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From a shocking upset victory to an accidentally popular gimmick, some wrestlers define their careers with a single, massive moment. Join us as we count down 10 of the most memorable one-hit wonders from WWE, AEW, and beyond.
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00:00I do want to make it clear before we do start talking about today's video that many of the
00:03wrestlers that are going to come up went on to have amazing careers. It's just that when you do
00:08go back through their runs, particularly in WWE, all of a sudden you go, wait a minute,
00:12they had this amazing moment, then they kind of fell back into a pan. So essentially we are going
00:17to tell some stories today and my name is Simon Miller, thank you for joining me. These are 10
00:22one-hit wonders from wrestling history. Number 10, Karl Anderson. Karl Anderson has managed to make
00:27money from every single wrestling promotion in the world. As far as I know, he is still active
00:31today. That's one hell of a career. The reason WhatCulture have decided to put Karl Anderson in
00:36this list though, takes us back to the G1 climax in 2012, when all of a sudden Karl Anderson was
00:41taking on Okada, who was still sort of finding his way, and good grief did they put on one hell
00:46of a final. I mean, it really was selling the idea of what NJPW was before it was going to
00:50blow up in
00:51a couple of years time. And the counter-laden sequence structure of the thing is awesome to
00:55watch. It's like you go, I go, your nan goes, but everything just looks so damn good. I do want
00:59to point out that Karl Anderson had a great singles run a few years after this in New Japan,
01:03and really he would have done far better in WWE, but the machine never got behind him. I mean,
01:08when he was in that team alongside AJ Styles and Luke Gallows, it just felt like we could have pulled
01:12the trigger more than we did. And also him and Luke Gallows have been oddly fired from WWE on a
01:17few
01:17occasions. That doesn't help, but yeah, go back to 2012 and watch this and you will go, my gosh,
01:23what a great main event. Number nine, Alex Riley. This one doesn't really tie into the other things
01:27we are talking about, because at one point, Alex Riley really did feel like the next big thing.
01:32I mean, he was standing alongside The Miz when he turned on the guy, they had a decent feud,
01:36and everybody kind of thought, well, if WWE does get this right, they may have a brand new baby face.
01:41When Riley finally did deck The Miz in May 2011 as well, everybody went crazy. And then right after
01:47this, for one reason or another, WWE kind of just gave up on him. Now, if you do go on
01:51Google right now,
01:52you will find so many rumors about this, some of which actually bring in John Cena. But given that
01:57no one's actually clarified, all we can do is go shrug emoji. Nobody actually knows what happened
02:02here. It did feel like he was a very Vince McMahon pro wrestler though, and he ticked most of those
02:06boxes. And then before long, he was doing NXT color commentator work before he got let go.
02:11I mean, I'm not trying to take shots here, but look at somebody like Jack Swagger. He did go on
02:15to
02:15become the world champion, but most people in the crowd thought that Alex Riley had way more
02:19potential. And then one day he was there, and the next day he wasn't. And really, he never did
02:24anything else in wrestling after this. It is the most peculiar tale. Number eight, Lever Bates.
02:30Now, I really like Lever Bates, and I have talked to her in real life, and she is just a
02:33super nice
02:33person. And actually, every single thing she has done post-WWE has been massively successful.
02:38So here we are just focusing on NXT. It's totally mad though, but as NXT did rebuild itself into this
02:44interesting developmental and sort of third brand, she came out as blue pants. I mean, that literally,
02:50I'm pretty sure WWE even released merchandise that had a picture of blue pants on it. How or why this
02:55did come to be, I don't know, but good grief did Bates lean into it hard. I mean, she could
03:00come out
03:00wearing these blue pants, and the NXT audience would just go crazy. I think she just embraced
03:05the concept to such a degree, and everybody could see she was having fun with it. Damn it, when you
03:10do
03:10break it down, that's what wrestling is all about. This was a very fun time. The issue was that WWE
03:15never really had a plan to evolve from this, and eventually, you do have to do that. I don't want
03:20to call it a comedy gimmick, but of course, it was leaning into the novelty. So when all of a
03:24sudden,
03:24it does become a regular picture, you have to have something else ready to go. I think that Lever
03:28Bates absolutely could have leaned into that as well, and after she did leave NXT, she did start with AEW
03:32in 2019, and she had a pretty good run there before returning to the indies. It's just if you are
03:38more of a
03:38WWE fan and you do see her, you will always go, that's blue pants. Kind of sums it up.
03:44Number seven, Action Andretti. So this one is super duper weird, because the rumor was at the time,
03:49Chris Jericho decided, let's surprise the audience, and he saw Action Andretti working a match and
03:53thought, well, that guy's awesome. Why doesn't he beat me? And he did. It came out of nowhere,
03:58nobody was expecting it, and all of a sudden, in 2022, we thought, oh my gosh, maybe Action can be
04:03the next big thing. This was absolutely possible as well, because he was only 24 years old,
04:07and he had beaten a Hall of Famer, but then for some reason, well, we didn't really do anything
04:12with him. It's only fair to say he has continued to work in All Elite Wrestling, and his tag team
04:15alongside Leo Rush was super duper fun, but if the idea of beating someone like Jericho was to throw
04:20you up to the top of the card, it just never really felt like we followed up on it. These
04:24days,
04:25you're more likely to find him on Ring of Honor than anything else, and I do want to make it
04:28clear,
04:28you don't have to be tearing up the world to be a good professional wrestler, but right now in his
04:32career, if you said to someone, hey man, what do you think about Action Andretti,
04:35they would absolutely talk about the Chris Jericho match, which somewhat terrifyingly was
04:40almost like three years ago, and where the flub does the time go? There's probably more to this,
04:45and maybe one day we will figure it out, but again, he's still so damn young, he's got plenty of
04:49time
04:50to make more moments. Number six, Fandango. So we are referring to specifically the Fandango
04:55character here, because yep, if you go back to that WrestleMania where he did beat Chris Jericho,
04:59which nobody saw coming, it kind of felt like he was going to absolutely explode.
05:04He did as well, because everybody started Fandangoing, but actually, do you know what
05:08pulled the rug out from beneath his feet? WWE led into his theme song way too much,
05:13and basically told you, listen you buffoons, you better like this, and you better go buy it on iTunes,
05:18otherwise we're going to get really, really mad. That just kind of took away the organic fun of it
05:22all, and as usual, the audience went, now we're going to do the exact opposite. It was really fun to
05:27watch though, because it was just so stupid in the best way. That's when sports entertainment is
05:32good, and ever since then, sure, Fandango struggled in WWE, because he had become a one-note gimmick,
05:37but after he did leave the main roster, he had a really good run in NXT alongside Tyler Breeze,
05:42and his TNA run was super fun as well. I think the problem was WWE wanted to introduce him as
05:47a
05:47serious character, but he was also a ballroom dancer, and when the theme song stuff did blow up,
05:51well, we've already talked about it, it just became way too obvious what they were trying to achieve.
05:56Johnny Curtis is another guy though, that has got something out every single promotion he has been
06:00in, but when you do go back to WWE, we'll always talk about Fandango, and it does make me chuckle.
06:06Imagine putting in all those hours of bumping and training and ruining your body, and you get to
06:10WWE, and Vince McMahon goes, hey pal, we're going to make you a ballroom dancer, and you probably don't
06:16really know what you're meant to do. Number five, Maven. Now I absolutely love Maven, because he always
06:20makes the best of the opportunities he is given, and if you do go back and watch the first ever
06:25Tough Enough,
06:25man, nobody else could have won that, that dude just ticked every single box. I think the main issue
06:31is that we were talking about the early 2000s, and trying to get into WWE of all places through a
06:35reality show, where the rest of the roster was never going to accept that, and it kind of felt
06:39like Maven was always fighting an uphill battle. You should absolutely go and check out his YouTube
06:43work today though, because it's so entertaining and honest, but yes, if we are going to go back and
06:48talk about his highest point in WWE, you go to the 2002 Raw Rumble, where he drop-kicked The Undertaker
06:54out the damn match. Now even though it was over 20 years ago, this is just so damn fun, because
06:59it's
06:59a brilliant, bold move. Nobody ever thought Maven, who was essentially a rookie, was going to eliminate
07:04The Undertaker, so when he did do this, and the dead man saw it like he'd been shot in the
07:08face,
07:08I tell you man, it's one of those things you could talk about forever. The only real issue is that
07:12WWE never properly capitalized on this, which was totally mad, because the story was right there.
07:18Every single fan in the audience could relate to Maven, because he was them,
07:21and then was he, or some words like that. He'd enter the reality show, he'd won it,
07:25and now he was in the big time just like that. I still think there's some really cool moments in
07:29Maven's WWE career, like when he got a big old push in 2004, and actually became the Raw general
07:34manager for a night. So I suppose maybe one hit wonder is a little bit unfair, but this moment was
07:39just so huge, it will still go down as an all-time surprise, and that's exactly what you want in
07:45the
07:45Raw Rumble. Number four, Lars Sullivan. So this is mostly from that NXT TakeOver New Orleans ladder match,
07:50which people love to such a degree, even Dave Meltzer gave it five stars. I understand it's
07:55just one man's opinion, but it didn't happen a lot. Now sure there was a bunch of wrestlers in there,
08:00including Adam Cole, Ricochet, The Velveteen Dream, and Killian Dain, but you needed every
08:04single person to smash a home run in this. If you've never seen it, you can go watch it right
08:08now.
08:08It is so damn fun, and it has the fans going absolutely crazy. Don't want to be that guy,
08:14but I think some people were surprised that Lars Sullivan was capable of a performance like this.
08:17Well, I actually think that's what got interest from Vince McMahon, and all of a sudden he was
08:21up on the main roster. Sadly though, it became quite clear that this was never going to click,
08:25even more so because it turned out he was a piece of trash. I will leave it to you to
08:28Google this,
08:29but just imagine somebody going on message boards and not only saying the most terrible things before
08:33he became a WWE superstar, but also doing it after the fact. Allegedly, he is still doing this stuff
08:39today, so screw Lars Sullivan. We do not need people like that in the wrestling business.
08:43Number three, James Ellsworth. Now I do not think when WWE decided to bring in a bunch of
08:48enhancement talent so that Braun Strowman could destroy them in 2016, that one of the people
08:52that was about to get pinned in seconds would get a job. Then James Ellsworth turned up with a very
08:56unique look, took advantage of the five seconds he had on a microphone, and well, he attained management
09:02to such a degree, the man got a job. And really this should have been inspiring to many people out
09:06there. All it takes is one single moment. Damn it, you can get a contract. Now he never really did
09:11anything much of note after the fact, but he was with the WWE for a few years, so I bet
09:15he made
09:16some money. And really, outside of this, Ellsworth is mostly known for being involved in the first
09:20ever Women's Money in the Bank ladder match when he retrieved the briefcase for Carmella. We've
09:24talked about it on other videos, this was a stupid idea, and then WWE tried to reset it.
09:28Otherwise though, this is something that WWE should do more of, because if you can come in from nowhere
09:33and get over, then you probably deserve a little bit more of a trial run. I mean, without this,
09:37you don't get Chris Jericho cutting that hilarious promo on Ellsworth before the Survivor series.
09:41So while he was never going to turn up any trees, I don't know man, he made the most of
09:46what he had.
09:47But yeah, in terms of things that people are going to talk about, it was when he told us that
09:50every
09:50man has a fighting chance, then he got killed. Still, good for that guy. Number two, Brodus Clay.
09:56So this one was totally nuts, because on the November 7, 2011 episode of Raw, we got our first
10:01vignette that, oh my gosh, Brodus Clay is coming to the show, and he's going to destroy everyone.
10:05This then got continuously delayed by authority figure John Laurinaitis, who said it'll be
10:10next week, it'll be the week after that, with this trend continuing all the way till January
10:142012. It was on January 9th when finally he made his way to the ring, and I want to make
10:19this very clear. The videos that came before this were all like, doom and gloom arrives
10:23in WWE, and Brodus Clay is going to kick everybody's ass, when he came out as the Funkasaurus,
10:29a dancing dinosaur, and he even had the Funkadactyls, which very interestingly was Naomi and Cameron.
10:35Of course, Naomi would go on to be with the company for years. He also got announcers
10:38hailing from Planet Funk, because everybody scratched their heads, because this was a
10:42proper 180. It was like, we were meant to think he was serious, and now he's a comedy
10:46character, and we got to the Royal Rumble, and actually he squashed Drew McIntyre, but
10:50Drew was not the guy he would go on to become today. Now the only reason I put this in
10:53the
10:53one-hit wonder category is because so many fans actually did like this, and they got a right
10:57kick out of it, going, well that's totally different, I'm sure he's going to go on to
11:01great things. But it's not what happened, and in fact we've got the opposite. It was
11:04so silly, Vince McMahon then decided we shouldn't push him, even though it was Vince McMahon's
11:09idea to begin with. I do believe that's absolutely nonsensical. The reason this is so damn silly
11:14is because WWE shot themselves in the foot with their own gimmick, and soon after this,
11:18Brodus Clay was kind of just there, hanging out playing Nintendo, before he got released.
11:22It was ridiculous. Number one, Tom McGee.
11:24So Vince McMahon was desperate to find a brand new Hulk Hogan, when all of a sudden he found Tom
11:29McGee, a super ripped bodybuilder who could flip around the place. I mean, that sounded great to
11:34him. It's absolutely hilarious where we did try to do this as well, because we were still a year
11:38out from WrestleMania 3, and Hulk Hogan body slamming Andre the Giant, so he had many more years to
11:43come. I think McMahon had just seen McGee looking absolutely ripped, and the fact that he could do
11:47high flying moves, and decided, well that's like Hulk Hogan times two, so let's make him Hulk Hogan.
11:52Bret Hart is majorly responsible for this, because of course he was told to go out there and have a
11:56great match with Tom McGee, and because the Hitman is one of the best wrestlers of all time, he found
12:00a way. And then, yes, when McGee was playing other matches, it totally fell apart, because he wasn't
12:05given the time or experience to actually learn what he was meant to do. A couple of weeks on from
12:09this,
12:09Vince McMahon decided he was not right to fill Hulk Hogan's shoes, and because he was mad at himself,
12:13Tom did get let go, and that was sort of the end of that. You should absolutely go watch the
12:17match
12:17with Bret Hart though, because it is a masterclass on how you work with somebody that is green,
12:21but once again, maybe Tom McGee could have got to the top of the card, but you have to train
12:25him
12:25and give him time. Surprise, surprise, we did the exact opposite.
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