10 Precise moments in WWE history when pushes ended

A wasted talent

Some wrestlers just aren't destined to be main event guys. Whilst everyone would love to be “the guy”, main event spots are few and far in between.

There need to be opening match workers, mid-carders, upper-mid carders and, finally, main eventers. There is a system and an order to the way WWE structures a show and there are a lot of factors that determine who goes where.

Every now and again the WWE has tried to push guys to the top only for those pushes to backfire, whether it be fan backlash or WWE simply losing faith in them.

Here are ten WWE superstars who had a chance of stardom, only to end up right back down the card, or worse.

#10 The Great Khali

The Great Khali

Vince McMahon has long had a fascination with giants and will usually push them ahead of smaller, more talented wrestlers. The Great Khali is, from a technical standpoint, one of the worst wrestlers ever.

But he also has a rather unique quality to him. While you want to look away, you simply can't. There's something about watching the 7ft tall giant lumber around and throw feeble chops and kicks that is slightly entertaining.

Khali started in WWE with a massive push straight away when he easily defeated The Undertaker in 2006. WWE continued to book Khali strongly for the next year and even worked a program with John Cena over the WWE Championship.

Later that year WWE put the World Heavyweight Championship on Khali on SmackDown. After his run as the champion he continued to be a contender within the company.

He was then turned into the 'Punjabi Playboy' and used for comic relief, rather than as a serious title contender and needless to say his push was well and truly dead.

#9 The Miz

How did he main event WrestleMania?

It's mind-boggling to think that The Miz, a man who was resented by fans and despised by the locker room in the mid-2000s, actually main-evented a WrestleMania and beat the company's top star, John Cena. But it happened.

Up until his singles push, Miz had been a Tough Enough contestant, the 'host' of SmackDown and a member of an entertaining tag team with John Morrison. Miz split from Morrison and started showing great improvement as a character and wrestler in 2010. This lead to him winning the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match, signalling to fans that WWE were ready to push him.

Miz successfully cashed in his briefcase and eventually lost the title to Cena at Extreme Rules in 2011. He moved rapidly down the card. Miz's time was over. He never again looked as though he would break out as a main event player ever again. Fans wonder when he will drop the IC and to whom.

#8 Jack Swagger

The “All American”, Jack Swagger

This push came as quite a shock to many fans of the WWE. Swagger started his WWE career on the ECW brand and had a series of great matches with Christian in 2009. After moving to the Raw brand later in the year he was focused on winning the Intercontinental Championship before being entered into the 2010 Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania, which he won.

Shockingly Swagger cashed in his contract two days later, beating WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho. Swagger held on to the big gold belt for a couple of months before losing it to Rey Mysterio in June.

Jack Swagger never again reclaimed the belt and will probably never again be placed in a top-line position by WWE. It is quite obvious that WWE had lost interest in Swagger and didn’t see much potential for him as a long term star.

#7 Mr. Kennedy

An unfortunate loss

Paul Heyman, the former ECW mastermind immediately saw dollar signs in Kennedy early on and pushed for him to get called up to the main roster. Kennedy made his main roster debut in late 2005 and tore through the competition.

Kennedy soon suffered an injury but returned in 2006 and feuded with Batista and The Undertaker. Kennedy was on a roll and won the Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23. His promos were some of the best in the business.

Unfortunately for Kennedy, he suffered another injury and lost the Money In The Bank briefcase a few months later to Edge. After that it was a case of more bad luck for Kennedy, who repeatedly suffered injuries and had to take time off.

He was released from his contract on May 29th, 2009, just four days after making his return from his latest injury. This was reportedly because he dropped Randy Orton on his head and shoulders with a back suplex during his comeback match.

The man WWE were positioning as a top guy had had his last push and his place in the company.

#6 Muhammad Hassan

They just overstepped the mark with this one

WWE went way too far with the Muhammad Hassan character. It even ended the wrestling career of Mark Copani (the man who played Hassan).

After a controversial angle where his sidekick Daivari was "sacrificed" and a group of men clad in black carried him off, UPN stepped in and told WWE to get rid of the act (WWE simply overstepped some serious boundaries here).

Hassan had his last match with the Undertaker who gave him a last ride through the stage. Hassan was then sent down to developmental. Once there, WWE gave him an ultimatum: change your gimmick or be released.

Needless to say, he refused to change it. Hassan’s push to the top was now gone and he left wrestling completely to become a teacher.

#5 Dolph Ziggler

Never quite worked out for Dolph

No one has fallen harder over the last few years than Dolph Ziggler. It was just a couple of years ago at WrestleMania where every fan was begging for Ziggler to cash in his Money in the Bank and become World Champion.

When he did cash in on the post-Raw Wrestlemania, it created one of the biggest pops in WWE history.

After this Ziggler began to fall back to the mid-card scene until Survivor Series in 2014 where he was the shining star in a storyline with The Authority but it once again led to nothing. Ziggler never again recovered from this and still finds himself jobbing for other Superstars WWE are trying to build up.

#4 Damien Sandow

Maybe one day he will return....and succeed!!

One of the most under-appreciated wrestlers of all time had to have been Damien Sandow. Sandow has showed the ability to get over as a heel with his gimmick of an intellectual saviour of the masses or as a face when he was The Miz’s stunt double.

His first push came when he had won the Money in the Bank briefcase and cashed it in on John Cena, but lost. That was it – WWE basically just took the briefcase off of him and did nothing with him after that.

Then came his time with the Miz. He worked brilliantly as the Miz’s stunt double and fans were hoping the breakup with The Miz would lead to a great opportunity for Sandow as a singles wrestler. Instead, it led to him imitating Randy Savage on Main Event.

He never got anything to do after that again and has since been released from the company.

It has to be addressed that with a brand split on the way, why would WWE get rid of such a great talent?

#3 Kofi Kingston

The future might be bright still for this great performer

Making his WWE debut in 2007, Kofi Kingston has consistently been one of the most exciting performers in the WWE. He has the ability to do moves in the ring that nobody else can do and has a parkour-heavy style.

Kofi had one brief glimpse of possibly becoming a top star- when he feuded with Randy Orton in late 2009- however rumours of backstage turmoil between the two men transferred over into their work and Kofi's push came to a screeching halt.

Since then Kofi has won the tag titles, US title and the Intercontinental title on numerous occasions, but has failed to progress up the WWE ladder in any way.

Maybe with The New Day gimmick that has got over so well with all WWE fans, he might be in with a chance of a push in the future.

#2 Drew McIntyre

“The Chosen One”

Of everyone mentioned on this list, nobody had gotten as good of a rub as Drew had during the early stages of his career. During his first few weeks with the company, McIntyre was joined in the ring by WWE owner Vince McMahon who proceeded to call Drew a “future world champion” and provide him with the ultimate stamp of approval. This earned McIntyre the moniker of 'The Chosen One', as he seemed destined for nothing short of greatness within the confines of a WWE ring.

However, as with everyone else on this list, things didn't end as well as they had begun for Drew McIntyre. After a lengthy and impressive stint as Intercontinental Champion, McIntryre's began to just simply fizzle out.

With the introduction of the Nexus to WWE television, there was a large influx of new and younger talent to the WWE roster and McIntyre seemed to get lost in the shuffle. He went on to join 3MB and never did much else for the company. Simply an opportunity WWE once again gave up on too easily.

#1 Bobby Lashley

Sometimes it feels they’re doing the same with Roman Reigns

Bobby Lashley's WWE run could be described as nothing more than a flop.

Lashley was moved to the ECW brand and captured the ECW Championship at the 2006 ECW December to Dismember. His run would lead him into a feud with company chairman Vince McMahon, who would eventually capture the ECW Championship himself during a feud with the collegiate wrestling standout

He was moved to Raw and quickly scaled their ladder of success to land himself in a match with John Cena, which he would lose but still be treated as the 'Next Big Thing'; he received a respectful handshake from Cena after the bout. The following night on an episode of RAW, Lashley was injured during a match with Mr. Kennedy and was forced to take some time off to recover.

Little did we all know that this would be Bobby Lashley's final match in a WWE ring. He was released and just like that and his push to the top was gone in an instant.

He has since gone on to some success in TNA at least.

Meet the man who called CM Punk the softest man alive HERE