The Brian Kendrick: WWE’s Biggest Missed Opportunity
The Brian Kendrick: WWE’s Biggest Missed Opportunity
By “The Savior” Joseph Reds on Twitter/Instagram @WelpThatsAThing
The WWE has failed to calitalize on the success or talent of many wrestlers over the years: Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, etc. These examples all fall short of the failure that was the misuse of Brian Kendrick.
Shelton Benjamin had a long tenure with many Intercontinental Championship runs as well as tag team and US Championship gold. He was great in the ring but bad on the mic. Not that being bad on the mic matters much in the spectrum of wrestling these days, but he was at least relevant. For a long time Benjamin was THE mid card guy.
Now take John Morrison. Like Rhodes and Barret, they are all still young and capable of a last main event push, should they ever return. Morrison secured many a tag team championship as part of MNM and The Miz & Morrison, he won a few IC Titles and even held the very useless (though it shouldn’t have been) ECW Championship. He even had a few main event teases. Similar to Benjamin, he didn’t work on the mic and ultimately he didn’t pan out. The WWE at the time only liked roided out men who were garbage in the ring but even with that against him, Morrison had a decent run. He may even have another great run left in him, his in ring work has never been in question.
Now it’s hard to write this article and not feel a little guilty that I didn’t make Rhodes or Barrett the biggest missed opportunity. Both men have every right to that claim.
Barrett got screwed off the cuff. The Nexus angle was great, but soon after John Cena and an “Attitude Adjustment, that may as well be called “The Lazy Shovel”, he would find that his main event push fall flat. He had all the intangibles too, he was great in the ring and on the mic. After an awful run with the Corre, he would come back from injury with one of the greatest gimmicks ever: “Bad News” Barrett. How wonderful was that? He won multiple IC titles and was a clear frontrunner to be part of a new wave of WWE stars, but it never happened. He’d then leave, because why not?
Rhodes’ story is just as bad. The whole point of the stable “Evolution” was to show the past, present and future of the WWE. It worked wonders. It gave Flair one last hurrah, it gave Triple H a title that no one was ever allowed to hold for longer than a day before he wanted it back, and it even allowed for the careers of Randy Orton and Batista to skyrocket. Therefore later when Orton formed “The Legacy”, it seemed like you had an easy template to work with, only they didn’t. Ted DiBiase Jr career never skyrocketed, and he left. Rhodes soon found himself all on his own. Rhodes was a magician though, everything he touched turned to gold: Dashing Cody Rhodes, Team Rhodes Scholars with Damien Sandow, Stardust, etc. Rhodes was awesome and build to be a star, honestly. At this point, I kinda wish I was writing this article about him, and maybe one day I will, but it is not this day, so I’m gonna stick to my guns here, except I don’t own any guns, because no one needs more than one, especially if that gun fires more than one bullet a second. Politics.
Anyway, Barrett and Rhodes really can be featured in their own pieces, but after they left, everyone wrote about how the WWE fucked up with them. I’m not everyone and I decided to dig deeper than that. I went back to my formative years and, with the help of the wonderful Cruiserweight Classic, I found something I’d long lost:
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.
I pretty much pride myself in being TheWrestlingClassic.com’s Wrestling Savior. I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong and I’m right and you may as well get comfortable with that. Last week I told you The Miz was actually awesome, and I can’t get much worse than that.
Kind of like The Brian Kendrick was, and the WWE effed it all up.
I watched Brian Kendrick from the beginning of his career until his recent return. I remember him as Spanky, but he didn’t become relevant until his run with Paul London.
They were awesome.
I remember jumping off my couch when their rapid music would hit, they’d run down to the ring in masks and do back flips off the ropes. Hell, I even had a Brian Kendrick toy. I remember, I was far too poor to ever afford a PPV and my parents hated wrestling. I had to sneakily watch Smackdown in my room on UPN13 (Later the CW). I wanted London and Kendrick to win the tag titles so badly, but I couldn’t watch PPVs, so I had to wait to see the highlights on Smackdown. I lost my mind when they won.
Now I’m sure, by this point, this sounds like more of a tumblr blog than an actual article, please forgive me….or don’t, honestly I really don’t care.
London and Kendrick were cool. They still are and a part of my childhood died when the New Day recently broke the former’s Tag Team Title Length Record.
All good things must come to an end, however, the same was true for the team of Paul London and Brain Kendrick.
They had an odd split up, there was no real rhyme or reason to it. It just kind of happened, like the show Star Trek: Enterprise, no one asked for it.
London would fall into obscurity but Kendrick would rise like a phoenix from the ashes. How’d you like that cliché?
Kendrick would transform into The Brian Kendrick, and it was awesome. He ditched his cool shorts for douchey trunks, he wore an AWFUL white leather jacket with leopard print and studs and it was wonderful. He had a new attitude and he had a great swagger. He made you want to punch him square in the mouth and he was great at it. Even his finisher had a cool name “Sliced Bread No. 2”. Ever heard that phrase, “The coolest thing since sliced bread”? That was his move. The Brian Kendrick was a great heel, he even reminded me of the greatest wrestler ever, Shawn Michaels. I would later find out that he originally trained at Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy, and even started out there with Daniel Bryan. How cool is that?
The Brian Kendrick was a breath of fresh air. He had all the intangibles to not only be the premiere mid carder but later a main eventer. Sure he was 5’9″ but who cared? Oh, right, the WWE cared.
As I mentioned earlier, the WWE was a big boys club. No one of Kendrick size was bound to succeed. The odd thing is, with all of Vice McMahon’s love for muscle men, some of his best and most successful wrestlers were tiny in comparison: Shawn Michaels, Breton Hart, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Daniel Bryan, even CM Punk.
Everytime the WWE forces a Hulk Hogan carbon copy down our throats we kick and scream relentlessly.
Brian Kendrick should have been someone that, by now, we’re ready to see step down as The Guy and allow new stars to emerge. Unfortunately that never happened.
After showing so much promise The Brian Kendrick all of a sudden got released, seemingly out of no where. Later we’d find out it was due to smoking pot. I am no druggie, I think all drugs, including Pot are useless and stupid. That being said, Michael Phelps smokes the Mary Jane and he’s a gosh damn American hero. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Brian Kendrick should never have been released.
To be fair, Kendrick has said many times in the CWC he deserved to be punished and that he made mistakes. Maybe there’s something more, or variables, that we never knew about.
Kendrick would end up on TNA a while later, but TNA is garbage.
Kendrick would bounce around the indie scene for quite some time. I always missed him and hoped I’d see him again in the WWE.
Then one day he showed up in NXT. He faced Finn Balor in a losing effort, but I was elated. Seeing him again in a WWE ring was enough for me.
I hoped that he’d signed a new deal, but that never happened.
They later announced the CWC, I found out that he was in it. I knew he’d never win, but again, just happy to see him.
He had three matches, three great matches. Kendrick’s match against Kota Ibushi was brilliant, every moment. He lost and was in tears as long time friend Daniel Bryan hugged him in the middle of the ring.
The wonderful thing about seeing him in the CWC for three matches was seeing how happy everyone else was to see him too. He was embraced like a returning hero, or a long lost friend.
By now hopefully the WWE has seen that, though Kendrick played his own part in his release, it was a mistake to allow a man of his talent and caliber to walk out their doors.
Recently they signed him to be part of their cruiserweights division on RAW. So it is possible that he may make a final push towards main event status, even pidgeon held in the Cruiserweight Divison. Look at AJ Styles, at his age he has just started in the WWE and has already been launched into the main event scene. So maybe Brian Kendrick has another shot, I genuinely hope he gets it. He’s never won any singles titles in the WWE, even a mid card title would be nice.
Until that happens, The Brian Kendrick, with all his talent in the ring and on the mic, will remain the biggest missed opportunity the WWE has ever had.
So, do you agree? Tell me who you think is the biggest missed opportunity the WWE ever had. Also follow me on Twitter or Instagram @WelpThatsAThing
