Seven Times WWE Dropped the Ball

7. Power and Glory 

In all sense of reality, one could also say that WWE dropped the ball with Paul Roma and Hercules as single competitors as well. As a tag team, they could have been used to offset the powerhouse face tag team of the Legion of Doom and it looked as if at first they were going to do so. After annihilating the Rockers at Summerslam, P&G began a feud with LOD, that would unfortunately end in a 59 second squash at Wrestlemania VII. The purpose of the match was to make LOD look unstoppable, but in the process it totally killed any momentum that P&G had. A tag team that had once had competitive matches with WWE tag team champions, The Hart Foundation, soon disbanded as Roma left for WCW and Hercules was misused as enhancement talent, before leaving himself.

It would have been fun to have seen the Rockers WWE tag team title win over the Hart Foundation hold up and for P&G to have a continuous feud with the Rockers exchanging the belts on several occasions. A controversial victory for P&G to win the belts, setting up for a revenge match where the Rockers would regain the titles would have drawn money. The Rockers were extremely over and adding in the heat that P&G could easily add into the mix would have put butts into seats.

A P&G Vs LOD feud would have been more convincing and entertaining than the LOD Vs The Nasty Boys series of matches we were given instead. While the Nasty Boys were a good tag team, they often had to resort to using Jimmy Hart's megaphone or Helmet for a victory over tag teams shown to be much weaker than the indestructible LOD.  Having a wrestler like Hercules that could match the physique and strength of Hawk and Animal, along with the sly and clever Roma that could outsmart them, would have been a more intriguing match. It also would have been more convincing that P&G could have taken the belts from LOD, than it was having Money Incorporated do it.

When Roma left the company, WWE again dropped the ball by having Hercules resort to jobbing. They could have found him a mid-card position to fill, and who could blame him one bit for being upset and leaving the way he did in his final match against Sid Justice.

6. Shawn Stasiak 

The Attitude Era is often given credit for doing a lot of things "right" and helping to save professional wrestling from downward spiral it was headed towards from late 1993 to 1996, but that doesn't mean that there weren't a lot of mistakes made during that time. One of those mistakes was the misuse of Shawn Stasiak, a talented wrestler who could have been the Attitude Era's version of Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect or Rick Martel. He even could have been used for a major feud with Val Venis or as Venis's tag team partner. Never the less, a guy that could have been used to draw money, was treated as tasteless joke known as Meat.  From 1998-2000, Stasiak was nothing more than Vince Russo's sick and twisted version of humor in ridiculous storylines involving Stacy Kiebler and Mae Young.

After leaving for a year and coming back in 2001, WWE had a second opportunity to use Stasiak in a more productive way, but instead somehow managed to misuse him even worse than they had originally. He went from being a sex craved horndog, to simply being an idiot with no character development beyond being a klutz.

A former collegiate standout at Boise State University, Stasiak had a solid wrestling background, one full of technical expertise. He wasn't terrible on the mic either, and given the right character and push could have had a run as European or Intercontinental champion.

5. Marty Jannetty 

In many ways Jannetty dug his own grave, and their is no denying that. The man had ample amount of opportunities that he himself tossed away through drugs, alcohol or women. It also didn't help that when it looked like Jannetty might finally be on the right path, the Charles Austin lawsuit came up and he disappeared from television. To say the least, Jannetty's career met with a lot of bad luck. Some of which he brought upon himself and some of which he did not.

Nevertheless, he was severely misused for a spell during his WWE career. After his breakup with Shawn Michaels, WWE used him appropriately from 1992 to late 1993 where he feuded with Shawn Michaels and had decisive victories over Repo Man, Doink the Clown, Pat Tanaka and other low to mid card talent. During this little over a year time, Jannetty was right where he needed to be. Bret Hart and Yokozuna were handling the WWE championship with Shawn and Razor Ramon handling the Intercontinental title. WWE needed wrestlers to fill in the right below title carrier slots and Jannetty filled the role impeccably.

WWE decided to job Jannetty out in an embarrassing squash match against Ludvig Borga at Summerslam 93', which never saw Borga leave his feat the entire match. From that moment on, albeit a less than a week tag title run with the 1-2-3 kid, Jannetty's career was mainly nothing but jobbing out to other superstars.

Many call late 1993 to early 1996 to be one of the most boring periods in WWE's history. Many blame it on the departure of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and others who jumped ship to WCW. While that did hurt the WWE, misuse of talent hurt them even worse and Jannetty is a fine example of it.

It's understood as many times as Jannetty screwed up during his career, why WWE would resort to using him as enhancement talent and putting him into a mockery tag-team with Al Snow, but it was also bad business. Instead of jobbing out to the likes of Savio Vega on a weekly basis, Jannetty could have been the mid-card face that WWE desperately needed at the time. If they insisted on turning him heel, they could have made him into a more interesting effective heel, than simply the stuck in the 1960's, jealous of Shawn Michaels bafoon that they did.

Whenever they would occasionally give Jannetty a small push, for example teaming him with Razor Ramon or putting him in a competitive match with Psycho Sid, the fans would react positively to him. Instead of running with this idea and doing something with it though, they'd instead have him come out a week later and do a job for someone looking totally harmless in the process.

The Attitude Era of professional wrestling happened because the Golden Era of professional wrestling came to an end around late 1993 and something needed to happen propel professional wrestling back to the heights of popularity, because the New Generation that lasted approximately three years wasn't getting the job done.  Had better decisions been made, including using talent like Jannetty more appropriately, perhaps the Golden Era never would have died.

4. Doink The Clown 

Speaking of mistakes that WWE made during the transitional period of Golden Era to New Generation Era, Doink the Clown tops the list. WWE had a phenomenal, everyone hated him and wanted to see him get his butt kicked heel, and they decide to turn him face. He downright scared little kids, he made adults uncomfortable and much like a horror movie icon such as Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, he intrigued audiences to the screen to see what he would do next. His feud with Crush was ended prematurely and there is so much more that could have been done with him, that pardon the pun, it isn't even funny. He wasn't anywhere near as effective as a face, and had he remained Heel, and been put in more interesting storylines, the ratings might never have dropped. One of the reasons WWE struggled in the mid 90's was due to being excessively face heavy without interesting and compelling heels. Superman is only as good as his Lex Luthor or his Zod and once both Luthor and Zod become good guys themselves, where's the fun in watching Superman? Had Doink remained the evil, zealous clown that he started off as, his career would have lasted longer and amounted to much more than it did.

3. Crush 

Fans, especially kids, loved the laid back Hawaiian dressed like a giant can of soda. When the electric guitar sounded off his entrance music, everyone in the audience was giving the Kona Crush Cranium Crunch hand gesture to show their support. His only downfall was that he couldn't talk. The guy was terrible on the mic. He couldn't cut a promo. BUT, he didn't need to either.

WWE, dropped the ball twice with Crush during his face run. First and foremost they should have given Crush a decisive victory over Doink. Many felt that there Wrestlemania IX match was the beginning of their feud, not the end of it. A big payoff, which never came to fruition, was expected.

Imagine if you will, Crush Vs Doink the Clown Summerslam 1993, four months after their Wrestlemania match. Doink has caused Crush a series of victories through interference including a shot at the intercontinental title against Shawn Michaels. Vowing vengeance once and for all against Doink, he has challenged him to a steel cage match. During the match, it looks like Doink is once again going to be the victor as a second Doink interferes in the match. But, at the last second, out of nowhere Randy Savage (decked out in Crush type gear) interferes and Crush wins the bout.

This would signify Crush's friendship and allegiance with  Randy Savage and Savage much like Curt Hennig was for Ric Flair, could be his accomplice and more importantly be his mouth piece that he desperately needed.

Instead of giving Lex Luger the U.S. Express gimmick, it could now be given to Crush. Instead of having Yokozuna do a crossbody block where Luger catches him for a second and then drops him, Crush could legitimately pick Yoko up and give him a real bodyslam. Savage and Crush could have a tour, drawing money and being much more over with the fans than Luger was able to be.

Then when Crush did turn on Savage, it would have been even more epic and even more memorable of a moment than what it is today. Crush was a good face and a decent heel during the New Generation period of the WWE. His run as jailbird Crush years later absolutely sucked, but at least he redeemed himself as DOA Crush years later and had a fun run in WCW teaming with Bryan Clark as Kronic. Had WWE used him to his full potential, he could have been one of the biggest faces and one of the biggest heels, maybe even helping the Golden era to survive.

2. Hakushi

One of the WWE's most detrimental characteristics, was Vince McMahon's obsession with big men. No matter how talented and gifted a wrestler was, if he wasn't a behemoth monster in size, he was often overlooked. Japanese sensation Hakushi, was a high flying, exceptionally technical wrestler, that often wooed the crowd with exciting maneuvers that they had never seen. While they did test the waters with him against WWE champion Bret Hart for a short period of time, they did not capitalize upon the opportunity to make Hakushi a top talent. Instead they dropped him down the ladder, including having him drop a match to long time jobber Barry Horowitz.

After proving that he could get a reaction as both a heel and a face, it would have seemed that WWE would have pushed him in one direction or the other. Fans enjoyed his style of wrestling and often reacted rather loudly with "oohs" and "ahs" or applause when he would hit a devastating maneuver. Why WWE didn't decide to capitalize upon this and make a run with Hakushi, is a real head scratcher. He could have been put into the ring against anyone and given the right storyline, it would have drawn money. The only conclusion as to why this was not done, was because he was short and he was small. An opportunity missed  for an insufficient reason.

1. Papa Shango 

If one had to go back in time and look at what began the transition of Golden Era to New Generation Era, it might have very well started with the misuse of Papa Shango. A monster heel, that started off his run in the WWE as one to challenge the likes of The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan. At the time, Warrior didn't have anyone to really challenge him and Shango,with his Voodoo curses proved to be the perfect adversary. Perhaps this is why his run as an effective heel was cut short. Once he lost in a series of matches against Warrior, what was left for him to do? He challenged Bret Hart for the WWE championship in a losing effort on Saturday Night's Main Event and from that moment on his career became a joke.

He'd talk a great game and would totally kill it on his promos, but it was hard to take him seriously when he was losing to the likes of Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Bob Backlund on a weekly basis. Had WWE instead kept him strong and maybe had him lose via disqualification, rather than submission against Bret Hart, he could have been used to continuously draw heat for many years to come.

His dark and sinister character wasn't a favorite of Charles Wright, the man who portrayed him, but it was initially over with the fans and it was much more effective than the Kama gimmick he did a couple of years later. Perhaps not as fun for him as The Godfather gimmick was towards the end of his career, but a much more effective heel.

Had Papa Shango been given a more proper push, it could have lead to a WWE title reign and an opportunity to build Bret Hart into an even more dominant face. Instead their was no build up to the match, thus taking the significance and importance off of the victory.