20 Most Underappreciated WWE Stars Of The 21st Century
14. Jimmy Wang Yang
WWE misses the boat on talented stars all the time, but failing to properly use the same wrestler in three different attempts is surprising, even for them.
James Yun was competing as Yun-Yang in WCW when the company was purchased by WWE. Not even 20 years old, Yang had proven his talent in WCW during a stable feud between The Jung Dragons and Three Count. WWE decided not to use him during the Invasion, sending him to development and releasing him in early 2002.
Yun was rehired in 2003 and given the gimmick of "Akio," a villainous associate of Tajiri with Yakuza undertones (despite the fact that Yun is Korean-American). He dazzled fans of Velocity with his series of matches against Paul London, but in 2005, he was fired again.
Finally, in 2006, he was hired one last time as "Jimmy Wang Yang," a redneck from Georgia. This character mostly served as an outlet for color commentator JBL to make racist jokes about how Yang "couldn't possibly be a redneck," and he quickly fell to the undercard before being released in 2010.
Three times, WWE botched handling a star with talent and youth on his side, and Yun ended up retiring from wrestling soon afterwards.