10 Legendary Wrestlers Who Had Hugely Disappointing WWE Runs
We expected better...
Today is December 12, which means it's time to wish a 'happy birthday' to both Ultimo Dragon and Sabu.
Two of the move innovative and copied wrestlers of the nineties, Dragon and Sabu are genuine originals in the business and have had phenomenal careers by anyone's standards.
There are similarities between the two beyond their high-flying styles, as both enjoyed much success in Japan, both worked for WCW (albeit Sabu only briefly) and both had short, underwhelming stints in WWE.
They're not the first and they probably won't be the last.
10. Ultimo Dragon
Ultimo Dragon was one of the most innovative wrestlers of the nineties and had some exceptional runs in Mexico, Japan and WCW.
The inventor of the Asai Moonsault, Dragon first made his name south of the border, before going back to his homeland and establishing himself as one of his generation's premier junior heavyweights for New Japan Pro Wrestling and WAR.
He won countless titles and his incredible matches in the Land of the Rising Sun caught the attention of Eric Bischoff, who brought him over to the United States to be part of his burgeoning cruiserweight division.
While wrestling for WCW, Ultimo won both the Cruiserweight and Television Titles on two occasions each and had some classic matches with the likes of Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko, Psychosis and others.
Regrettably, what should have been a routine elbow surgery in 1998 was botched, leading to Dragon temporarily retiring while focusing on training students at his gym.
He was able to make a comeback, however, and was signed by WWE in 2003.
His debut was hyped for weeks on television and WWE rolled out the red carpet for him, having him make his official televised bow on the June 26 episode of SmackDown, which took place inside Madison Square Garden.
Working in MSG was a lifelong dream of Dragon's and a personal highlight of his career, as was performing at WrestleMania XX (also in MSG). Regrettably, he slipped twice while making his entrance at the Showcase of the Immortals, which just about summed up his stay in the company.
Ultimo spent most of his time wrestling on forgotten weekend show Velocity and house shows and was rarely featured following his debut. He left the company not long after WrestleMania XX and was scheduled to return months later (without the mask), but never did.
Just as well, really.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.
