Pure jobbers who became main eventers

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Bossman main evented in 88/89 vs Hogan/Savage around the horn. He started in the NWA as Ray Traylor (or whatever generic name) and was a pure job guy.

 

Mick Foley main evented in WCW in 92/93, then in the WWF from 97-01. He worked as a jobber in 86.

 

 

On the flip side

 

Iron Mike Sharpe was getting shots at Backlund (at least a 1983 PWI tells me) and went on to be "the world's loudest jobber" in the late 80's and early 90's

 

Dick Slater main evented in the NWA in the 70's and early 80's, but by the end of his WWF run he was being beaten in 2 min squashes, but he qualifies more as a competitive low card guy more than a jobber.

 

Bill Irwin was in a top tag team for nearly a decade (if not longer) in the late 70's til mid 80's. He ended up losing as a nobody on WWF Superstars in 94iah (Mr Perfect hinted to his past on commentary but that was all)

 

Jim Brunzell was a headlinerin the AWA vs Bockwinkel for the AWA World title, and later spent his days jobbing on RAW in 93. (He lost on RAW in a squash the same month as he appeared as a "legend" on a WCW PPV - May 93)

 

 

Other canidates : Buddy Rose (again a competitive undercard guy)

--

I'll add more as they come to me

[nl5xsk1 0]

I thought Ray Traylor started out as Big Bubba Rogers, body guard for Cornette & the Midnite X-Press ... am I mistaken? He lost a lot, but most heels lost in those days, or just cheated to win. And he feuded with people like Dusty or Ronnie Garvin, so he was losing to Main Eventers. If I'm wrong about him debuting as Big Bubba, disregard this whole post.

 

And I think most 'jobbers' in the mid-1980s WWF were former main eventers. Sal Bellomo, Pedro Morales, Jay Strongbow, etc, were all washed-up former stars that still had name reognition, even though they were full-on jobbers.

 

I have a good one: Leon "Baby Bull" White (AWA jobber that got massacred by Stan Hansen) becoming Big Van Vader.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Shawn Michaels - jobber as part of the Rockers

 

Kane - jobber most of his career until he became the Big Red Machine

 

John Cena - never thought the vanilla rookie in blue trunks would one day be WWE Champion

 

How about Christian?

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Pedro, Chief Jay etc were all still regarded as competitive low card guys.

 

Brunzell, Irwin etc were doing 2 min TV matches with no fan fare.

 

 

Big Bubba was a job guy before he was Big Bubba - Wrestling Classics can confirm this

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Deon - none of those guys were ever presented as jobbers.

 

Cena went the distance with Angle in his 1st WWF match.

 

Shawn Micheals was pushed as a single in Texas as far back as 82-83, as the young talented heart throb.

 

Glen Jacobs did a lot of jobs as his various gimmicks but was never tossed out there and given no pub what so ever. He was big, and big guys are WWF's favorite.

 

If we start listing guys who were just low mid card guys, then the whole ECW main event scene minus RVD would be on the list.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Bob Backlund went from main eventer to low mid-carder back to main eventer in seeing his career come full circle.

 

Shane Douglas worked a couple job matches in 1986 as Troy Martin. He was destroyed by Paul Orndorff.

[iliketurtles 0]

Hardy Boys went from jobbers to one of the best tag teams of the Attitude era.

[nl5xsk1 0]

And Matt Hardy's back to being about as close to a jobber as the WWE has these days.

[Guest jm29195]

John Cena - never thought the vanilla rookie in blue trunks would one day be WWE Champion

 

 

And that debut match he had against Angle is much better than anything he's done in the last year or so.....

[Papacita 0]

Wasn't Eddie Guerrero presentend as a jobber against Terry Funk back in 89?

[Just John 0]

Bobby Eaton went from being part of one of the best tag teams of the 80's to jobbing on Saturday Night in 97-98.

 

HHH was very low card guy in WCW too. I'm not sure if he was a complete jobber, though.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Hardy Boys went from jobbers to one of the best tag teams of the Attitude era.

 

Anyone else remember an episode of Shotgun in Novemberish 97, where they were still fall guys, but had a hell of a match against, brace yourself, the Truth Commision? There was even a Hardy chant, and they were full-fledged jobbers at this point.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

First time I saw Randy Orton live, he jobbed clean to Tommy Dreamer in two minutes.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

If you dig deep enough I think you will find that most stars of the 80s and 90s got their starts in the territories doing jobs while they learned the ropes.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Everyone minus a few of you have failed to grasp the concept I'm aiming for.

 

Jobber = on TV gets next to zero offense, loses with little to no fan fare

 

 

Bob Backlund does not equal Tom Stone. Sorry try again.

 

The hardy Boys, Shane Douglas and Eddy Gurrero are prime examples of what I'm gunning for.

 

Again not lower mid card guys. JOB -BERS. Sorry if I come across crass.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Ken Kennedy did jobs in recent years for Velocity/Heat. He was on the cusp of main eventing on SD! pre injury. He would be an example of a pure jobber becoming a main eventer.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

Ken Kennedy did jobs in recent years for Velocity/Heat. He was on the cusp of main eventing on SD! pre injury. He would be an example of a pure jobber becoming a main eventer.

 

Although he was a high midcarder at best, I have some tapes from mid-90s WWF where Chris Kanyon was getting a beating from superstars... sorry, best I could do...

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"Wildfire" Tommy Rich

 

From NWA Champion to NWA Loser, including being the "weakest member" of the York Foundation. First man into ring #2 at Battlebowl 91. God he sucked.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbc...ic;f=1;t=063897

[razazteca 0]

^^^ from that thread

OMG

[Guest CookieMueller]

Didn't Ken Shamrock do a series of jobs in the early 90s?

 

That stable of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Dallas Page were perennial jobbers to the faces for a while in the early 90s WCW. They had full gimmicks and a win here or there, but I can't even recall title shots or significant wins from any of the three until Hall and Nash went to WWF.

 

Especially Nash, you can't deny the lengths he went from being Oz and Vinnie Vegas, occasionally picking up the odd win, to becoming the WWF champ just a few years later.

[cawthon777 0]

If you dig deep enough I think you will find that most stars of the 80s and 90s got their starts in the territories doing jobs while they learned the ropes.

 

Agreed. You're not going to break into the business and win matches right from the get-go. Everyone save Zeus, Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, Jay Leno, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman were jobbers at some point.

[Just John 0]

If you dig deep enough I think you will find that most stars of the 80s and 90s got their starts in the territories doing jobs while they learned the ropes.

 

Agreed. You're not going to break into the business and win matches right from the get-go. Everyone save Zeus, Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, Jay Leno, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman were jobbers at some point.

 

Hey, those guys clearly paid their dues... They each jobbed in their first match.

[Guest cacheton]

Justin Credible should count. He was PJ Walker jobbing in the WWF in 93-94, except for that win over IRS.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

How about The 1-2-3 Kid? A flat out jobber, but got to main event that one time against Bret Hart as well as a couple of RAW and SD episodes.

[Darth Vader 0]

If you dig deep enough I think you will find that most stars of the 80s and 90s got their starts in the territories doing jobs while they learned the ropes.

 

Agreed. You're not going to break into the business and win matches right from the get-go. Everyone save Zeus, Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, Jay Leno, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman were jobbers at some point.

 

Hey, those guys clearly paid their dues... They each jobbed in their first match.

 

Wasn't Hogan squashing guys in handicap matches shortly after his debut? And WCW picked Goldberg up off the street and turned him into an instant ME, he didn't do any jobs. Except for Piper 6 months before his "official" debut.

 

I think Greg Valentine can be called a one time true main eventer that went on to be a jobber.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

That wasn't Goldburg in Piper's skit. It was supposedly Luther Rheins

[cawthon777 0]

If you dig deep enough I think you will find that most stars of the 80s and 90s got their starts in the territories doing jobs while they learned the ropes.

 

Agreed. You're not going to break into the business and win matches right from the get-go. Everyone save Zeus, Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, Jay Leno, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman were jobbers at some point.

 

Hey, those guys clearly paid their dues... They each jobbed in their first match.

 

Wasn't Hogan squashing guys in handicap matches shortly after his debut? And WCW picked Goldberg up off the street and turned him into an instant ME, he didn't do any jobs. Except for Piper 6 months before his "official" debut.

 

I think Greg Valentine can be called a one time true main eventer that went on to be a jobber.

 

As far as Hogan, I think you're just focusing on his WWF run. Here's a look at how he was doing prior to then (it's clear he was being protected due to his size): http://www.freewebs.com/hoganresults/19771983results.htm

 

Goldberg did work dark matches prior to his TV debut. I'd be willing to bet his winning percentage wasn't 100% at that point.

[Darth Vader 0]

Even when he was in NWA Southern it looks like he was never a jobber. I'd like to know what his CWF record was though that'd be interesting.

[Si82 0]

That wasn't Goldburg in Piper's skit. It was supposedly Luther Rheins

I watched the on YouTube recently and it certainly looked like Luther Reigns.