10 WWE Wrestlers Whose Patriotism Limited Their Potential

7. Rene Dupree

Yoshi Tatsu
WWE.com

La Resistance was one of those talented tag teams that is often overlooked when reminicing about the Ruthless Aggression era in WWE. Sylvain Grenier, Rob Conway and especially Rene Dupree were all excellent athletes, but something about the stable never clicked with crowds, forcing them to disband shortly after they joined forces.

Grenier and Conway remained a unit in the later years of their career while Dupree branched off on his own on SmackDown in 2004. He was the premier pick in the 2004 WWE Draft by Paul Heyman, meaning officials had high hopes for him on the blue brand.

He wasted no time in setting his sights on the United States Championship, which he unsuccessfully challenged for at Judgement Day against John Cena. Aside from a short-lived reign as WWE Tag Team champion alongside Kenzo Suzuki, his SmackDown stint was a massive failure, largely due to how he was no different on his own than he was when he was part of La Resistance.

The Frenchy entrance music, the talk show Cafe de Rene, even the French poodle Fifi he carried around. Americans don't like the French, we get it. That got old early on in La Resistance's run, and definitely did not work for Dupree once he was flying solo, wasting a perfectly good talent as a result.

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Contributor

Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.