- 13 hours ago
In the chaotic world of pro wrestling, fan support can make a star. But what happens when the company itself decides you're not their chosen one? Explore the stories of 9 wrestlers who won over the crowd, only to be deliberately held back by WWE.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Pro Wrestling is a beautiful chaotic mess, a mix of athleticism, storytelling and corporate
00:06self-sabotage.
00:07It is a business where the fans decide who is over, and sometimes the company immediately
00:12decides they are wrong.
00:14For every star the crowd falls in love with, there is a boardroom meeting somewhere plotting
00:19to make sure this never happens again.
00:22If you get over and the company wants you to get over, great, the sky is the limit,
00:27but if you dare have the audacity to break out without the backing of the bookers, oh boy.
00:32Admittedly this isn't as big a problem today now that we don't have to worry about Vince
00:36McMahon, but it does still happen occasionally.
00:39Promoters have been doing this forever, clipping wings, rewriting history and creative directioning
00:44wrestlers into oblivion.
00:46Sometimes it's about control, sometimes it's ego and sometimes it's because a crazy billionaire
00:52woke up that morning and just didn't fancy it.
00:55It's the only business, wrestling, where standing out too much can get you punished.
01:00So today we're looking at the people who did the unthinkable.
01:03They got popular and were immediately told to sit back down.
01:07I'm Andy from WhatCulture and here are 9 wrestlers WWE banned from getting over.
01:12Number 9.
01:13Zack Ryder in pretty much every respect.
01:15The most cynical take is that Vince McMahon only wanted people he liked to get over.
01:20It was the hot take back in the day and almost a rite of passage for any WWE fan to
01:26understand.
01:27It is also the correct take.
01:30Dante himself could not have penned a more cruel ironic inferno than the one that Vince McMahon
01:35sentenced Zack Ryder to in 2012.
01:38Ryder getting over was not in the plan and while he may not have evolved into a main event level
01:44player with the machine behind him, it's important to put his breakthrough into context.
01:49The standard wasn't amazing at the time.
01:51Ryder hasn't been mythologized, though it may look that way through the lens of 2025.
01:57He hustled, created his vastly influential YouTube series and fans loved that.
02:02You could almost hear the passive aggressive sigh when WWE quote unquote rewarded him with
02:07the US title before turning him into such a joke that he could never reach the same level
02:13again.
02:13He was repackaged as an incel, given a slapstick assortment of injuries to sell, but he was
02:19pushed by Kane right off the stage when he was sitting in a wheelchair.
02:23Booking Kane to push Ryder off the stage was nothing less than a Mr Burns gag.
02:28The only difference was that had Conan O'Brien written it, the wheelchair would have spontaneously
02:33and inexplicably exploded, much like this era of WWE creative.
02:388.
02:38Cesaro is told to be worse.
02:40WWE crowds are red hot at the moment, but a few years ago, the freaking moon had a better
02:45atmosphere than the average episode of Raw or Smackdown.
02:48It was the strangest thing early in the Triple H era.
02:51WWE sold out massive arenas for TV tapings every single week as an engaged online fanbase
02:57basked in the idea that the power was back.
03:00TV ratings were impressive, WWE was bucking trends in the wider cable landscape, WWE was,
03:06across several objective metrics, hot.
03:08And yet, the crowds, for a while, were not.
03:11WWE weren't happy with this, if they were, they wouldn't have piped in fake crowd noise,
03:15for goodness sake.
03:16And it's not as if the WWE crowd was rejecting what was put in front of them, that sort of
03:20stuff generally doesn't happen anymore.
03:22The people weren't acting up or being obnoxious, they just weren't, as Pat Patterson was said
03:27to remark, going banana.
03:29If you go back even before that, well, it's even stranger.
03:33Diving into the Vince McMahon era is often fun when you're taking the piss out of it.
03:37One way in which I'm gonna take the piss out of it is asking why, exactly, Cesaro was
03:42told to tone down his eruption-triggering salvo of incredible lung-bursting offence in
03:48the ring.
03:48Arn Anderson, speaking on his podcast, claimed that Cesaro continued to get leaned on to stop
03:54doing all that stuff as a heel, it was just too flashy and all that stuff.
03:59WWE turned the man heel almost to the second that he got over as a babyface in 2014.
04:04They then booked the guy to be a focal point of WrestleMania 30.
04:08Considering the extent to which they had told him to tone things down, this feels almost cruel
04:12in retrospect.
04:13The guy is an athletic freak with the strength of a palm-muted hatebreed breakdown, for God's
04:18sake.
04:18Let the man riff.
04:197.
04:21WWE Killed Daniel Bryan as the Planet's Champion
04:23Daniel Bryan, Planet's Champion was an incredible act.
04:27It seems almost impossible that the WWE of 2018-2019 allowed him to run with it.
04:32And this isn't AEW shill bias either.
04:35Raw was so bad that the McMahons actually apologized for how bad it was and tried to blame Baron Corbin.
04:41When that famous segment happened, did people online respond by saying that Vince McMahon
04:45needed to touch grass?
04:46Was Vince McMahon on the AEW payroll because he dared criticize the mighty fed?
04:51Was Vince McMahon exhibiting maiden-less behavior?
04:53No, it's okay to criticize these things sometimes, guys.
04:57And yet, over on SmackDown, Bryan was on outstanding form.
05:01He rediscovered his inner technical sadist using his leverage as a top WWE star not to demand
05:06a lighter schedule or refuse jobs but to work a stunningly intricate series of awesome
05:10matches.
05:11He also adopted a new, ultra-sanctimonious character that pinpointed everything that the
05:16average American would hate to hear about themselves.
05:18To him, they were greedy, animal-killing scum, destroying a planet more beautiful than their
05:24closed minds could ever hope to be.
05:26The man was detestable and brilliantly effective, and WWE put an end to it after he used his star
05:33power to elevate Kofi Kingston.
05:35When Bryan returned after WrestleMania 35, he was a mean and somewhat generic heel, and
05:40by the summer, he was attempting to murder Roman Reigns and hiring doppelgangers of Erick
05:44Rowan for an alibi.
05:46When discussing with Sports Illustrated his thoughts on the creative process and how he
05:50was guided into not losing focus of building storylines, Bryan let slip, eventually I wasn't
05:55allowed to say anything about the environment at all.
05:58Thanks lads, that was a great thing you had going there, and you killed it.
06:026.
06:03WWE Tried To Kill Off Daniel Bryan Well Before That
06:06Some fantasists might have you believe that in pairing Daniel Bryan with The Miz on NXT
06:11in 2010, the idea was to depict the indie legend as a rookie in a sophisticated meta bit to get
06:17him over in front of the hardcore subgroup of fans.
06:20If WWE withheld the gratification and portrayed The Miz in a transgressive role, the fans would
06:26want to see Bryan succeed against an out of touch machine.
06:30The thing is, the machine doesn't think it's out of touch.
06:33When they toyed with the fan-driven notion that they were out of touch in 2013 as part
06:38of the overarching authority storyline, they pivoted, buried Bryan as a B-plus player and
06:43in a very out of touch development, tried to book Batista vs Randy Orton as the main event
06:48of WrestleMania 30 before there was a seismic fan revolt.
06:52Daniel Bryan knew he wasn't getting some kind of bold experimental push.
06:57Speaking on the network's special journey to WrestleMania, he lamented the fact that
07:01he was made to do dumb stuff on NXT's game show era, while WWE, for whatever reason,
07:06decided to tell the audience that the next generation of talent was a laughing stock.
07:10Vince McMahon even said he doesn't eat meat when Chris Jericho championed Bryan to him backstage.
07:16Michael Cole cut shoot promos on him constantly.
07:19WWE, in general, treated Bryan with scorn, and whether or not it was some kind of deranged
07:24test from Vince, he was banned from getting over in 2010, and again in 2013 when they
07:30tried to give the yes chant to the Big Show because he's large.
07:34Number 5.
07:35Rusev Day Comes to an End
07:36People loved Rusev back in the day, and while his initial push as the best man in AEW didn't
07:42work out, he alluded on his YouTube channel to it all going somewhere further after the wedding.
07:47He was the best man because he was a gifted all-rounder who was strong in almost every
07:51area.
07:52He could talk, he could go, he could be scary and intense, but also really funny.
07:57A man you could have a beer with before the mood shifted into something very ugly.
08:01The idea, if not the execution, was pretty good.
08:03So why didn't this ultra-talented all-rounder, who is ideal for WWE's favourite role of gregarious
08:10powerhouse welcomes you to Monday Night Raw, crack the main event scene?
08:13It's because the act that promised to launch Rusev into the stratosphere was abandoned.
08:19The Rusev Day stable was very entertaining and very over on the midcard, to which fans
08:24responded enthusiastically.
08:25It wasn't fading in popularity at all, it just ended.
08:29And that's because Rusev was effectively banned from making that connection with the fans.
08:34As Rusev told it in a 2020 podcast appearance with Ryback, I was told, don't look at people,
08:39don't smile, don't do this.
08:41Vince told him that the crowds didn't like Rusev and were messing with him.
08:45Vince heard something he didn't want to hear and he twisted the narrative into his
08:50own.
08:50He gaslit Rusev, which is what really happened.
08:534.
08:54Hideo Itami is not allowed to be Kenta.
08:56The name doesn't matter.
08:58Kenta, all caps, is a very cool name, but complaining about it being changed misses the
09:02point.
09:03This isn't why Hideo Itami, the name, didn't get over.
09:06Hideo Itami was not allowed to be Kenta in name or essence.
09:10Kenta was one of the most revolutionary wrestlers ever.
09:13The acclaimed 21st century generation looks unrecognizable without his immense influence.
09:18In the ultimate cruel irony, since Kenta appeared in WWE after his physical peak, working a style
09:24that had been consumed by countless wrestlers, he somehow felt like a two-a-penny plagiarist
09:30to the fanbase by the time he was quasi-promoted to the main roster in the form of 205 live
09:35kickoff matches.
09:36Fearing CM Punk chants at a time when Punk's name was chanted as a code for rebellion by
09:41WWE fans whenever WWE did something rubbish, Itami was banned from performing the go-to-sleep
09:46maneuver that he innovated.
09:47Meanwhile, Daniel Bryan was doing the basaiku knee kick, so sorry pal, you can't have that
09:52either.
09:53Even though it was yours first.
09:54And while he did eventually hit the go-to-sleep after his slow-burning tease campaign, it ended
09:58up meaning very little.
09:59Kenta was also prevented from being the nasty dickhead of old.
10:03Sure, Itami was gruff and mean and all of that, but he wasn't allowed to be the uber-stiff
10:07head kicker that he was in NOAH in WWE.
10:10It's just not how WWE does things, so why sign him in the first place?
10:163.
10:17Seth Rollins gets banned from wearing his superstar attire.
10:20How important is gear, really?
10:22Is a good look fundamental to getting over?
10:24Yes and no, in that a bad look is so distracting that it can undermine or even ruin a match.
10:30Cody Rhodes debuting the neck tattoo at Revolution 2020 was so distracting that it ate the story
10:35of his match with NJF alive.
10:37It was as if Stone Cold Steve Austin had walked into WrestleMania 14 wearing bright yellow trunks.
10:42A better look might not have saved either of WWE's big Seth Rollins babyface pushes.
10:47In 2017, WWE succumbed to the temptation of a SHIELD reunion a couple of years before the
10:53impact could really have been maximized.
10:55And in 2019, Rollins was probably knackered by his cringe-worthy Godzilla-looking bastard
11:01scripts before he was made to act like one of the kids from IT at the sight of The Fiend.
11:06But Rollins eventually got over, years later, because the fans liked singing his song and
11:11watching him clown around in his extravagant outfits.
11:15So is it really too much of a stretch to suggest that if Rollins had worn his iconic white gear
11:20from Summerslam 2015 as he launched his babyface run in the first place, he might have gotten
11:26off to a much hotter start?
11:27The look was beloved, no hyperbole, because he was at the peak of his powers on that night.
11:32He looked like the most dynamic wrestler in the world.
11:36But he only wore it once because Vince McMahon banned him from wearing it again.
11:40Rollins revealed as much at an October 2019 signing, saying the following.
11:44Nope, Vince wouldn't let me wear it because he's a weird old man who doesn't understand.
11:49The people think it's the coolest gear they've ever seen.
11:51Yep, he doesn't get it.
11:53I get that question more than anything else.
11:55What does that mean?
11:56It's just huge, man.
11:572.
11:58Virtually Every Cruiserweight Ever
12:00WWE only ever presented a light heavyweight title as an experimental means of competing
12:05with the white-hot WCW Cruiserweight division.
12:08Had Eric Bischoff not scanned the wider landscape to differentiate his product, Vince McMahon
12:13would never have had the idea to steal it, either as a passion project or as something
12:18he felt would make money.
12:19It just wasn't his style at all.
12:21Aside from the odd hidden gem, hello, Takamichi no Ku vs Great Sasuke.
12:25The library of work simply didn't compare to WCW.
12:29You'd see a dazzling aerial artist and the odd international sensation, but what was missing
12:34was the energy.
12:35That sense of exhilaration of a dynamic, frantic match accelerating towards the finish was
12:40only ever truly witnessed in a WWE ring when Paul London and Akil were going bloody nuts
12:46on velocity in 2004.
12:49It was all just slower and more generically structured.
12:52Even when WWE reverted to type after the genuinely great Cruiserweight Classic of 2016.
12:58The temple was a little bit faster than the heavyweight matches, but not by much.
13:02205 Live was a loveless bit of content, capital C, and it was more depressing than exhilarating
13:08watching the big head drops at the end of a patterned match.
13:12The committed talents were bumping big and working hard entirely in vain.
13:16And at number one, every wrestler WWE refused to release.
13:20In 2018 at the Needham conference, then-WWE co-president George Barrios said, the talent
13:27is under agreement, but both parties could terminate them in pretty short order.
13:32So we're not trying to lock anybody up, it has to work for both parties.
13:36One year later, AEW formed.
13:39FTR, in a bid to finally work that program with the Young Bucks, salvage their artistic
13:43legacy and get over again, requested their release.
13:47This was denied in pretty short order by one party.
13:50WWE then said to FTR that they'd make a renewed effort to improve and focus on the tag division.
13:57That never happened.
13:58Sean Spears was successful in securing his release, which gave Brodie Lee an idea.
14:02He too tweeted an exit statement under the impression that he could terminate his agreement
14:06in pretty short order.
14:08He too wanted to make something of a once very promising career and get over in a promotion
14:13that would give him the best shot of doing so on his own terms.
14:16Only his request was denied.
14:19Before his tragic passing, Brodie Lee told Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho that Triple H
14:24intervened and said they couldn't do it, saying that, optically, it would be seen as if the
14:29Rats were trying to flee a sinking ship.
14:32Like FTR, a loose and unfulfilled promise was floated his way.
14:36Hey Luke, maybe we can allow you to work in New Japan.
14:39Again didn't happen.
14:40The list goes on and on and on.
14:43And look, it's not just WWE either.
14:46Rey Fenix's exit from AEW was as long and contrived as that of Ricky Starks.
14:51The power ultimately is entirely in the hands of the business, not the independent contractors.
14:56They so ruthlessly exploit time and time again.
Comments