10 WWE Tag Team Wrestlers Who Held Their Partners Back
8. CM Punk (Kofi Kingston)
Not to dig out CM Punk, not least when he was on the wrong end of some deeply damaging booking back in 2008, but said bad booking didn't half make him a toxic figure to be around for lots of the lost up-and-comers on the show at the time.
In stark contrast and as one of those optimistic try-hards, Kofi Kingston was less than a year into the decade-plus journey well-touted in the build to his WrestleMania 35 WWE Championship victory. Up to this point, he'd travel in the opposite direction to a 'Straight Edge Superstar', but tagging with the infamous Chicagoan left him stuck in the midcard mud for the first time in his burgeoning career.
Punk had done the dreaded 'reverse Diesel' over the 12 months he suddenly found himself propping up Kingston's young career. For the uninitiated, Kevin Nash's 1994 sprung into life at the Royal Rumble in January when a slew of eliminations put stars in Vince McMahon's eyes. By April he was the Intercontinental Champion. By August, he was wearing a tag title alongside Shawn Michaels at the same time. By November, the secondary straps were gone and he was flattening Bob Backlund for the industry's richest prize in Madison Square Garden.
Punk's June World Heavyweight Title victory was abruptly terminated in September, with this and an Intercontinental Title reign coming within the next four months. On a downward slide, he was the wrong guy for Kofi to be linking arms with - the (then-)Jamaican wouldn't reverse his own subsequent slump until late-2009.