12 WWE Monsters That Failed

7. Heidenreich

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WWE

One of several wrestlers to spend time on the chalkboard as a possible WrestleMania opponent for The Undertaker, Heidenreich's muddled WWE run featured a spell as a dangerous heel but was bookended by two credibility-sapping babyface stints.

Appearing on Raw in 2003 as a slightly unhinged friendly face referencing a never-paid-off 'Little Johnny', Heidenreich did little of note before returning on Smackdown as a heel alongside Paul Heyman.

As others can attest to, just being a 'Paul Heyman guy' doesn't guarantee greatness, and despite his increased psychopathy extending to assaulting planted members of the crowd and reciting terrifying poetry, it was apparent he was sinking fast.

The inevitable Undertaker feud yielded poor high profile matches at both the Survivor Series in late 2004 and the 2005 Royal Rumble, and even briefly sucked in Raw's equivalent Kane/Snitsky feud for the planned WrestleMania 21 tag team match, but the idea was ultimately dropped at the request of 'The Deadman'.

Out of juice as a heel, Heidenreich turned face and ultimately wound up as a Hawk replacement in a woeful 2005 reboot of the Legion of Doom. When that stint predictably cooled, he was released, and has later admitted suffering from severe depression as a result of his WWE tenure.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett