10 WWE Main Eventers Fans Rejected
6. Diesel
Few individual wrestlers had a bigger impact on the sport’s fortunes than Kevin Nash did in the 1990s. His jump to WCW with Scott Hall and the duo’s formation of the New World Order helped shift the Monday Night Wars in his new employers’ favour, and served as the catalyst for Nitro's 84 consecutive weeks of dominance in the ratings battle.
Before that, Nash was one of the lowest drawing WWE Champions of all time. Kicking off in 1994, Diesel’s title reign was supposed to reverse the decline in PPV buyrates and attendances, but had the opposite effect. PPV business tanked with Diesel as champion, with WrestleMania losing 80,000 buyers from the previous year, SummerSlam dropping 95,000, and Survivor Series 126,000.
The most astonishing thing is that Diesel held the belt for close to a year before finally dropping it to Hart in November 1995. His reign remains one of the most maligned in WWE history, and Nash would continue courting controversy throughout his career, with many citing him as one of the lead architects of WCW’s demise.