Shelton Benjamin

[Lord of The Curry 0]

If anybody else can think of a worker whom has suffered the "Dropped the ball/buried to shit" combo worse then Shelton, have at it.

 

And this is coming from the same poster who bitched about the misuse of Benoit during his title reign in 2004.

[Carnival 0]

I vote Jericho....by far!

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I would say that he is there behind Regal and Rosie.

 

Regal especially. The dude can cut an awesome promo, has awesome facial expressions, and is awesome in the ring. When the Eugene angle was going strong, they could have used it to really elevate Regal, instead they used it to elevate HHH and cut Regal off at the knees.

 

Rosie is like Regal, cept more misused, and less impressive in the ring. But he makes up for that in size and agility. I am convinced the dude could be one of their best promos, he is one of their best actors, and has a certain degree of charisma that goes completely untapped.

Edited December 18, 2005 by RavishingRickRudo

[Guest Coffey]

Val Venis.

[Carnival 0]

Of the decade....seriously....nobody got fucked more than Jericho.

[2GOLD 0]

Shelton is just the wrong color for the WWE so of course he was going to get buried. Jericho wins the buried wrestler of the decade award.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Jericho had his own interview segments, tons of mic time and segments, his own high-profile feuds, long matches against a variety of opponents. Yes, he could have been more than what he was, but the dude was never pissed on by the big show or had to kiss Vince McMahons ass on live tv. I think some perspective is needed, not just a knee jerk reaction. Jericho is in the top 10 of misused wrestlers, but I don't think he ranks in the top 5 given the gap between talent/ability/potential and use in and by the WWE.

 

I will also say Funaki has been misused greatly. They have pushed him twice, one with Kaientai and the INDEED gimmick, and one as Smackdowns Numbah One Announcah. He got over in BOTH. Yet they used him as a jobber.

[2GOLD 0]

Funaki is asian. Asians can't talk.

Most of these can be answered in WWE logic. I see what you are saying about Jericho but damn, I've never seen a guy have so much and mean so damn little.

[Failed Bridge 0]

Chris Kanyon

[Silence 0]

When's the last time Stevie Richards won a match in his career?

[The Mandarin 0]

Even if you're not high on Christian there is no denying he was over (circa March to May or June of this year) and could have gotten even more over with a program, a face turn and more interview segments (and less of his sometimes plodding wrestling). Instead he got shabby treatment and buried in his hometown. I'll give him the nod mainly because I'm a biased fan.

 

William Regal is fantastic and was very popular in August of 2004 despite not wrestling much at that point. Yet once again, WWE missed the boat on a feud with Triple H (Triple H beating him with a sledgehammer and overturning the stretcher carting him off was some of the finest HHH work I've seen in years). He was also buried in his hometown frequently (couldn't beat La Resistance, lost to Daivari and Hassan in a non-title match) and was basically given no consideration. Just really sad. He's a bit older than Christian though so even if they did push him to the moon, he wouldn't be on top for as long as Christian could.

 

Shelton Benjamin had a number of good to great matches but I never thought of him as the second coming or anything. Usually, his Heat and Raw matches were just as bad as anyone else's. Unlike Regal or Christian, he cuts bad promos and that's his main downside and is one of the only things I can see the bookers defending their decisions with.

[Epic Reine 0]

Top ten misued wrestlersof the decade:

 

1.Shelton Benjamin

2. Chris Jericho

3. Taz

4. Raven

5. Funaki

6. Tajiri

7. Kanyon

8. Booker T

9. Val Venis

10. Stevie Richards

[SuperJerk 0]

Are we talking in the last ten years (1995-2005), or are we talking this actual decade (2000-present)?

[Papacita 0]

He's not by any means the most misused, but I think they really missed the boat on Tajiri. I dunno if anyone else agrees with me here, but the other day I was thinking about the time he blinded Nidia with the black mist, and how dangerous that made him look. I think he could've had a pretty good run off of that.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

From 2000-on, me thinks.

 

1. Regal

2. Rosie

3. Benjamin

4. Venis - Above average wrestler, above average mic skills, can make just about anyone look good in the ring, but is completely limited by being Val Venis.

5. Kurt Angle - This isn't in regards to pushes, because he has gotten a ton of them. The misuse here comes in the form of saddling someone with his athletic ability with a geek gimmick, one that he hasn't been able to shake.

6. Chris Jericho

7. Ultimo Dragon - They didn't even try here.

8. Funaki

9. Chris Benoit - I think, in terms of story, they dropped the ball so much with him and had him turn and switch brands so many times and move up and down the card and came SO CLOSE to doing something right with him but never took that extra-step.

10. Rey Mysterio - the guy is so over, has so many marketable things about him, and can wrestle just about anyone to a good match, the dude deserves a run with the title. That he hasn't gotten it despite all of the above is gross misuse.

 

Honourable Mentions: Lance Storm, Tajiri, Jamie Knoble, The Hurricane, Goldberg.

Edited December 18, 2005 by RavishingRickRudo

[4hartthreat 0]

I'm going to go with DDP. The man was a legit star when he was in wcw, and worked harder in the ring than just about anyone. He was brought in with a big angle as the stakler of Taker's wife. He then was jobbed out match after match to Taker where he literally got NO offense, then finished it up with a pinfall loss to Mrs. Taker. If used properly I think he could have been a star in wwe as well. Just another example of Vince's disgusting need to destroy anything wcw.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Rob Van Dam

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

The bWo (with Stevie) won a match on Velocity right before the Great American Bash, to answer someone's question.

 

DDP? Are you kidding me?

 

I disagree. Page constantly worked the same match, but did it well, and had a very over finisher that kept crowds hot and liking him. Page's heel run as a top star towards the end of WCW proved just that - without a hot crowd behind him, he was average-good in the ring and not a top caliber worker.

 

He had a history of backstage politics, either getting pushes because of his neighbor or interjecting himself into hot feuds like Raven/Benoit and having himself emerge the star. Plus Page's poor-to-annoying catchphrases and interviews made him look not like a big level star, IMO.

 

Last Page match I liked was Christian/Page from WM X-8. Go back and look at it. It's Page doing basic maneuevers, playing to the crowd, hitting a few neat look (although kinda contrived) spots, keeping the crowd hot, and winning a good, solid match that wasn't spectacular.

 

I agree, Vince booked Page very poorly. But that may have been out of disrespect to Page's backstage bullshit as much as it was to wreck a WCW star.

 

I will say this. Back in '98, Benoit got rave reviews for his series of matches with both DDP and Booker T. The original Booker/Benoit "Best of 7" is remembered as being "amazing". I have 5 of the 8 matches they had and I am not that impressed in 2005. Particularly, I find the 8th match from Bash 98 (Benoit DVD) to be really mediocre. Looking back at SuperBrawl 8, I found DDP/Benoit to be better, and their Thunder match (albeit short) was really solid too.

 

Benoit and Page had pretty good chemistry. But Page went as far as he could go. He got the World Title reign, and no one took him seriously. Because he was only good at best.

Edited December 18, 2005 by UseTheSledgehammerUh

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Aw crap. I totally forgot about RVD.

[Carnival 0]

WOW, people are blowing this latest misuse of Shelton way way WAY out of proportion.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Shelton's not being criminally misused yet, because he's not that over. With RVD, Jericho, Benoit, lots of people were clamoring for their turns in the spotlight. With Shelton, it's just "he's good, yeah."

[The Czech Republic 0]

DDP? Are you kidding me?

 

I disagree. Page constantly worked the same match, but did it well, and had a very over finisher that kept crowds hot and liking him. Page's heel run as a top star towards the end of WCW proved just that - without a hot crowd behind him, he was average-good in the ring and not a top caliber worker.

 

He had a history of backstage politics, either getting pushes because of his neighbor or interjecting himself into hot feuds like Raven/Benoit and having himself emerge the star. Plus Page's poor-to-annoying catchphrases and interviews made him look not like a big level star, IMO.

 

Benoit and Page had pretty good chemistry. But Page went as far as he could go. He got the World Title reign, and no one took him seriously. Because he was only good at best.

I'll forgive the backstage politics, because that was par for the course in late 90s WCW. You've got Hogan and Nash doing the same thing. He had to. He wasn't amazing in the ring, but he worked so hard to get to just being average, that you gotta give him a hand. Some people can't improvise a 20-minute match. Oh well. He entertained me. I especially liked how he could hit the Diamond Cutter from any position. That was good booking, made for exciting finishes.

 

Somehow, I could never buy the slimy cocky Jersey dude as a heel. How odd. I remember there was a good stretch of time when Dallas Page was just the hottest thing going on the non-NWO side.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

They are making Shelton an idiot. This is his gimmick. He's retarded. Shelton has the most physical potential out of anyone in the WWE since Brock Lesnar and they have him constantly losing. This is the exact opposite of what they did with Lesnar, and it boggles the mind, because what they did with Lesnar worked, and what they're doing with Shelton never does.

[Sideburnious 0]

RVD

 

 

And i still feel they could have used Mike Awesome alot better than they did.

[The Czech Republic 0]

They are making Shelton an idiot. This is his gimmick. He's retarded.

Are you serious?

 

And yeah, losing streak gimmicks never work. Why would they? Honestly.

 

they could have used Mike Awesome alot better than they did

Not really. He's exposed like a dick in the wind when he isn't beating up on ECW guys. This isn't some "ha ha, ECW sucks, WWE style uber alles!" post. I think some guys, like Benoit, have the skill and the will to drag the match they want to have out of their opponent. Awesome is a good wrestler, but tends to be limited by who he's working with. If he's in there with guys who can fly, wrestle, and bump like mad, Awesome looks good. If he's in there with a slob, he sinks to the slob's level. I watched Velocity a lot at the time.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

And yeah, losing streak gimmicks never work. Why would they? Honestly.

 

Well, I think the theory is that, when the guy on the losing streak finally gets a win, it'll be a mark-out moment.

 

Like, for me, it was when Barry Horowitz beat Skip in 95.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Benjamin has taken over the "Chris Benoit- Village Idiot" gimmick that Benoit initially got saddled with during his second jump to RAW.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Shelton is doing things which defy logic, common sense, and better judgement.

[NYU 0]

Rob Van Dam has undoubtedly been used the worst by WWE in the past decade.

 

Chris Jericho gets honorable mention.

 

Shelton Benjamin hasn't been in wrestling long enough yet to call him the most misused wrestler of the decade. He's simply had a poor last 6 months.

[chaosrage 0]

RVD. Regardless of whether or not you think he's a good wrestler, in terms of how over he was, how over he could have been, and potential squandered, there's no comparison.

 

Jericho is probably a far away second. Followed by Christian.