Why These Wrestlers Were WWE's Biggest Contract Regrets

What's good y'all? It's your boy Ross back at again with another video. So, check out 11 wrestlers WWE regret ever signing. Sometimes WWE, they end up signing individuals and maybe they plan on using them. Maybe they plan on potentially pushing them up the card or even trying to make them like future main eventers and then ultimately doesn't work. They don't connect with the audience or you know, maybe they're just not good in the ring. We've seen it time and time again where they expect a talent to, you know, be this big star and ultimately that's not what happened. So, we're going to check out some of those instances where they hired individuals thinking they were going to be bigger what they ended up being and ultimately they end up uh not achieving what the company was hoping for and they probably end up regretting regretting paying them and hiring them. But nevertheless, we're going to check this out. Appreciate all love sport. Let's get right into it. Man, >> look at the look. >> The extent family, but especially Vince McMahon and Triple H aren't exactly known as a serial admitter of regret. Instead of addressing the issues that are directly in front of them, they dance around them. such as when McMahon infamously dragged a dilapidated constable Baron Corbin to the ring in 2018 to blame him for the decreasing quality of WWE programming. I remember that. Do y'all remember when the programming was just down like downright boring and awful? They tried to blame Baron Corbin as the reason why. They actively acknowledge that the ratings were the lowest they've ever been and they tried to make an angle where Baron Corbin's the reason that happened when Baron Corbin's not booking the show. That was uh that that was one of the craziest things, bro. I'm going be honest with you. Having someone your wrestler being blamed for the show being bad when they are actively booking you, booking the show themselves like we don't know that. Oh, and then they said, "Oh, we're going to make the show better." It was probably okay for one week and then it went right back to straight garbage. The same goes for the game, who will constantly bark that good things come to those who wait after the 10th missed opportunity of the month to push LA Knight further up the card. The ex and current patriarchs of WWE will however make it publicly known when they regret putting pen to paper on the recruitment of the latest aspiring Wrestlemania headliner. And join us now as WrestleMania looks at 11 wrestlers WWE instantly regret signing. Be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell for daily wrestling videos. Number 11, Tiger Ali Singh. Jim Ross named Tiger Ali Singh as arguably the worst thing he was responsible for during his time helping recruit talent for WWE in the '90s, saying the son of legendary Indian wrestler Tiger Jeet Singh joined WWE in 1997 and appeared to have many of the qualities the company was looking for. He had the right physical appearance came from a respected wrestling family and was considered intelligent. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was also reportedly enthusiastic about Singh because he believed the wrestler could help the company expand to international markets. Oddly, they made him a heel though. However, according to Ross, those qualities never translated into success with WWE audiences. Speaking on his grill and JR podcast, Ross explained that WWE invested far too much time trying to make Singh work. In Ross' view, Singh was a good-looking and intelligent performer who appeared convincing as a pro wrestler, but he lacked the natural ability to form a connection with fans and keep them entertained. Sing eventually left WWE following a difficult relationship with the company and later pursued legal action against it, claiming racism within the company, but after recovering from several concussions, he made occasional independent wrestling appearances before stepping away from pro wrestling. Number 10, Mystico. Promoted to executive vice president of talent and live events in 2011, Triple H was tasked with overseeing the talent recruitment and developmental departments and CMLL meast star Mystico marked his first major coupe renamed Sincara. It was heavily expected that he would fulfill the companywide goal of discovering their next Rey Mysterio. With reports even claiming that Triple H had personally taken them as super and here's the thing, they've still been trying to find their next Rey Mysterio. But I'll say this, even though Dragon Lee's pretty solid, if given the opportunity and time, I think he's cool. But if there's anybody that I feel like has done a really good job on the their next Rey Mysterio in a sense, no one will really truly replace him. I think Pinta has done a fantastic job so far. They have something with Penta. He's over with the fans. He's been over with the fans since day one. He's had a pretty solid Intercontinental Championship reign. I think they have something with him for sure. I wish they would do something more with Ray Phoenix. Um that's what I'm really hoping that they could really, you know, push Ray Phoenix more because I think he's um uh fantastic as well. They have some tough luchadors on the roster. They just got to utilize them. But if there's anybody that can like somewhat fill in that spot whenever Ray finally officially retire retires from WWE like you know he he's done with in ring uh competition you won't see him as much anymore. I think Penta would he he can fit that role not to be another Ray but to you know fit that luchador style that you know fans will really get behind. I think he got it in my personal opinion. under his wing. Development-wise, all things considered, he should have been a smash hit for WWE, but an infamous botch in night one led to Sin Carara being quietly shunned from a favorable position within management. He debuted on the RAW after Wrestlemania 27, saving Daniel Bryan from an attack at the hands of Sheamus, but car failed to clear the top rope during the first outing of his spectacular trampoline assisted somersaults into the ring that foreshadowed a troublesome tenure for the CMLL great in the market leader as he regularly botched, picking up a lengthy streak of injuries in the process before he finally departed for greener pastures in 2014. It wasn't a promising start for Triple H as WWE's chief talent scout, and the game naturally distanced himself from his so-called pet project at the earliest opportunity. You would though, wouldn't you? Number nine, Vader. Vader's always had complimentary opinions to offer on Vince McMahon, which is surprising when you consider how much of a fumble the Mastadon was under McMahon's penmanship. between pulling the plug on a reportedly promised WWF championship run because Golden Boy Shawn Michaels didn't fancy working him again and booking Paul Barrett to dance over his fallen body for well reasons. Vader became a complete joke in WWF. The creme dear crap, however, came when WWE hastily, albeit briefly, brought Vader back to relevance with a handful of appearances in late 2005. He was hired as one of the two goons by Jonathan Coachman ahead of Taboo Tuesday, the other being Gold Dust of All People, and he was tasked with rinsing Batista before the animals eventual demolition of Coachman. Vader, though, was a shell of his former self in the run-up to the pay-per-view and the show itself. Upon his initial return, he jumped the gun, running into Save Gold, who was already in control against Batista. It was a complete mess, and Vader quietly vanished without a trace after the event. Mercifully, Vader's actual last appearance as a talent came in 2012 when he assisted the destruction of Heath Slater by various historical WWE figures ahead of his rightful Hall of Fame induction four years later. Sadly, it was done postumously. Number eight, Scott Steiner. To summarize Scott Steiner's second run with WWE, he signed a three-year deal but was released while injured after barely one year had elapsed. the company had given up on him and the two sides wouldn't formally reconcile until Scott and brother Rick's induction into the 2022 Hall of Fame class. The Steiner, though, still considerably built like a brick house, had developed a ton of ring rush during his absence from the limelight. That was most striking during his flaccid Royal Rumble and No Way Out affairs with Triple H in 2003, both of which were critically panned. It marked the end of Big Papa Pump as a credible headliner as >> Yeah, the push was done after those stints. Those Yeah, those matches didn't really work. The push was done. >> Was relegated to working midcard foder with Test and Stacy Keebler before Vince McMahon had just had enough come 2004. McMahon's buyer remorse led to Scott developing a deeprooted hatred of the entire family. He infamously referred to Stephanie McMahon as a see you next Tuesday during a 2017 interview. But nine years later, he was slightly calmer when discussing why his second stint failed to pan out as successful as his WCW main event glory. He told the Baltimore son, "Well, if you look back, everyone from WCW got treated like garbage. From Goldberg to Kevin Nash to Skull Hall. You have to remember you were there. We beat WWE for 82 weeks straight. And Vince obviously took that personally. So, he wanted to bring everyone in that was on top in WCW and bury them. Kevin Ash is supposed to be the best friend at Triple H, but he got the same thing. He won the first match against Triple H by DQ and then lost the second one. I can't really take it that personally because Triple H treated supposedly his best friend in the same way. I'll tell you right now, people up there are miserable. Both times that I went up there, it was the most screwed up place I've ever been. Now things are a little different. games are a little different, but there is some truth to that cuz let's be honest here. If you was a top guy in WCW and you made your way to WWE, they weren't going to treat you like a top guy that you should have been. It's just the truth. Vince is someone that still held that that type of grudge. Prime example when Sting came into WWE. Why have Sting lose his first Wrestlemania match to Triple H of all people and then it was like the nWo versus DX and DX prevailed? Like think of think how crazy that is. Why? It's his first Wrestlemania. Have him win. Y'all won the war. Who cares? Vince cared. They cared. That was I've always felt that was like petty, bro. He liter And then you could have built off of that. You could have built a, you know, a year after that potentially Undertaker versus Sting. Everybody wants to see that. Everyone would have wanted to see that. That's a mega match. Whatever. Steiner has now pulled back on his uh well controversial remarks against the McMahon family after being inducted into the 2022 Hall of Fame as well as having his nephew Braum Breaker in the company. He doesn't want to do anything to screw that up, right? Well, it already is. Number seven, Chronic. Similar in the sense to Scott Steiner, Chronic had been presented as one of the top tag teams during the dying stretch of WCW. Not that that counts for much, and they eventually joined the WWF in 2001 as shortlived members of the Alliance. They held a WCW World Tag Team Championship twice and even headlined the 2000 Halloween Havoc opposite Goldberg. But they weren't a natural fit for WWF, not even in the eyes of the muscle mad Vince McMahon. Comprising Brian Crush Adams and Brian Adam Bomb Clark. Neither man was a stranger to the inner workings of the WWF and should have been a dominant threat during the final stretch of the invasion. But instead, they worked an absolute stinker against the Brothers of Destruction at Unforgiven that was voted the worst work match of the year by the Observer newsletter. And soon after that, they were gone. Having allegedly rebuffed McMahon's request for them to undergo a spot of seasoning in developmental, the match was an abomination, sure, but why did Vince tro the line at Brian Squared when he was all too happy to put his trust in King Mabel as a headliner 6 years early? It was this level of unknowing that made working for Vince McMahon such an arduous task for those below his trusted few on the pecking order. Number six, Andrade. While Vince McMahon seemed to regret signing anybody that wasn't named Hulk Hogan or Roman Reigns, there hasn't been many stories of Triple H experiencing deep regrets about any of his hires with one notable exception though that being Andrade. The former Lafra returned for his second go round as a surprise entry in the 2024 Rumble match and remained a WWE staffer until his departure in September 2025. It was alleged that the reason for the former NXT champion's exit was several violations of the company's wellness policy. But soon after news broke of his sudden free agency, it emerged that WWE had experienced buyer's remorse with regards to bringing Andrade back. It was noted in the Wrestling Observer newsletter write up that the company executives had hoped his jump back to WWE from AEW would have the same impact as CM Punk and Cody Rhodess. It was an impossible expectation. A lack of creative direction was cited as a key reason behind Andrade's wanting to exit WWE. This has been placed in a thrown together tag team with Ray Phoenix that only made audiences yearn for Phoenix to reunite with his brother Penta. Regardless, it was a bizarre 15-month stretch for someone who was positioned so prominently during Triple H. >> It was very weird. I just thought it was very weird. I'm like, they definitely could have utilized him more. It's not like he's not a fantastic wrestler. It they just threw him with Ray Phoenix, okay? Like he was just kind of floundering around on Smackdown. It's just like I don't know. you you could could utilize him more to you know probably get more out of him. I don't know but his second go around you would have thought it worked out and then he went right back to AW and it seems like he's doing better in AW. So steering of NXT. Number five, Mark Henry. WWE had high hopes for Mark Henry in 1996. Vince McMahon signed him to his fledgling empire shortly after the world's strongest man represented the United States as a powerlifter in the 96 Summer Olympics in Atlanta on a deal that almost matched Bretart in terms of its lucrativity. Mark was hired at a $250,000 annual salary with 10 years of guaranteed employment. Despite his complete lack of wrestling knowledge and an apparent indifference to developing, he was practically robbing McMahon blind. This naturally led to intense jealousy towards Mark Henry. a rookie in the pro wrestling game from his newfound peers. He joked the vitriolof off during an appearance on Kurt Angle's podcast, but it was still clear that Henry was affected by a societal outcast status. >> Oh yeah, they hated my gut and sabotaged me. >> Intentionally tried to sabotage me. >> And I never got I never got joked with nobody. I mean, we joked around with my friends. You play the dozens, talk about your mama, that kind of thing. But nobody ever put like salt in my food when I wasn't looking or try to put pills in my drink to knock me out or >> put in my food or you know, man, it was so much that happened like the ribbon got ridiculous >> and and there was points where um people took liberties like they knew they could get away with it in the framework of wrestling >> so they would hit they would knock the out of to me. Regardless, Mark Henry ran with everything thrown at him, and he was able to forge a corner for himself during the attitude era as sexual chocolate he got over during an era in which getting over wasn't as easy as it once was. Though his relationship with May Young could have gone a miss. Oh, number four, Nath. Shout out to Mark, man. Shout out to Mark, bro. uh just hearing some of the stories he told me and the homie dub uh you know he he's lived a life 10 times over you know so if he was able to get some extra green from Vince McMahon I think it worked out I think it worked out to be honest with you so if they regret it too bad so sad don't matter no more then Jones ever so fond of a hulking performer whom you could label as WWE'se's next big thing. Irrespective of their actual talent as a wrestler, Vince McMahon signed Nathan Jones on a spot in 2003. But it wasn't before long Jones called time on his WWE career. He legitimately walked out during a company tour of Australia at the end of the year, citing frustrations with the hectic schedule. Vince had already soued on his latest pet project, having pulled Jones from a planned Wrestlemania 19 tag team match, putting Nathan and the Undertaker against the Big Show and Ara. It was clear he was far too green to be on WWE'SE's main roster, let alone competing at WrestleMania as part of the Undertaker Street. He was rightfully sent to OVW shortly after Mania for further development. Not that it did him any favors. Discussing the colossus of Bogo Road on his podcast, Jim Ross claimed that while Vince wasn't outright angry that Nathan had walked out, he was still disappointed that his latest grand plan hadn't panned out as hoped. Number three, Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho eventually became so deeply ingrained in Vince McMahon's good books that alongside his many many title victories under McMahon's great division, Vince was reported as having done everything in his power to stop Jericho from jumping to AW in 2019. He was unsuccessful obviously. Was did he do everything in his power when it came to having that Wrestlemania match with Kevin Owens making that probably the world title match that it should have been? And I think Jericho had said that was the original plan and he promised to do that for him cuz that was one of the catalysts on why Jericho even jumped left. But hey, okay. But had Tony Khan set up shop two decades earlier in 1999, you likely wouldn't have had a rival billionaire vying for Jericho's attention. McMahon hated Y2J in the beginning, and it could be safely assumed that he only signed Jericho to sway another troop away from Ted Turner's camp. Unlike most of Vince's petty one-sided rivalries, however, he had a somewhat good reason to regret signing Chris. He'd accidentally gave China a black eye. Jericho spoke of his heated encounter with McMahon in his second autobiography, Undisputed, saying, "I knocked on his door and walked in to find him talking to Triple H. They gave me a strange look and Vince asked me to come back in a few minutes." After a couple of minutes, I went back to his office. This time, Triple H was gone and Vince was with Jim Ross, the head of talent relations, and Jack Lanza. He told me to shut the door and take a seat. And surprisingly, he didn't look happy. As a matter of fact, he looked downright pissed. Vince looked at me in the eye and said, "What is your problem?" I said, "Pardon me." He said, "What the f is your problem?" Uh-oh. My normally calm and collected boss was now swearing at me. I said, "I'm sorry. I don't understand." So, what you did to China yesterday, huh? You gave her a black eye. You were stiffing the out of her. How could you do that? Caught off guard, I tried to defend myself. It wasn't intentional, Vince. It's just part of the job sometimes. You know that. Said you don't have an effing clue what you're doing out there. You're green as grass and it's embarrassing. I was sold a bill of goods in bringing you here and not worth the paper your contract is printed on. Everybody's complaining about you. Yikes. Well, that wasn't what I expected to hear. When I walked in his office, I was in shock. Now, regardless, Chris Jericho eventually became a McMahon favorite, and he ended his WWE tenure as a 26time champion. That's kind of crazy. Got over the black eye. Number two, Buff Bagwell. The amazing storyline of 2001 brought a number of duds to the biggest game in town, but none had a tersa run as Buff Bagwell. He was in and out within a week. Bagwell's sole outing at WWF was as a challenger for Book's WCW Championship on the July 2nd Raw, match that ended in a no contest and one that was critically panned. Speaking on Off the Record, sports journalist Michael Lansberg referred to it as the worst match ever with specific criticism towards Buff Bagwell. After that, he was in a story line thrown out of the building by Stonehold Steve Austin and Kurt Angle and in reality handed his papers following accusations of a bad attitude backstage. Understandably, Vince McMahon deeply regretted putting pen to paper to bring the stuff to the WW as Jim Ross explained on his grill and JR podcast. Well, Buff just he thought he he had a higher opinion of his work than Vince did. And you know, I I become the bad guy because I'm the middleman. I'm the guy that delivers the bad news or the good news at times. Uh but I don't I don't hold any animosity to this very to this day on Mark Bagwell whatsoever. He just wasn't a good fit, Conrad. And he, you know, uh that partying lifestyle >> Mhm. >> you know, we're trying to distance oursel a little bit from that if we could. You know, Vince just didn't see the money in Mark that Mark saw in himself. So, I can only deal with the hand that's dealt me when I'm told this kid's not going to get it. I want you to let him go. Damn. >> And number one, Raven. Vince McMahon's hatred of Raven is a tale of two halves. The first half actually being rather funny and the second half being the unverified rumor that Raven got Shane McMahon hooked on cocaine. Then it's unverified though would explain Shane's excessive sweating in his late years as well as his daredevil mindset to jump off the top of the hell in a cell. That hilarious first half though concerns McMahon's boardroom confusion having resigned an innocuous new generation era manager. Real name Scott Levy. Raven had been Johnny Polo in a previous life before moving to ECW and WCW to develop his more iconic persona. And as Raven explained during an appearance on Talkis Jericho, Vince had no clue that he was the same man who once managed the Quebecers. Jr. brought me in and this is what Michael Hayes told me that Vince when Vince heard about it. He goes, "Who they have hired Johnny Polo?" Cuz I don't think Vince even knew I built a career as Raven prior to going back there. I think he thought I was Johnny Polo. And then four years went by and I sat at home because if I wasn't working for him, I wasn't working anywhere. Raven didn't last long in the company packing his bags in 2003. But there you have it, folks. That's kind of crazy, bro. Who the is Johnny Paul? That's kind of crazy, man. Look, if you're able to, you know, get into WWE'SE's doors and they able to throw some good money at you, hey, take it. Take it. Even if they end up regretting it, hey, take it or I Y'all gave me the money. I came to work. If I didn't live up to y'all expectations, it is what it is. Your boy still got paid. But hey, comment down below. Let me know some other wrestling related videos y'all want me to check out, I definitely will. Appreciate all love support you guys on my channel. Road to 200K. I'll see you on the next one. Peace.