The longevity of professional wrestling is dependent upon its characters- the professional wrestlers. Professional wrestlers develop characters that try to connect with the audience either as a face (good guy) or as a heel (bad guy). Once the wrestler has completed that, the parent company will begin to bank on that wrestler’s character to increase revenue. In modern days a company like the WWE will feature popular wrestlers on pay-per-view advertisements, DVD covers, video games, magazine covers, toys and merchandise, etc. This is an investment the company is making in the individual.
Unfortunately for the company any number of circumstances can suddenly knock the wrestler out of the limelight like an arrest (or other negative publicity), injury, contract problems, or even death. These are not unknown circumstances and the WWE has dealt with them all. But there have been ones were the relationship between company hype and wrestler has just gone bust. The money and time invested in a wrestler evaporated for no good reason. Presented are three of the biggest WWE busts.
Nathan Jones
Nathan Jones has the physical build and real-life accolades that just screams pro wrestler. He is a chiseled 375 pounds at over seven feet tall, and since his WWE days he has been in movies like Troy (plays a giant Brad Pitt quickly slays early in the film) and ironically was in the WWE Films feature The Condemned. He was a real-life contender in the World’s Strongest Man contest in the mid 1990’s. But in the WWE his build-up focused on his time in an Australian prison, where it is reported he fought with and beat down ten prison guards.
Nathan Jones went bust when he was on tour for the WWE in Australia, simply walking out on the WWE. The fall-out wasn’t great but there was a good deal of media put into Nathan Jones by the company that never materialized into anything.
Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar not only had the physical stature of an imposing wrestler but also had the amateur pedigree as a serious wrestler. Lesnar won the NCAA National Championship in 2000 as a heavyweight. Lesnar was to be the future of the WWE and held the Heavyweight Championship three different times. He also feuded with such wrestling luminaries like Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Rock. He was featured on DVD’s, video games, and a plethora of merchandise.
Brock Lesnar went bust when he left the WWE after WrestleMania XX. Ostensibly, he left to play football in the NFL and he did get to play pre-season for the Minnesota Vikings. This attempt in the NFL was in spite of his not playing any football since high school. So, not only did the WWE lose on Lesnar, Lesnar lost when he walked out on a seven year, $45 million dollar WWE contract. After the cut by the Vikings, he had a tough time with other endeavors and impacted his finances. He has made a resurgence with UFC mixed martial arts fighting, having won the heavyweight championship there.
Unlike other the other busts mentioned Benoit came up through the wrestling ranks. He won crowd support through his fearless and aggressive style of wrestling. This was usually coupled with an unspoken underdog quality, as Benoit did not have an imposing stature at a billed height of 5 foot 11 inches. Benoit had been wrestling fifteen years before joining the WWE. He wrestled for the WWE seven years before going bust and enjoyed a reign as World Heavyweight Champion.
Chris Benoit went bust upon his murder of his wife and seven year-old son, then committed suicide. Although, at the time of his death the WWE did not have an usual amount of time, media, or money invested in Benoit, his murder-suicide did have two significant impacts. The first was the timing of the deaths. The announcement of the death came at a time when no details were available except he and his family was dead. He was found dead, Monday afternoon February 25th, 2007. The WWE’s live Monday night show RAW was quickly cancelled and replaced with a long tribute to his life. Afterwards, the detail started to come that it appeared that Benoit committed the murder-suicide. WWE was then criticized for highlighting and commemorating such a grizzly character.
The second impact was the allegation of steroid use leading to the killings. The timing coincided with an already heavy investigation into Major League Baseball usage of steroids. Investigations into Benoit’s steroid use led to other WWE superstars being “outted” for steroid use. Seemingly, since this time the WWE has been more stringent with their Talent Wellness program, the program that tests for illegal or banned substances and has a tiered system for penalties.
