Our Ten Best: Underrated Professional Wrestlers

Over the years, there have been a handful of wrestlers that for some reason or another, never got the attention or push they deserved.

Here’s our list of those guys that should have been in the spotlight a little bit longer or should have gotten the chance to at least step into it.

10: Teddy Hart: With an arsenal of high-flying moves and the legacy and ability of the Hart family instilled within him, the guy is an amazing talent. However, a lack of discipline behind the scenes has kept him out of the WWE and on the bad side of many smaller promotions in the country.

9: Bryan Clark: This guy was a beast who was ruined by horrible gimmicks. With two excellent finishing moves in “The Death Penalty,” a cobra clutch slam and “The Meltdown,” a pumphandle slam, this guy could have been a great upper-tier star. With a lack of mic ability, he lacked the full polish to be a heavyweight champ, but he probably could have been a more than decent United States champion if given an opportunity.

8: Reno: Simply put, with a cool look, a great finisher in his spinning neck dragon screw, “The Roll of the Dice,” this guy could have taken WCW by storm. The company’s insistence to use older stars prohibited that from taking place though.

7: Frank Kazarian:
Sure, he’s getting his shot now as a member of “Fortune,” but he’s far from an overnight success. Always a great competitor, it took TNA more than a half decade, a few releases and horrible gimmick changes to understand what they have in him.

6: Blitzkreig: Born Jay Ross, this cruiserweight had some of the best matches in WCW in 1999, but after about a month, he disappeared, wrestling occasional matches in the independent promotions. His finisher, a corkscrew 450 splash was simply mesmerizing to watch.

5: Dean Malenko: Sure, guy won his fair share of titles in WCW, was a member of the Horsemen and was even signed by the WWE and eventually won their light heavyweight title, but if given a decent push, the last five or so years of his career could have been something special. A great worker, Malenko could make anyone look great in the ring.

4: 2 Cold Scorpio: This guy could have a great match with anyone, thanks to a variety of excellent suplexes and top-notch aerial maneuvers. Bad gimmicks held him back in the WWF, but he always got respect in ECW.

3: Low-Ki/Senshi: Just the fact that he was forced to wrestle on NXT first instead of the WWE shows how much respect they have for his ability. A master of a plethora of submission moves, suplexes and possessing a great aerial finisher in “The Warrior’s Way,” this kid has it all. Hopefully, one day he’ll get the shot he deserves.

2: Chris Kanyon: “The Innovator of Offense,” Kanyon’s lack of charisma and problems getting along with with his co-workers, along with politics in WCW stopped him from realizing his true potential in the squared circle. A man of many finishing moves, all of them used later by other wrestlers, the guy was a pioneer in match pacing and helped redefine the art of the setup move.

1: Alex Shelley: One of the best tag team wrestlers of this generation, this guy has never gotten the chance in singles competition he deserves. Great on the stick and able to drive a storyline, this guy has a ton of star potential and much like his tag team partner Chris Sabin, is more than capable of being successful all by himself.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13820 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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