20 Most Underrated WWE Stars Of The Past 20 Years
7. Jamie Noble
Last seen as one half of J&J Security along with Joey Mercury, James ‘Jamie Noble’ Gibson was a hell of a hand.
Those of you whose memories stretch back the dozen or so years to when he first competed in a WWE ring may remember Jamie Noble as a sleazy little bag of white trash who was involved in some off-colour angles with female talent like Torrie Wilson and Nidia, and who held the cruiserweight title for half of 2002.
By then he was a seven year veteran, originally trained by technical maestro Dean Malenko. Noble had already been a part of WCW’s own cruiserweight scene, and was signed to the WWE following the collapse and sale of their ailing competition in spring 2001.
Noble wasn’t just smooth, athletic, technically flawless and utterly fearless bell to bell; his promo and character work were also far above the average. Smart and perceptive, he encouraged promoters to take advantage of his southern accent and stereotype him as a dumb, lusty redneck because he knew that he’d get more mic time allocated to him - and that meant a better chance to connect and get over.
In post Attitude Era WWF/E, the ‘land of the giants’ mentality was beginning to reassert itself, and it wasn’t like he could grow five inches taller overnight. Nonetheless, Noble excelled in the role that the company gave him. He left under a small cloud in 2004 and went to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he tagged with a young wrestler calling himself the American Dragon. Ring Of Honor was next: Noble would defeat Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and CM Punk (who rates him as one of his favourite opponents) to win the ROH world title.
He rejoined WWE in late 2005, but despite some fun undercard angles never moved any further up the pyramid. The company were perfectly willing to exploit his hilarious facial expressions, comic talent and promo ability for comedy segments and family-friendly nonsense.
However, they rarely took his finely honed wrestling talent seriously until he was invalided out of the ring in his early thirties in 2009. He’s since become an important fixture backstage as a producer: still a credit to his profession.