7 Times WWE Blew It With Jack Swagger
4. His Face Turn
Though his face turn came more through the vigour of an effective heel, Swagger back-doored his way into a golden opportunity when a feud with Rusev allowed his United States rhetoric to be a force for good.
Challenging the 'Bulgarian Brute' in June 2014 for his fiercely anti-American stance, Swagger and Zeb Colter presented one of the first real challenges for both Rusev and Lana as they physically and verbally tore through the WWE midcard.
Necessitated by a long undefeated streak the company was establishing for Rusev, Swagger wound up tasting losing to Rusev on pay-per-view at Battleground and SummerSlam that year, however during that time, he provided the substantial threat to Ru-Ru's reign of terror.
Losing via countout and pass-out respectively, Swagger was kept strong, and had even had Rusev on the verge of submitting through his re-invigorated 'Patriot Lock' ankle submission.
The two would battle on and off for the remainder of the year, with Swagger even pick up a disqualification victory over Rusev on television.
The momentum was again short-lived. Transferring Rusev elsewhere, Swagger was left to flounder, and by the time the two had a significant payoff at December's TLC pay-per-view, the result was academic thanks again to Jack's reduced status.