10 WWE Superstars who couldn't live up to the hype

#5 Vladimir Kozlov

Vladimir Kozlov before his descent down the roster

Another man that tried to fill those big shoes on SmackDown during the 2000s was Vladimir Kozlov. The Ukrainian star was brought in as a seemingly unbeatable entity and actually went almost a whole year without losing in one-on-one competition.

Like Heidenreich, Kozlov was being touted to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania. His first singles loss came in March of 2009 on Raw when he was beaten by Shawn Michaels. The winner of the match earned the right to go on and face The Phenom at The Showcase of the Immortals.

After that, Vladimir's WWE career began to unravel. Kozlov was drafted to WWE's unsuccessful ECW brand and eventually was reduced to a comedy act alongside Santino Marella.