25 Biggest WWE Epic Failures Of 2016
11. Darren Young With Bob Backlund
How can someone be made great again if they were never all that great to begin with?
In all seriousness, Darren Young is a competent performer and deserved better than undercard status when he and Titus O'Neil went their separate ways late last year. Thus, the vignettes that began airing in the spring hyping up the returning Bob Backlund as Young's life coach actually appeared to be promising.
After all, Young revealed during an episode of Talk is Jericho one year earlier that he had pitched Backlund as his manager back then, so although it took some time, he finally got his wish. The Young and Backlund vignettes were drawn out longer than they should have been, but he made an immediate impact upon his return by becoming the No. 1 contender to the Intercontinental Championship at Battleground.
Young then followed up that shocking victory by cutting the best promo of his career on SmackDown that same week. As fans gradually began to rally behind him and Backlund, it looked like WWE was on the verge of creating a new star in Young, but an atrociously executed finish during his match with The Miz ruined whatever momentum that had going.
Shortly thereafter, Young entered an awful program with O'Neil and it was all downhill from there.