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Whenever a WWE superstar starts off his career from the bottom, what he probably dreams of would be to reach at the top and stay there.Some of the talented stars achieve that and end up being legends in the business while other never makes it to the top. Then there is the third category of superstars, the ones who reach the top but fail to hang in there due to one reason or the other.Over the years, WWE has seen a lot of stars who ended up in this category and its still a continuing cycle. So here is a look at some of those names that dreamt big but had their dreams shortened up.
#5 Ryback
The latest one to start the list, Ryback was someone for whom the WWE had big plans. After his initial run with Nexus, Ryback was taken off television due to an injury.
And when he was repackaged as Ryback, WWE tried to build him as a new Goldberg which backfired. Ryback was initially given a handful of squash matches which soon morphed into pay-per-view main events against company’s top stars.
The list of those top stars included the lights of CM Punk and John Cena while Ryback also was lucky enough to be a Paul Heyman guy for some time.
However, all that burned out soon for the superstar who currently runs along with Curtis Axel in a tag team which is a clear disappointment compared to his record.
#4 The Miz
Just for the sake of remembering the facts, Miz is someone who held the WWE Championship and main evented WrestleMania. It’s not every day that a wrestler gets to do both and end up struggling to find some television time later.
Miz to be frank is a superstar who could make the fans hate him to the core but WWE only gave him a short run to do the same.
The last phase of Miz’s main event run came as a part of the Awesome Truth tag team which was highly under rated. After that WWE was in a constant dilemma of not knowing what to do with him which eventually ruined his career.
#3 Jeff Hardy
Hardy is without any doubt one of the big fan favorites in WWE. His willingness to put his body through any pain to please the fans got him a lot of appreciation.
WWE also had a lot of faith in Hardy and he ended up holding almost all the titles that the company had to offer. He was so good that the fans even started comparing him to Shawn Michaels.
However, it didn’t last for Jeff Hardy and his personal habits were to blame for his fall. Clearly the company didn’t want someone who broke wellness policies on top of their card which eventually lead to his departure.
He ended up in TNA later but there also, Hardy struggled a lot and now sees himself in the upper midcard of a company which many consider is sinking into the depths.
#2 Bobby Lashley
Lashley only had a short stint in the WWE and in that period he managed to win three major titles and also had the spotlight shining on him at WrestleMania.
In his two year run, Lashley always found a spot on top of the card and WWE also pushed him to the moon. He did a lot of things in that short span and for one moment most of the fans believed that Lashley would end up in the WWE hall of fame at this pace.
But an injury took away all the potential and Lashley was released by the company. He had a lot more to give to the WWE but unfortunately he couldn’t stay in the top like everyone else on the list.
Now, Lashley has ended up in TNA where he is enjoying the main event status, but we all know that it’s now where near the run he had at WWE.
#1 Kurt Angle
Angle is a big name, period. But one thing that he failed to do was to rise up to the levels of John Cena, Steve Austin or Rock even after he had all the potential for the same.
He could wrestle better than anyone mentioned above, he was a great off ring personality and he also had highly impressive microphone skills. Angle managed to get all the titles he could in the WWE in his run as well.
But as he edges towards his WWE career, Angle was put into the ECW brand as an attempt to revive the brand. Angle was soon released afterwards due to health reasons and ended up in TNA.
If he had been a bit more careful about how he steered his career, Angle could have stayed at the top and become the face of the company rather than fighting it out in TNA.
