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If at first you don't succeed, then try, try again. From WWE failures to LEGENDS.
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00:00Failure is a very strong word, but fortunately in professional wrestling it is very rarely
00:05permanent. The sport is so crazy and so fast moving that wrestlers usually have the ability
00:10to climb out of any creative hole. Sure it often takes a deft booking hand, but those who are in
00:17the business long term usually have to reinvent themselves at least a couple of times along the
00:21way, in some cases taking them from the very bottom to the tippy top. Today we will speak
00:27about some of those mountain climbers in WWE specifically. At one point every person on
00:33this list has experienced failure but was able to escape WWE's outhouse and make it to the penthouse.
00:40All of us, every single one of us, experience failure in some form during our lives. Often it
00:46teaches us things that no volume of success ever could and proves a real, tangible catalyst for
00:52positive change. That is certainly the case with some wrestlers on this list and in this
00:57video, but with others, let's be honest, we're still trying to figure out what the hell creative
01:02was thinking. I'm Andy from WhatCulture and here are 12 WWE Failures Who Became World Champion.
01:0912. Kane
01:10Glenn Jacobs surely knew that he was struggling as a cosplay version of Diesel as the calendars
01:16turned to 1997. Kevin Nash, the original Diesel, had left the WWF for WCW in 1996,
01:23so Vince McMahon stuck the gimmick on one of Jim Cornette's monsters from down in Smoky
01:29Mountain Wrestling. It was never going to work, but that dude somehow ended up becoming WWE Champion.
01:34Granted, Jacobs did not win the belt as Diesel quote unquote because he'd left that gimmick
01:40behind for another one by October 1997. Kane debuted by ripping the door from Hell in a Cell as Shawn
01:46Michaels
01:47wrestled the Undertaker at In Your House Bad Blood, then smashed his kayfabe brother with a tombstone
01:53and left. Nobody was quite sure whether or not Kane would be around after Undertaker inevitably beat him
01:59at WrestleMania 14, but fans were in love with the character and it went from strength to strength.
02:04Well, at least during the Attitude Era, anyway. Remarkably, Kane was beating Steve Austin in a first
02:10blood match at King of the Ring by June. He ended up dropping the title back to Stone Cold on
02:15Raw the
02:15very next night, but regardless, Kane had been WWE Champion and that was something that nobody could
02:21take away from him. The same guy who'd been Jerry Lawler's Evil Dentist Isaac Yankem and who'd dressed
02:26up as a literal Christmas tree in Memphis was now holding the biggest title in the biz. He had traded
02:32gimmicky flops and Halloween dress ups for a niche of his own, and it led to one of the longest
02:36and most
02:37fruitful runs for any character in WWE history.
02:40Number 11, Dolph Ziggler. Imagine being in one of the most flagrantly racist and unwanted gimmick
02:46packages of all time. Dolph Ziggler went through that before he was even Dolph Ziggler. For a spell,
02:51he followed Chavo Guerrero's brutally offensive Kerwin White character around as his golf caddy. Later,
02:58the caddy became a male cheerleader in the Spirit Squad. That was slightly better, but it was also
03:03something that WWE were never going to take fully seriously. Foreheads were palmed once again when
03:09Nikki started introducing himself as Dolph Ziggler. Then he introduced himself again, then again,
03:14then again, then again, and it got old pretty fast, but Ziggler was literally making a name for himself
03:21by just saying it over and over. He became known as a very solid hand, but the stench of those
03:26prior
03:27failures hung over him like a dark cloud. By 2011, WWE had Vicky Guerrero hand him the World Heavyweight
03:33Championship on Smackdown. That was done so that Edge could put the heel in his place and thumb his
03:38nose at Vicky. Dolph ended up dropping the belt he'd just been handed on the very same episode.
03:43Ziggler had to wait until 2013 for a proper world title run. It was infinitely more satisfying than
03:49his first, although a double turn with Alberto Del Rio brought on Dolph's concussion issues and that
03:55stopped him from having any kind of lengthy, meaningful run. Regardless, he had successfully traded carrying
04:00golf carts and hanging around a racist gimmick for toting the big gold belt. And that had to feel
04:06good for somebody who had grown accustomed to being overlooked by the decision makers.
04:10Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler. Worked. It actually worked.
04:1410. Bobby Lashley
04:15Calling Bobby Lashley a failure for his first WWE run could be a little bit harsh and it's definitely
04:20something nobody would want to say to his face, so here's a softer approach. Lashley didn't live up to
04:26the expectations the management had for him between 2005 and 2008, but there were lots of shocked faces
04:32when the promotion announced his departure in February 2008. Big Bob had been on the bench rehabbing
04:37injuries and now he was gone? Just like that? Bobby didn't return to WWE until 10 years later in 2018.
04:44Even then, he sputtered along offering decent performances, but he was involved in some god
04:49awful storylines with otherwise awesome workers like Sami Zayn. That whole Lashley's sisters
04:55debacle had to be seen to be believed. It didn't quite provide the spark that Bobby's career really
05:01needed. But just when it looked like Lashley might be a mid-carder for life, he beat The
05:05Miz to become WWE Champion on the 1st of March 2021. That was a star-making night for Lashley,
05:12who looked like a million bucks en route to winning the big one, and he'd go on to hold the
05:16prize for
05:17just shy of 200 days. A second WWE title run followed in 2022 when he beat Brock Lesnar at Royal
05:24Rumble.
05:24That run was a bit shorter at about three weeks, but the first had been so strong that it didn't
05:30really matter. Lashley had finally come through on the promise he showed during his earliest months
05:35back in 2005. 9. JBL
05:38The hard-nosed grind of the European circuit was fresh on Big Bradshaw's mind when he signed on with
05:43the WWE in late 1995. Back then, the company was going through a damn period, but there was still
05:49a little bit more hope for a guy like Bradshaw than kind of toughing out on the German indies.
05:54An early undefeated streak gave way to mediocrity as 1996 developed, however. Vince McMahon's new
06:00Stan Hansen ripoff was as low-tier as you were likely to get from somebody that wasn't an outright
06:05jobber, and there didn't seem to be much room for upward mobility. Then they stuck him with the new
06:10Black Jacks gimmick with Barry Windham, and the mediocrity continued. Things did pick up when Bradshaw started
06:17his tag team with Farouk in late 1998, but it looked like he'd be a tag guy for life in
06:22the Fed.
06:23McMahon's desperate need to create fresh new stars in 2004 then led to an unlikely repackaged job and
06:29a main event push. Bradshaw became JPL and it turned out to be the role that he was born to
06:35play. He had
06:36previously failed to get over after the Acolytes, and now here he was beating Eddie Guerrero for the
06:41WWE title. Not many people could have claimed to see they saw that coming in 2004, but it's exactly
06:48what happened and it wasn't a bad call either. JBL was legitimately the hottest heel in the industry
06:53for a while, and those dismal memories of jobbing for Savio Vega had all but faded away. The John
06:59Bradshaw-Layfield era was nigh. Unpredictably nigh, but nigh nonetheless. He'd ride that train all the
07:05way through to the WWE Hall of Fame. 8. Kofi Kingston
07:10Randy Orton once called Kofi Kingston stupid and WWE gave up on his push. That's an abridged
07:17version of how Kofi Mania 1.0 fizzled out in 2010, but it also shows how one trusted worker's sway
07:23with the office can alter the entire trajectory of another wrestler's career. After the Randy feud,
07:29Kingston was relegated back down the card and would flirt between inconsequential mid-card title runs
07:34and various tag teams. Then along came the new day. On the surface, this was yet another tag run for
07:41Kofi, but it offered peace of mind, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Kofi had found
07:46his best friends in Big E and Xavier Woods, and the trio would go on to shatter all kinds of
07:51records
07:51together. Happenstance threw up an unpredictable main event reprise in 2019 as well, which was simply
07:57lovely to see. Mustafa Ali's injuries forced WWE to change course when they had planned to push him.
08:04Uncharacteristically for Vince McMahon, especially during one of WWE's worst years ever, he decided
08:09to listen to the people and go with what they wanted. Thus, the deluxe version of Kofi Mania
08:14was born, and he ended up beating Daniel Bryan for the top prize in the game at WrestleMania 35.
08:19That will forever be remembered as one of the most organically happy WWE title wins ever.
08:25Kofi had flopped earlier in his career through no fault of his own. Fast forward to 2019 and he was
08:31riding the crest of a wave as one of the most beloved babyfaces around. The less said, however,
08:36about the way his WWE title dream ended, the better.
08:407. Naomi
08:41From Funkadactyl to proceed with caution and a cheery family moment.
08:46That's the lengthy journey that Naomi has been on since dancing onto WWE screens as part of Broadus
08:51Klay's new Funkasaurus gimmick in 2012. At first WWE viewed Naomi and her partner Cameron as little
08:58more than an accompanying dancer from Broadus. They were exclusively there to dance and smile as Klay
09:04tried to mesh Flash Funk with a dinosaur that was also an alien or whatever the hell this was supposed
09:10to be. Nonetheless, the gimmick had some short term appeal, but Naomi ended up sticking around and
09:15eventually spun into Team Bad alongside Sasha Banks and Tamina. By the way, if you don't know, they used
09:21the Street Profits theme music with different vocals. You should have a listen, it's pretty weird.
09:25But once that experiment ended, Naomi actually won the old Smackdown Women's title in early 2017.
09:31That isn't the world title win that is needed to grace this list, however, which would only come
09:36after a lot of heartache and a departure from WWE. Naomi left WWE with Sasha in mid-2022. She would
09:44seek solace in Impact Wrestling slash TNA before launching a WWE return in 2024. Being honest,
09:51in that early return, she didn't end up turning a lot of heads with the comeback. Some of her matches
09:56were not the most pushed or promoted things in the world and it seemed that she'd maybe be stuck
10:02in the mid-card role for the rest of her time. The Jade Cargill whodunit mystery, however, offered
10:06something completely fresh. Naomi was outed as the aggressor, then she won the Women's World title
10:11after cashing in Money in the Bank at Evolution 2025. Her reign was cut short in August,
10:18but for a good reason. Naomi was expecting her first child with Jimmy Uso, which is much bigger
10:23than pro wrestling. Creatively, it was a bit of a shame. She was doing great work and was poised
10:28for an epic run. But some things are simply bigger than a scripted sport and starting a family is
10:34obviously one of them. 6. The Rock
10:36Despite having a top look and being considered a true blue-chip prospect internally,
10:41young Rocky Maivia was on a highway to nowhere in 1996 and early 97. Fans grew tired of his 70s
10:49style babyface antics very quickly and it was clear at that point that the inexperienced rookie
10:53didn't have what it would take to get them back on his side. So he simply continued high-fiving and
10:59kissing babies like a traditional good guy would. Chants like Rocky sucks and the vicious, infamous
11:04die-rocky die would follow, which can't have felt good for The Rock. But he would throw that back
11:09in everybody's faces after taking some time off in 1997. By the time he returned that summer,
11:15he joined the nation of domination. Suddenly, he was more cocky than ever before and he even started
11:21referring to himself in the third person from maximum heel points. The man was clearly going for
11:26some kind of high score. Being aloof and arrogant did great things for The Rock during the second half of
11:31the year and into 1998. By then, he was coming into his own, both on the mic and in the
11:36ring.
11:37At Survivor Series 98, he beat Mankind to bag his first ever WWE title. Shortly afterwards,
11:43he joined Vince McMahon as his corporate champ and this only pushed him further up the ladder.
11:48He'd come a long, long way from wetting the bed as the painfully chirpy Rocky Maivia just a few years
11:54earlier. That experience was rejected so hard that WWE might have given up if it was someone else.
11:59Thankfully, they realised The Rock's potential and gave him another chance to prove himself
12:03without pandering for cheers like his dad and Tony Atlas had done 20 years beforehand.
12:085. Nia Jax The name Nia Jax used to be enough to
12:11send shivers up the spines of wrestling fans pre-2023. To that point, if you were a wrestler,
12:17seeing your name scribbled alongside Nia on a booking sheet may have given you a few sleepless nights
12:22as well because, well, Nia's opponents had a habit of getting hurt for a while there as well.
12:27Very little that Jax touched early in her WWE run seemed to appeal to fans for quite a long time.
12:34She did win the old Raw Women's title from Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 34 in a genuinely sweet story,
12:40but then creative bizarrely killed her body positive message and turned her heel all over again. It was
12:46very poorly handled. The groans were audible when Jax returned to WWE full time in September 2023, but
12:53something had changed. Very quickly, Nia had gone from one of the least popular wrestlers around to
12:58somebody who was really contributing to the product in many positive ways. She looked great opposite Rhea
13:03Ripley, helped make the debuting Jade Cargill look awesome and seemed to have improved in every
13:08single aspect of her work. Back to back Queen of the Ring and WWE Women's title wins at SummerSlam
13:132024, told the full story. Nia was a different animal during her second run. Her matches started
13:19clicking, her work on the mic was confident and had purpose, and she was even elevating fresh names
13:25while enjoying some time in the spotlight herself. It was all a win-win.
13:294. The Miz
13:30The Miz is WWE's own Mr. Reliable. Need somebody to go out there and take a beating like a pro?
13:36He'll do it.
13:36Got a struggling young star who needs to associate with someone who has been on screen a little bit longer?
13:41The Miz will do it. Need a quick fix champion who won't grumble when he's asked to drop the belt
13:45a few seconds later? Near enough? He'll do that as well. In short, Triple H could probably hand
13:50the Miz a toilet brush and tell him to get to work in the bogs at Company HQ and he'd
13:54probably leave
13:55those balls sparkling. Wrestlers with this kind of self-determination spliced with the selfless
14:00approach that Miz has had throughout his career do not come along every day. That's why he's been able to
14:05last so long in WWE because a lesser person would have said screw this when they weren't even allowed to
14:11get dressed up for matches in the locker room. Hello, wrestler's court.
14:15Miz ended up having the last laugh when he became WWE Champion for the first time in 2010. His rise
14:21must have come as a real shocker to those who had written him off long before that point,
14:25whether they were on the roster or in the stands. His jump over from reality TV to a tough enough
14:31contestant was shrewd in the long term, but my goodness was this man hated on early in his career.
14:36People really wanted to see the Miz fail, some people probably do, but he's gone from failed
14:40rock wannabe to one of the most tenured stars in the entire industry and probably a WWE Hall of Famer
14:46whenever he hangs up the boots. You've got to admire the tenacity and the ability to make the most of
14:52everything he's been handed. 3. Jinder Mahal
14:55There's no way in hell anybody thought the third most interesting member in 3MB was ever getting close
15:00to the WWE title. In fact, the only way Jinder Mahal was getting near the biggest belt in the
15:06land was if somebody like Brock Lesnar or John Cena happened to walk past him in the hallway and
15:10the gold might brush against Mahal and give him a little taste of what it's like to be the man
15:15on
15:15top. But by 2017, Jinder unthinkably strutted down the hallways with that belt over his own shoulders
15:22and you know what? Good for him. There's no point in being around the bush here when it comes to
15:26the
15:26booking, however. Mahal will always be called one of the worst WWE champions of all time,
15:31but he does deserve a lot of praise for knuckling down and forcing management to see him differently.
15:36Jinder leveled up his physique, chicken and broccoli baby, and his mindset after returning in 2016.
15:42This went a long way with WWE because it showed that he was taking things seriously.
15:47Previously, maybe this wasn't the case, who knows. He was lagging behind in terms of overall
15:52presentation and his matches as part of 3MB were nothing to write home about, necessarily,
15:58even if the stable was kind of fun. WWE let him go in 2014 and not many people thought they
16:04would
16:04ever see Jinder back in the company at all, let alone carrying around the big belt. Mahal got his
16:10stuff together and earned his respect behind the scenes. That lined up with WWE trying to expand into
16:15India, which meant that Jinder beat Randy Orton at Backlash 2017. His title reign was not good,
16:21which, quite frankly, and brought Lesnar apparently didn't want to work with him as Survivor Series,
16:25but he still got to hold the belt. Inexplicably.
16:282. Mark Henry
16:30There was a time when WWE's higher ups were more concerned with Mark Henry's overall progress than
16:35what he might do as a world champion. So much so that he was actually sent back to developmental
16:40TWICE. Jim Ross has spoken about Henry's trials and tribulations on his grilling JR show. It's a
16:45fascinating listen, in general. WWE had very high hopes for Mark when they inked a deal in 1996,
16:51but for the first while he struggled to live up to those. So Henry floundered whether he was in the
16:57Nation of Domination being reborn as sexual chocolate so he could impregnate Mae Young with a
17:02hand, or performing impressive feats of strength as the world's strongest man on Smackdown. WWE just
17:07couldn't get much bang for their buck from the big man. Then, in 2011, something clicked. Well,
17:13maybe pinning it entirely on 2011 doesn't tell the full story. In truth, Mark had started to show
17:18signs of life while he was ECW champion a few years before that. But that was at a time when
17:24interest
17:24in ECW wasn't the highest and the belt was not as credible as the main roster equivalents.
17:30By beating Randy Orton at Night of Champions 2011, however, Henry rocketed up the credibility scale.
17:36His Hall of Pain reinvention was fearsome and believable, and it coincided with Mark doing the
17:41best work of his entire career. We're talking about a man that WWE sent back to Developmental
17:46four years after debuting. A full 15 years into his career, that something eventually clicked,
17:54and the genuine strongman proved that he belonged in the upper echelon of WWE.
17:59And at number one, Drew McIntyre. It's hard to think about it today, but at one point,
18:04Drew McIntyre was an underconfident and directionless member of 3MB. A lot of people,
18:08including me, really enjoyed the Jobber faction, but they were a Jobber faction.
18:13However, running with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal was a far cry from being dubbed Vince McMahon's
18:18chosen one a few years earlier. Come 2014, by his own admission, Drew McIntyre was drinking heavily
18:24and understandably struggling with the weight of his mother's passing in 2012. WWE released him and
18:30he had to rebuild his career on the independents. Later, he'd become WWE Champion and one of the best
18:36all-rounders in the business. Drew turned his life around and his career around to get in the best
18:41physical shape he'd ever been in, went on a crusade around the globe outside WWE and showed that he
18:47was very much well worth re-signing in 2017. That's when he made his comeback via NXT, but it wasn't
18:54long
18:54before McIntyre was tearing it up on the main roster and winning gold once again. McIntyre graced a lot of
19:00lists titled What Might Have Been and similar for discarded WWE stars between 2014 and 2017. It looked
19:08to many like he'd blown his opportunity to become the first ever Scottish WWE Champion, but McIntyre
19:14maybe needed that kick up the arse to set him on the right path. He deserves full credit for clawing
19:19his
19:19way back to the company, then smashing through the barrier to become a multi-time WWE Champion. The Scott was
19:25all
19:26over the place mentally and probably physically when he left WWE in 2014, but he refused to throw in the
19:31towel on his career and he has reaped rich rewards for backing himself. Publicly, he has praised his
19:37wife for standing by his side and helping him to reprioritise his life. It's a tremendous redemption story
19:43and long may it continue.
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