6 WWE flops who became successful in TNA
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is the biggest professional wrestling business in the world right now, and no other promotion comes close to reaching its level of success. This grand stature makes WWE the place to be for aspiring professional wrestlers.
WWE, currently, boasts over a 100 talented superstars on their roster. Understandably, it isn’t possible for each one of them to receive their deserving push. Many talented superstars often get lost in the shuffle and end up as jobbers or mid-carders, at best, without any solid gimmick or storyline.
However, this doesn’t mean these superstars lack the talent to make it big; it’s just some reasons such as over-saturation of talent in the company, backstage heat, involvement in unpleasant incidents and the like, due to which, they miss out on their push to the pinnacle.
The true potential of these underrated superstars is often unleashed once they leave the big leagues of WWE and join other promotions or the independent wrestling circuit. Sometimes, their huge success in smaller promotions leads them to be rehired with the pro wrestling giant.
Here, we take a look at 6 superstars whose true potentials were unlocked by TNA (Impact Wrestling).
#6 Bubba Ray Dudley/Bully Ray
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ully Ray, or Bubba Ray Dudley, has been a tag team wrestler for most of his career, his partner in crime being D-Von Dudley.
The Dudley Boyz enjoyed a well-deserved stellar run in WWF/WWE throughout late 90s and early 2000s. Bubba Ray even got an average solo run before reuniting with Devon at Survivor Series 2002.
During Bubba's first WWE stint, he and D-Von won the tag team titles multiple times before being reduced to a beatable tag team, who traded wins and losses equally. In late 2005, Bubba left for TNA, with D-Von, and the duo were re-branded as Team 3D. Eventually, they disbanded in 2010 to pursue their singles career.
Now, a singles competitor, Bubba Ray Dudley adopted the moniker of Bully Ray. Initially, everyone thought his singles run wouldn’t last long and that Team 3D would be forced to reunite, but Bully Ray found huge success as a solo superstar in no time.
Bully transitioned into one of the flagship talents in TNA soon and, in the process, became a World Champion as well. His promos were always intriguing and entertaining. His matches with the likes of AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, etc. were legendary.
At one point, the NYC Brawler was so over with the crowd that TNA decided to put him in a rivalry with the TNA hierarchy, The Carters. This feud is one of the highlights of his singles career.
Bully Ray’s true potential as a solo competitor had been looked over for years in WWE, but, luckily, he got the opportunity to show what he is truly capable of, thanks to TNA.