The landscape of WWE has always made it the place that every wrestler wants to thrive in. Aside from a two-year run of dominance for WCW, WWE has been the leader in the wrestling industry. Most wrestlers want to make their mark in the biggest promotion to create a legacy that lasts forever. Even legends from other promotions have added to their legacies in WWE like Ric Flair, AJ Styles and Rob Van Dam.
We will look at the unfortunate instances of wrestlers struggling to make it in WWE despite having strong reputations. The performers in question became legends due to their success in other promotions. It just never worked out when they had their chances in WWE. Find out what caused such disappointing stints in the biggest promotion. These are ten legendary wrestlers that flopped in WWE.
10 Ultimo Dragon
The international success of Ultimo Dragon made him a huge star in Japan and Mexico. Dragon joined WCW for the cruiserweight division and was among the most decorated superstars in the world. The WCW run made him an even bigger star with success in the United States.
WWE eventually signed Dragon after the success of Rey Mysterio. The hope was that another masked wrestler with great in-ring skills would get over with the audience. It wasn’t meant to be as Dragon struggled to adapt to the WWE style and lost his push within a few weeks.
9 Rock n Roll Express
Many old school fans still view the Rock n Roll Express as the greatest tag team of all time. Despite being in their 60s, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson are still active with recent appearances for New Japan, AEW, Impact Wrestling and NWA.
Their peak run came in the 80s for the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions. WWE would try to utilize the Rock n Roll Express on a few occasions to little success. The feud between the Rock n Roll Express and the Heavenly Bodies saw a short stint working against each other for WWE. Gibson and Morton returned in the Attitude Era as part of Jim Cornette’s NWA faction that once again ended quickly.
8 Scott Steiner
The singles run of Scott Steiner saw him become a singles star in addition to the tag team greatness. Steiner played a huge role in the few positives of WCW during its last few years of existence. WWE eventually signed Steiner with plans of a huge push in 2002.
The instant main event slot was a curse in disguise as Steiner’s matches with Triple H killed his momentum. Their matches were among the worst in WCW history leading to Steiner’s push ending. Scott still rants about Triple H and WWE in his interviews almost two decades later.
7 Shane Douglas
ECW would see Shane Douglas become the most dominant world champion in company history. Douglas was an outstanding heel that found magic with Francine as his manager. Part of the reason for Douglas’ success was the intensity in his promos running down WWE and WCW.
The WWE stint of Shane’s career came as the Dean Douglas character. This gimmick was too silly to work on the national stage and it caused him to flop. Douglas was so upset with how his WWE run went that he stated he never wanted to work there again as a performer.
6 Hideo Itami
The background of Hideo Itami saw him become one of the biggest wrestling legends in Japan under the name of KENTA. Fans of Pro Wrestling NOAH would see KENTA become the face of the company along with impressive United States appearances for Ring of Honor.
The signing of KENTA by WWE came at the same time and had equal hype of Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. Itami was the only one that didn’t blossom into a huge star as injuries ended his first push. The rest of his WWE stint would never see him regain the momentum as he requested his release.
5 Dean Malenko
Dean Malenko is treated as a wrestling legend today for his classic matches in WCW’s cruiserweight division. The superb performances of Malenko against Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and many others made him arguably the best technical wrestler in the world.
Future stars like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and Sasha Banks have named Malenko as one of their inspirations. Unfortunately, none of his WWE run contributed to his legacy today. Malenko was a lower card eventually placed into comedic roles until his release. WWE did bring him back as one of their best producers, but he flopped on-screen.
4 Raven
The emergence of ECW came during the championship reign of Raven. His character work as a heel played an immensely important role in fans seeing ECW as an alternative. Raven was unlike any other character in wrestling tapping into the popular grunge style of the era.
WWE eventually signed Raven after his ECW and WCW runs. The instant placement into the hardcore division showed that they didn’t have high hopes for him. Raven deserves to be viewed as a legend today despite never finding success at a high level in WWE.
3 Diamond Dallas Page
WCW fans fell in love with Diamond Dallas Page as the first man to turn down the New World Order and become one of their biggest rivals. Page was just a fun wrestler with innovative moves and a likable personality. It carried him to the top of the mountain as a world champion and consistent main eventer.
That was until he made the move to join WWE during the Invasion storyline. WWE introduced DDP as the stalker of Undertaker’s wife Sara. The role was too silly to make work and Undertaker essentially squashed DDP every time they faced off. Page regressed into a lower mid-card role for the rest of his WWE run.
2 Gail Kim
A fair argument can be made that Gail Kim is the best women’s wrestler in North American history. Kim made her legacy in Impact Wrestling with two tremendous stints. The company saw Gail step up as the face of the knockouts division for basically her entire time as a performer.
WWE dropped the ball with Kim twice that each resulted in her joining Impact. The use of Gail in WWE saw her as one of many ladies in pointless tag matches or battle royals. Kim never was able to showcase her full potential in WWE leading to the flopped runs in both stints.
1 Vader
Vader became a huge star in WCW during the early 90s as a top heel. Programs with Ric Flair and Sting created compelling television that put Vader over the top. Harley Race becoming his manager added even more to the run. Vader had a legendary career in WCW and in his New Japan run.
Fans had high hopes for Vader in WWE since Vince McMahon loved monster heels. The fit just never worked out as McMahon viewed Vader as sloppy rather than intimidating. Vader lost his one main event title shot against Shawn Michaels and moved into the mid-card picture for most of his WWE time.