10 wrestlers that should never have been in the WWE

Though World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is arguably in a lull at the moment, there are still some of the world’s best wrestlers gracing Raw or Smackdown each week and these stars continue to thrill the crowd at live events or on the TV.The attitude era is known by many a WWE fan to have been the pinnacle period in wrestling’s history and we enjoyed the antics of wrestler such as The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels and Triple H. However there have been some awful wrestlers that have graced the big stage since that we hope to never see again.The Sports Lowdown takes a look at some of the worst wrestlers to grace the stage since the attitude era and we count down from 10-to-1. Do you agree with our choices? Please let us know by dropping a comment in the comments section.

#1 Simon Dean

Simon Dean was a condescending fitness expert

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The self-confessed fitness guru arrived in the WWE in 2004 pushing his ‘Simon System’ a diet and exercise programme that could help wrestler’s struggling with their weight or who needed toning up to compete in the ring. In essence the gimmick could have worked but unfortunately for the WWE, Mike Bucci who portrayed the character was limited in his skill-set whether that be as a wrestler or on the microphone.

Bucci had actually been a highly successful wrestler in the original ECW and had come to the WWE with high hopes of forging a decent career. As well as his limited skill-set however, he also had another problem, his size! Everyone by now is well aware that Vince McMahon likes his tall and muscular wrestlers but at just 5ft 10in and weighing just over 200lbs he was never going to fit into the WWE.

He retired from wrestling in 2006 and took over the development programme in the WWE until 2007 when he left the company. Since then he has made brief appearances on the independent circuit but no longer is a full-time wrestler.

#2 Lance Storm

Storm had a heel gimmick of being ‘un-american’

The Canadian technician was indeed a very good wrestler. He had a move set that was impressive and could be involved in some high-flying action. Coming into the business, he was a training partner of Chris Jericho but unfortunately for Storm, he did not possess the same skills on the microphone as Y2J.

Having been apart of both ECW and WCW before he entered the WWE, he was again fairly small for a wrestler that harboured hopes of making it to the top of the profession and he could wrestle, however he was just plain boring and suffered for his lack of skills when speaking to the wrestling fans.

He joined WWE after his contract was purchased in the takeover from WCW and he was used in the battle with the Alliance before switching sides and joining ECW, who then merged with WCW. Confused? Yeah me too!

After the angle ended abruptly he became part of the Un-Americans where again he was outshone by Christian, William Regal and even Test! His career was probably best summed by his brief feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, who began to shout ‘Boring’ during his matches. The problem with the angle was, Stone Cold was right, he was boring!

After milling around in the undercard, Storm did the WWE fans a favour and moved on. He became useful in the business upon his semi-retirement teaching the wrestling game to various students and we can safely say that his skills in the ring were pretty decent, it was just his lack of charisma that seemed to harm his WWE career.

#3 Rene Dupree

Rene Dupree was highly thought of in the WWE when he first began to make a name for himself as part of the French team La Resistance with Sylvan Grenier and Rob Conway. The group became heels but still struggled to get over with the crowd and Dupree was arguably the worst of the trio.

Dupree had been training for a career in the ring since an early age and actually entered the WWE as a teenager. As a French-Canadian it was hoped the team would be able to pick-up on the anti-American feeling and it worked to a certain extent but nowhere near the success the Hart Foundation had in the late 1990s.

Still only 31 years of age today and still competing on the independent scene, there could be a time when Dupree and the WWE cross paths again. However he will need to worked hard on both his wrestling skills and his work on the microphone if he has any chance to succeed. The one thing he has going for him however is that he is the type of wrestler that Vince McMahon loves to hire though his performance in his first stint for the WWE could see him forever black-listed by the company.

#4 David Hart Smith

The British Bulldog’s son could have been a superstar. In-fact he may still become a superstar but he needs to work incredibly hard to forge a career after being out-dueled by Tyson Kidd of all people when he was part of the New Hart Dynasty.

Smith was just like his dad, Davey Boy. Big, muscly and the type of guy again that Vince McMahon would love and want to succeed. His problem was that he always looked so stiff and his attempts to use the microphone were at best woeful. He also couldn’t keep himself clean and fell foul of the WWE Wellness policy that led him to miss time on the active roster.

Today DH Smith performs under the rink moniker Davey Boy Smith Jr as a tribute to his dad and has performed for some of the biggest independent companies in the business. He has recently joined the Jeff Jarrett owned company Global Force Wrestling which could propel him back into the big time. However if he is ever to make a return to the WWE, we want to see a complete turnaround in character if he is to succeed.

#5 Ezekiel Jackson

Ezekiel Jackson had the perfect physique

If ever there was a prototype for how Vince McMahon wanted a wrestler to look then Ezekiel Jackson was that man. Whilst not the tallest man in the business, he worked hard on his physique and was billed as over 300lbs of pure muscle.

His WWE career in our opinion was doomed from the start. Coming into the main arena as a bodyguard for The Brian Kendrick, couldn’t have been any worse for Jackson. It arguably showed his lack of skill on the microphone that would harm his WWE career throughout.

Eventually he was split from Kendrick after being drafted to ECW and he disappeared for a while to continue honing his skills in the ring and on the ‘mike. He returned to the ECW brand later in 2009 and would go onto becomining their last ever World Champion when he defeated Christian for the title in 2010.

Unfortunately for Jackson, this was to be the pinnacle of his WWE career and though he had a brief run with the Intercontinental title, he began to fade from the scene. Injuries too became a problem for Jackson and he was eventually released from his contract and now performs on the independent scene.

#6 Vladimir Kozlov

Another of the Vince McMahon prototype for a wrestler and it is starting to become a bit of a theme here. The Russian began his stint in the WWE as a heel, playing on the anti-American feeling type storyline and for a while it worked.

As he could speak no English his skills on the microphone were non-existent and he did manage to generate sufficient heat and he could pull a mean face that got the crowd worked up. However his skills as a wrestler where of the limited standard and once that heel status began to wear off, it was only a matter of time before the Russian was jettisoned by the WWE.

Despite winning a WWE Slammy award for being the ‘Breakout Star’ of 2008, the only other title he would win was a Tag Team Championship stint with Santino Marella, which by then was seen as more of a joke partnership and proved he had thoroughly fallen down the pecking order. His time in the company therefore did not last much longer and by 2011 he was released from his contract and isn’t likely to be seen again on WWE TV.

Kozlov now works for the IGF out in Japan, where he has been since 2011 and it is a federation that cerainly sits his style as a mat technician.

#7 Orlando Jordan

Where do we begin with the weird career of Orlando Jordan?

Well it all started so well for the New Jersey born Jordan after he was thrust into the limelight when he joined one of the most influential members of the WWE locker room, JBL’s cabinet as the ‘Chief of Staff’ turning himself heel after first feuding with John Cena in his early WWE career.

Under JBL’s guidance, Jordan played a huge part in the WWE landscape acting as JBL’s trusted second in command and helped the WWE Champion hold onto his belt on numerous occasions, interfering on his behalf. He also won the US Championship, meaning that the cabinet was in a pretty high point around 2005.

However it could never last, and though Jordan was OK on the microphone and in the ring, his behaviour outside was bizarre to say the least and he did not last much longer in the WWE, moving on first to the independent scene before showing up in TNA for another bizarre stint in the company.

Now he resides in Australia with his wife and runs a wrestling school and at the age of 41 it is unlikely that we will see Jordan in a WWE ring again.

#8 Chris Masters

The Masterlock. Nothing more than a glorified full nelson, a wrestling move that has not been seen for decades and yet Chris Masters used it to quite some effect in his early WWE career, claiming it was unbreakable and challenging all comers to break it.

It also propelled him to an upper mid-card status in the WWE, where he would take part in various main events on pay-per-views including the Elimination Chamber and arguably one of the greatest Survivor Series matches in years in the 2005 in the Raw vs Smackdown event.

The Masterlock took over two years to be broken as Bobby Lashley ended the contest and likely Chris Masters WWE career. However it was always likely to go down the pan, as his skills in the ring were poor and on the microphone it didn’t get much better.

He was eventually put out of his misery in 2007 after failing the strict Wellness programme within the company, though he was afforded a second chance in 2009 with the WWE before once again being released in 2011. Since then he has shifted around the independent scene and is now looking to make a name for himself in Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling. At the age of 32 there is still time for Masters to re-ignite his career but fans won’t be rushing to see him back in the WWE anytime soon.

#9 Bobby Lashley

This was a close call as to whether Lashley was going to be number one on the list but he enter’s at number two and was perhaps ‘The’ prototype of what Vince McMahon liked about his wrestlers. He was tall, athletic and a muscle bound warrior with a big future ahead of him……..

His early WWE career was steeped in success and it was hard not to see why. Though his skills on the microphone were particularly poor, that same could not be said of his technical wrestling skills. He was master in the ring, but it was also very safe and very boring. His matches could be described as repetitive and along with his attitude it was always going to be his downfall.

Though he was picked to be Donald Trump’s participant in the hair vs hair match match that saw Vince McMahon lose his signature locks at Wrestlemania 23, it proved to be perhaps his most significant moment within the company despite winning the ECW title.

He was eventually released by the WWE in 2008 and since then has burnt his bridges within the company. He has had numerous stints on the independent scene and also in TNA where he finds himself still today. He has also dabbled in a bit of MMA and also married and then split with former WWE diva Kristal Marshall. He is not likely to make a return to the WWE in the future with both attitude and age working against Lashley.

#10 Ted Dibiase Jr.

Our number one here at The Sports Lowdown is Ted DiBiase Jr and what a star this man could have been if only he had taken some of the skills his old man Ted DiBiase had in the ring and on the microphone. As the son of the Million Dollar Man, WWE fans could have expected their to have been some kind of skills passed down but that was not to be.

It wasn’t like he was not given chances either as he formed a stable with leader Randy Orton as well as Cody Rhodes to form the ‘Legacy’ where they proved to be a formidable team helping Orton to push his stock further within the company. It was expected that Rhodes would be the weak link but they didn’t account for DiBiase Jr’s lack of mike skills and he soon found himself battling for any kind of attention within the group.

The WWE were obviously pretty high on the youngster and thought he would be with the company for a long time as they gave him the starring role in one of the WWE’s films, The Marine 2, the follow up to the John Cena film.

However this was to be the pinnacle of his WWE career so far as he began to fall into the lower card status. Even the re-introduction of the Million Dollar Championship fell flat on its face and DiBiase Jr was out of the WWE by 2013.

However he is still fairly young at just 32 years of age and he left the WWE on good terms and who knows if we will see the third-generation wrestler in the company again. For most fans they will not relish a DiBiaise Jr return but their are perhaps a few that will still hope that one day we will see him on a WWE TV again.

This has been contributed by a member of the SK Featured Bloggers Club. It was originally published on 'The Sports Lowdown' here.

Edited by Staff Editor