Being a wrestler is a tough life with no guarantee of success. There’s a lot of sacrifices with a lot of time spent on the road and in hotels. For some, even having a parent as a successful and famous wrestler isn’t enough to guarantee then success in the industry. For every successful second generation wrestler like Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Paige, there are countless Ted DiBiasie Jr’s and Garrett Bischoff’s out there.
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For some, the stigma of the famous parent is just too much to overcome. The comparisons are endless and they just can’t get out of the shadow of their parentage. For the following few minutes, let’s take a look at some of wrestlers’ who just couldn’t live up to the legacy left by their famous fathers, be it because of the relentless comparisons or talent skipping a generation, they just didn’t live up to the billing.
7: David Sammartino (son of Bruno Sammartino)
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Being the son of the legendary Bruno Sammartino, David Sammartino never had a chance. His father’s accomplishments were too huge big to ever even think of eclipsed. Bruno is the longest running WWWF Champion of all time, sold out Madison Square Garden countless times and is a legend in the pro wrestling industry. When Bruno’s championship reign was ended by Ivan Koloff, the referee didn’t give him the belt out of fear of inciting a riot.
Although Bruno never wanted his son to enter the industry, wrestling was in David’s blood and he followed suit. David’s main problem was he was mainly used on the pedigree of his last name. He never managed to form his own individual identity. At the beginning of his career, he was immediately thrust into a tag-team with his father but that didn’t really help his status. He was near the main event when his father was involved in his matches but was otherwise treated like a jobber.
David left the WWF and wrestled for a few other promotions, including a stint in WCW in the mid-90’s but he never really found anywhere near the level of success that his father had.
6: Erik Watts (son of Bill Watts)
Bill Watts is a legendary booker best known for his time in WCW. His son Eric, however, was one of the blandest and most boring wrestlers of all time. He’s gotten as many chances to get over as anyone in the business and has failed repeatedly. The monster push Bill gave his son soon after his debut is one of the worst cases of nepotism in wrestling.
Erik debuted as a bland babyface in the early 90s but the crowd turned against him because he sucked as a wrestler. After failing in WCW, Erik Watts moved to the WWE in the mid 90’s as Troy, one-half of the tag-team – Tekno Team 2000. They sucked and were booted off television a few months into their run. It’s funny, seeing the difference in Erik Watts’ booking when the booker wasn’t his father.
5: Brian Christopher (son of Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler)
One thing about Brian Christopher, he never used his father’s name in order to get over with the fans. The former Tag-Team Champion is the son of WWE legend Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler. Christopher is best remembered as Grand Master Sexay, the least important member of Too Cool, along with Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi.
Looking at Christopher’s career, it’s easy to forget that he’s the son of the Memphis wrestling legend and one of the voices of the Attitude Era, Jerry Lawler. Lawler is a bona fide legend from his wrestling days alone (110+ World titles won across promotions from the territory days), without even counting his commentary work and he’s also a WWE Hall of Famer. His son, on the other hand, was a lower-midcarder at best for most of his career. He was released from the company in 2001 after he was caught conveying drugs across the Canada-Us border.
It’s also interesting to note that like many children of wrestlers, Brian only saw his father two or three times a year while he was growing up and two have always had a rocky relationship.
4: Joe Henning (son of ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Henning)
Joe Henning currently wrestles in the WWE under the name Curtis Axel. Joe is okay in the ring, to be honest, but has not come even close to achieving half of what his father and grandfather achieved. Yes, Curtis Axel is actually a third generation wrestler, his grandfather being the legendary Larry ‘The Axe’ Henning.
Curtis Axel debuted in WWE as part of the Nexus under the terrible moniker Michael McGillicutty and was given a monster push at one point with Paul Heyman being made his mouthpiece. However, even Paul Heyman couldn’t cover the vacuum that was his lack of a personality and he’s consistently moved down the WWE card ever since. Sorry Curtis, but the chains are well and truly on.
3: Lacey Von Erich (daughter of Kerry Von Erich)
Lacey von Erich, as you can tell from her name, is a member of the Von Erich family, which sort of makes her wrestling royalty. The daughter of the legendary Kerry Von Erich, she is a clear example of how talent can sometimes skip a generation. Wrestling is almost literally in her blood. Her grandfather, Fritz Von Erich was one of the pioneering architects of the industry.
Lacey had managed to earn a developmental deal with WWE early on in her career, but she was released just a few months into it. She then wrestled occasionally on the indies for a few years before TNA signed her.
She was featured on TNA programming quite a bit but always looked like a fish out of water. TNA continued to try and push her to cash in on her name and looks but she was terrible in the ring and prone to botching even the simplest of maneuvers. She announced her retirement out of the blue in 2010 and left TNA. She now runs her own advertising company in Southern California.
2: David Flair (son of Ric Flair)
Ric Flair is one of the most iconic and recognizable names in the history of wrestling with many considering him the greatest of all time. One thing we have to admit at this point is that David would have been overshadowed by his father no matter how talented he could have been nor how many world titles he could have won. Instead, David was terrible inside the ring but was pushed to the moon by WCW based on whose son he was.
David would definitely never had made it to the big leagues had he not been the son of ‘The Nature Boy’. He was featured in prominent storylines along with his father, Stacey Keibler and others during his run in WCW in the late 90’s. He even ended up feuding with his father at one point.
Even though David was a terrible wrestler with no charisma to speak of, he is a former United States Champion and a former WCW Tag-Team Champion. His most famous moment in the WWE is getting pummeled by The Undertaker.
Thankfully, Charlotte is continuing the Flair family legacy and doing an admirable job so far as one of the Four Horsewomen of NXT.
1: Brooke Hogan (daughter of Hulk Hogan)
No second generation wrestler ever has been as bad in the ring and as bad a wrestling personality than Brooke Hogan. Some may have forgotten but Brooke had played a tiny part in the feud between Randy Orton and Hulk Hogan in the 2000’s. To be fair, we didn’t notice how bad Brooke was back then. It was a completely different story, however, when Hulk got his daughter hired by TNA during the Bischoff/Hogan era of that company.
Brooke was announced as the Executive of the Knockouts division and proceeded to graced TNA programming with her terrible acting skills. Her time in TNA will be remembered for her terrible promos, the time she fell down on the ramp and her terrible love angle with Bully Ray Dudley which also involved Hulk feuding with Bully Ray.
Brooke Hogan brought nothing to the table for TNA and her time there was a complete waste of money. She was clearly only hired because of who her father was. She is the worst second generation wrestler of all time and had no business ever being anywhere near a wrestling ring, let alone be given major screen time for a promotion as big a TNA was at the time. No wonder, TNA was on the brink of going out of business.
