10 WWE Flops Who Nearly Got Massive Pushes

6. Russ McCullough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8bCWDhtaVQ#t=227 Today, there's not much information to be found about Russ McCullough. He was big (that was his nickname, in fact), he had a WWE developmental deal in the early 2000s, and he never made it up to the main roster. In 2001, however, he came inches from being WWE's next big thing. Immediately following WrestleMania XVII, WWE was under siege from the Two-Man Power Trip, Steve Austin and Triple H. The first two men to stand up to them were The Undertaker and Kane, and what followed was a feud that didn't exactly capture imaginations -- in fact, it helped slow WWE's momentum even further in the very beginnings of the post-Attitude lull. During this time, there were constant rumors that McCullough was imminently (think "this Monday's Raw") going to be brought up as Undertaker and Kane's third brother. Where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and there was quite a bit of smoke. As we all know, it never happened. Perhaps WWE thought the Undertaker-Kane history was complicated enough, or perhaps they figured McCullough wasn't at the level where he could hang with the two veterans. One known fact is that his matches in development were roundly criticized, and considering some of the big guys who have made it to the main roster over the years, that paints an ugly picture. He seems to have left the business in 2002, and today, is simply a footnote.
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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013