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Chris Masters was once pegged as a future main-eventer in WWE. He had the look that Vince desired, had a perfect and classic wrestling gimmick, and was getting over bit by bit with the audience.
Yet all of a sudden, he disappeared from in WWE in 2007. Why did this happen?
Initial run
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Masters made a significant impact upon his main roster debut. Multiple vignettes aired in the weeks leading up to his in-ring debut describing how he had the perfect body and that he was, indeed, a masterpiece. In his first-ever match on RAW, he gained some degree of notoriety for breaking Stevie Richards’ nose with a Polish Hammer.
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Soon afterwards, Masters began being pushed as having an unbreakable version of the Full Nelson submission hold, which he dubbed ‘the Master Lock’. For weeks on end, Masters would put his fellow wrestlers, former superstars, and plants in the crowd, into this submission hold, only for all of them to either submit to it or pass out from the pain. As time went on, the Master Lock developed a reputation as a powerful hold, which only elevated Masters’ aura even more.
Masters’ push continued, as he continued to rack up win after win, with very few losses overall. However, by mid-2006, there were already signs of trouble in Masters’ life. Despite some high-profile feuds and matches with the likes of John Cena, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels, Masters’ stock began to drop due to a series of substance problems that eventually led to his release.
Departure
Chris Masters didn’t leave WWE of his own volition in 2007; he was released on November 8th, 2007. At the time, he was six days into a 60-day suspension for having violated WWE’s Wellness Policy for a second time, having already been suspended for 30 days previously.
However, this wasn’t necessarily a surprise to many people. Masters was reported to have developed an addiction to painkillers very early into his career, and had to leave WWE for several months while trying to kick said addiction. As you can imagine, WWE’s bookers mustn’t’ve been please when someone they were trying to push had to leave for rehab due to that person’s own personal demons clouding their judgment.
Masters had suffered his first Wellness Policy Violation in the summer of 2007, and was suspended for 30 days, Keep in mind that the summer of 2007 was a very dark time for WWE, as they and the rest of the world were still struggling with the reality of the Chris Benoit murder/suicide situation. Wrestling had once again become an ugly word, and there was considerable heat on WWE once again for a wrestler dying while under their employment.
But this was far more than that: Benoit also killed his wife and son in a gruesome crime that was made worse by the autopsy done on his brain afterwards. When the extent of the damage to Benoit’s brain was made public, it really made the company look like monsters for the damage they put their wrestlers through.
As a result, there is the possibility that Masters’ release was a form of damage control. WWE didn’t want even more criticism towards them in the wake of the Benoit tragedy, so it’s likely that some company higher-up thought that Masters being suspended twice for wellness Policy violations in such short order was a bad sign.
Return and second departure
After a two-year absence, Masters returned to WWE in 2009, with more or less the same gimmick, entrance and persona. Despite still having the same chiseled physique in general, his look wasn’t as dramatic or large as it was during his first run. This led to some speculation that he was getting skinnier, and it even prompted a joke from Triple H on the subject.
In a form of twisted irony, that ‘joke’ ended up being the perfect description for Masters’ overall direction in WWE during that second run, as it started to be treated more as a lower-card comedy character than as a serious act. It was rumored that this jobber-like creative direction was also done as a means to distract viewers from Masters’ previous Wellness Policy violations.
In this role, Masters was used sparingly, wrestling mostly in lower-card feuds on SmackDown and on Superstars. He would remain on the lower-end of the card before being released in August 2011.
The future
At 34 years old, the future is uncertain for Masters. On one hand, there is always the remote possibility that he could return to WWE, albeit for a short program. With two suspensions under his belt already, he’d be hard-pressed to find himself in a major push on either program, especially with WWE’s roster of active wrestlers being overcrowded already.
On the other hand, the independent wrestling scene appears to be growing in the United States, and more wrestlers are becoming able to make a comfortable living outside of WWE, as seen by Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks.
If these two acts become the rule as opposed to the exception, then perhaps Masters would be better off in smaller promotions, where he wouldn’t be stuck struggling with WWE’s painful travel schedule and unpredictable creative direction.
