If there is one thing that I find a shame in the world of professional wrestling, it’s not using a talent to their full potential. Throughout time and even today, there have been many wrestlers who just weren’t given a great opportunity to become big stars either because of injury or lack of hard work, motivation, attitude in the locker room or due to legal troubles.
In this post, I will list some of the most underrated wrestlers since the Attitude Era (1998).
1. Val Venis
His gimmick when he was at his peak was a porn star. He usually grabbed women out of the audiences for a makeout session in the ring on live TV. The picture above was with Alicia Webb (Ryan Shamrock). Showing sex tapes of wrestlers girlfriends or wives during the show were absolutely hilarious and entertaining. He won the Intercontinental, European and Tag Team Championship all in a span of two years. During his mid-card run, he was rumored to be in the “renovated” D-Generation X along with the Godfather (More on him later) to help boost him to the main event. He joined the much hated but well done “Right To Censor”
Unfortunately after that run in 2001, he had some injury problems. Before his wrestling days, he was involved in a motorcycle accident and he had to get surgery to repair some bone spurs from those days. He attempted a comeback in 2003 and since then has been just another one of the guys. He has helped some young wrestlers since then. He was in TNA earlier in the year but asked to be released from his contract to wrestle in Mexico.
2. D-Lo Brown
D-Lo Brown was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up. His character was one of a kind. He became a popular figure when he was with The Rock and Godfather in the Nation of Domination. In the summer of 1998, he won the European Championship. His finishing move, the Low Down was executed to perfection. It was cool seeing him wear a chest protector so he could perform his finishing move. During his European Championship run, he would have the ring announcer announce a different European city and country that he would hail from. He like Val Venis who he had a rivalry with during those two years also won the Intercontinental and Tag Team Championship. At one point, he held both the European and Intercontinental titles.
Brown was off TV for part of 2000 and most of 2001 for reasons unknown although it had been rumored he was in the doghouse for the major injury caused to Droz. He botched a powerbomb and Droz slammed his neck right into the mat causing him to be paralyzed. In 2002, he was sent down to WWE’s developmental territories to work on his wrestling moves. He attempted a comeback in 2002, 2003 and 2008 but it just wasn’t the same. These days, he is a road agent for TNA. What a waste of talent.
3. The Godfather
Another wasted talent by part of the WWF/WWE. He won all major titles except for the big one. He would walk out with a few different ho’s every show. The funny part of this was, that these ladies were actual strippers. WWF asked these local strip clubs if they could use some of their employees on their shows. The Ho-Train was a finisher that everyone loved. All three wrestlers (Godfather, Brown and Venis) were suppose to be the next big three to take WWF to the top along with Stone Cold, Rock and Triple H.
He had a great run from 1998-2001 when he was the Godfather as well as the Goodfather in Right To Censor. Since that run almost a decade ago, he wrestled only a few times. Right now, he is managing a few clubs out in Vegas. What could have become of this great talent was very unfortunate.
– This completes the first part of this article. I will have the second and final part on another three talents coming up in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
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