Unfulfilled Potential

By Scott Keith on September 3, 2012

Hey Scott,
I've gotten a few posts from you on your blog regarding questions I've had, so here's another head-scratcher that requires your expertise. What are some of the biggest 'unfulfilled potential' wrestler cases in the past 20-30 years? I think the biggest is Scott Hall. He had everything; the look, the size, the wrestling ability, the charisma. But he had a serious drug/alcohol addiction problem. How good of a Heavyweight Champion would he have been in WWF/WCW, providing he was sober? What about Jake Roberts? Another guy who's personal issues kept him from being the top guy. Also, more physical issues such as Magnum TA's case, or Curt Hennig. Although Curt had drug issues too but maybe he wasn't really ever thought of at that level.

Whatever Curt Hennig had the talent and motivation to do, he already did. He wasn't going to get to a higher level than he was at, especially when they programmed him against Hogan at the end of his undefeated streak and houses went down. By the time he got to the Monday Night Era his back was shot anyway.

I think the Holy Trinity of wasted potential came from Crockett in the 80s: Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA, Barry Windham. Each of them should have went on to be World champion several times over, but Koloff lost all his motivation after his wife died and the window closed for good. Magnum of course we know what happened. Windham was the second-in-charge for Dusty Rhodes and was being groomed by him to be the booker, while Flair was grooming him to be the top guy in the promotion, and he just stopped giving a shit about any of it. He could have been legendary in either capacity and he ended up with nothing. Like, if they had PPV in early 87 and they put one of those Flair-Windham matches as the main event, people would be raving about it like it was Savage-Steamboat today.

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