy found himself in a dead-end tag-team with another person the creative team seemingly had next to no ideas for. Aligning with Kenzo Suzuki, Dupree and his Japanese partner did have a 3-month reign as WWE Tag-Team Champions from September-December, 2004. During their 91-day reign, people simply didn't care much about them. They had one or two OK matches but the reactions were nonexistent. It was a bit strange to see Dupree taken out of a regular tag-team (La Resistance) and put into an odd-couple pairing when he was moved to the blue brand. There was little chemistry between the men, and Suzuki especially struggled to really provoke a reaction from the core WWE fan base. Once the team broke up, both guys were in worse positions than they had been before, rendering the exercise pointless.
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
