10 WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Superstars You Probably Don't Remember

Among the first utterances by a pre-Jorts John Cena on WWE programming were the company's ordained buzzwords of the day: "Ruthless Aggression". Following the Attitude Era, and the one-year grace period of botching invasions from WCW and the nWo alike, WWE instituted a new era of sorts, one that fans a bit younger than the Attitude heyday look back on fondly, because it was *their* era.

And no doubt, Ruthless Aggression spawned many good things, from the rise of the Ohio Valley Four, the establishment of tremendous wrestling on SmackDown, and many memorable rivalries and character turns. But not every individual under that ruthlessly-aggressive spotlight thrived. For every "Rated R Superstar" and "Doctor of Thuganomics", there are those that never could get out of the starting blocks. While some flourished, others faded away with barely a sound.

Let's turn back the clock to those years with the double-zeroes in the middle, and scope out some WWE superstars who, with all due respect, didn't prove to be super, nor could you call them stars. For them, Ruthless Aggression ended up being a period of Merciful Meekness.

Among the first utterances by a pre-Jorts John Cena on WWE programming were the company's ordained buzzwords of the day: "Ruthless Aggression". Following the Attitude Era, and the one-year grace period of botching invasions from WCW and the nWo alike, WWE instituted a new era of sorts, one that fans a bit younger than the Attitude heyday look back on fondly, because it was *their* era.

And no doubt, Ruthless Aggression spawned many good things, from the rise of the Ohio Valley Four, the establishment of tremendous wrestling on SmackDown, and many memorable rivalries and character turns. But not every individual under that ruthlessly-aggressive spotlight thrived. For every "Rated R Superstar" and "Doctor of Thuganomics", there are those that never could get out of the starting blocks. While some flourished, others faded away with barely a sound.

Let's turn back the clock to those years with the double-zeroes in the middle, and scope out some WWE superstars who, with all due respect, didn't prove to be super, nor could you call them stars. For them, Ruthless Aggression ended up being a period of Merciful Meekness.

10. The Teacher's Pets

For about a year from Judgment Day 2006 onward, Paul London and Brian Kendrick defended their WWE Tag Team titles on each and every SmackDown pay-per-view, although at times it seemed like creative had to scrape some duos together for the highest of hooligans to square off with. No Mercy that year gave us a pretty good match, albeit a forgettable one, that pitted London and Kendrick against two OVW standouts that ended up not being long for the main roster.

They were KC James and Idol Stevens, sometimes referred to as The Teacher's Pets. That's because their manager was former science teacher Michelle McCool, whose arena attire definitely played on the "Hot for Teacher" stereotype. James looked like the lovechild of Bobby Eaton, while Stevens looked like a clean shaven Damien Sandow - which is because he *was* a clean-shaven Damien Sandow, years before discovering the comfort that a plush bathrobe can provide. The month following No Mercy, James and Stevens faded from the SmackDown roster, and James retired two years later.

9. Johnny Stamboli (left)

One of the few real bright spots in the barren wasteland that was 2000 WCW was the high-risk exuberance of "Johnny the Bull". Built like the heavyweight roughneck he portrayed, Stamboli also demonstrated grace in brutality, throwing caution to the wind in various hardcore-based matches (see: slingshot plancha leg drop, ladder, and subsequent broken ass). Upon arriving on WWE's main roster in the summer of 2002, Stamboli was 25 years old, and with plenty to offer.

Stamboli figured into the dying days of the Hardcore title scene (particularly in taking an incredible Clothesline from Hell from Bradshaw, who charged in from off-camera), but after that, he was little more than a peripheral figure. His time with the three-man Full Blooded Italians pretty much pitted him as third banana behind Nunzio and Chuck Palumbo, and Stamboli found himself tucked deep in the undercard prior to his November 2004 release. A shame, because somebody with his physical gifts had much more to offer than being a background player.

8. Ryan Sakoda (left)

Like Stamboli, Sakoda found himself in the third slot on a depth chart of three, and fell considerably behind the stardom enjoyed by his two cohorts. After working the odd Sunday Night Heat match in 2003 as an underneath guy, Sakoda signed a developmental deal with the company, but found a TV role shortly after. At No Mercy in October 2003, Sakoda joined Jimmy Yang (who was redubbed Akio) in helping Cruiserweight champion Tajiri defeat Rey Mysterio.

Sakoda and Akio played mysterious suit-wearing henchmen for Tajiri, interfering on his behalf whenever possible, and occasionally wrestling as well. When the group disbanded, Sakoda went adrift, though he did get to wrestle John Cena on an episode of SmackDown in May 2004. He left the company that August, his final match coming the prior month in a losing effort to Funaki on Velocity. To date, Sakoda's last match overall took place in September 2007, losing to a man that so happens to be number one on this list.

7. Johnny Parisi

Hit up the wayback machine and go back to 2005, when WWE pilfered a fairly talented wrestler from the ranks of Total Nonstop Action. He was a former Tag Team champion with the company, and even resided in the upper midcard of ECW during the final six to eight months of its lifetime. Said wrestler comes to WWE, takes on the Parisi name as a tribute to his uncle, former WWWF Tag Team champion Tony Parisi and...well, yeah, it's kind of forgotten to history, isn't it?

Johnny Parisi was better known as Johnny Swinger, longtime ally of Simon Diamond that carved out a pretty good niche for himself as a villainous tag team wrestler. He debuted as Parisi on Sunday Night Heat in July 2005 and lost almost every match he had on the secondary show, never once wrestling on Monday Night Raw. Swinger ended up getting his release in June 2006 following the long period of kayfabe futility, and has spent the 14 years since wrestling primarily in Georgia and Alabama, before returning to IMPACT Wrestling.

6. Bam Neely

Perhaps one day we here at Cultaholic will do a feature on every single beefy heavyweight that was called up from developmental to be someone's bodyguard or enforcer, but for now, we'll focus on this particular example. Standing 6'5" and weighing about 280 pounds, OVW talent Justin "The Ox" LaRouche spent about 16 months in developmental before migrating to the ECW brand in April 2008, where Chavo Guerrero enlisted his menacing muscle.

LaRouche was renamed Bam Neely, a not-so-subtle play on the name Cam Neely, who was a tough-as-nails NHL veteran that played also played a malevolent trucker named "Sea Bass" in Dumb and Dumber. So either somebody on WWE creative thought LaRouche looked like a mean-spirited long-hauler, or they were just a fan of the Boston Bruins. Either way, Neely received plenty of airtime through his partnership with Guerrero, as well as his extended connection to Edge's La Familia stable, but he was mostly just a looming figure and little more. In January 2009, nine months after his main roster debut, Neely was released from WWE, and retired from wrestling the following year.

5. Gunner Scott

Some of the names on this list never enjoyed any real success on the main roster, banging their head on a rather low ceiling before being shuffled out the door. Such wasn't the case for Scott, who hit the ground running on SmackDown in the spring of 2006. And yet, despite that early success, he still made his exit rather hastily, despite showing incredible promise. It's one of the more bizarre career arcs of any main roster talent.

Scott, better known as future NWA World champion Brent Albright, debuted as an enhancement talent who scored an upset win over Booker T. This earned him the respect of Chris Benoit, who took Scott under his wing for a brief spell. However, within three months, Scott was sent back to developmental, and released later that year. As Albright, the gifted technician ended up in Ring of Honor not long after, and bounced around various indies before retiring from the ring in December 2011. From a quick push out of the gate to being swept off the stage in under three months - such was the WWE run of Gunner Scott.

4. Krissy Vaine

In early-2006, Krissy Vaine debuted in then-WWE developmental group Deep South Wrestling, where she eventually performed as the group's evil general manager. She was involved in angles with Natalya, Matt Striker, and Angel Williams (the eventual Angelina Love) before receiving her call-up to the main roster of WWE in September 2007. And even the most devoted watcher of SmackDown may have trouble remembering Vaine, who was gone from the company quicker than a hiccup.

She debuted in rather notable fashion, attacking the popular Torrie Wilson one Friday night. The following week, she appeared once more on the show in a segment with Vickie Guerrero, which aired five nights before Vaine was released from the company. As it turns out, her and her boyfriend, developmental talent Ryan O'Reilly, asked for their releases, apparently due to health-related issues concerning both of their families. Her only two matches on the main roster came at house shows on consecutive nights, losing to Michelle McCool. Since then, Vaine has married O'Reilly, who you know better today as Konnor of The Ascension.

3. CW Anderson

When WWE launched its own version of ECW in 2006, it didn't take long for the flavour of "extreme" to wear off. Though the presence of Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, and The Sandman reinforced a bit of classic ECW, they were among the few originals treated like top guys. The FBI, Balls Mahoney, Danny Doring and Roadkill, Stevie Richards, Justin Credible - their won/loss records on the brand made 2018 Curt Hawkins look like 2015 Roman Reigns.

For any ECW original outside of the core four, their time in the reboot was unmemorable, but not as unmemorable as CW Anderson. Part of the next generation of the kayfabe Anderson family, CW carried on the mantle of hard-nosed rasslin' from his forebears and feuded memorably with Dreamer in the original company (including in a brutal I Quit match at the final PPV).

Six years later, Anderson (who was renamed Christopher W. Anderson, so as to not confuse him with The CW Network, I guess) wrestled primarily on house shows over a three-month stretch in 2006, losing once on TV to upstart CM Punk, and then was released months later.

2. The Heart Throbs & The Dicks

That title sounds like the least-ambiguous romance novel of all time, but there's little to romanticize about the life span of two midcard duos. We start with The Heart Throbs, Antonio and Romeo, burst onto the Raw scene in April 2005, and brought with them a lively and suggestive entrance that prompted William Regal and Tajiri to make some boggled glances in their direction.

Months later on SmackDown, James and Chad Dick debuted over on SmackDown as Chippendales dancers called, what else, The Dicks. The two never really got out of the gate as anything outside of undercard chum for the pushed wrestlers to feast on, and by this time, The Heart Throbs had cooled off considerably as well. In February 2006, both teams were released from the company, at a time in which tag team wrestling in WWE was really downplayed (er, more than usual, anyway). At a point when there was about a 50/50 shot that a brand's Tag champs were just two thrown together singles stars, steady duos had less chance at success.

1. Frankie Kazarian

Christopher Daniels was occasionally a weekend enhancement talent for WWE at the turn of the century, while Scorpio Sky attended anger management sessions with Daniel Bryan and Kane. Of the three SCU members, Kazarian, overall, had the best WWE run, though really it wasn't much more than a footnote. In July 2005, five months after leaving TNA and signing with WWE, Kaz finally made his first televised appearance with the company.

In the span of one month, Kazarian (whose theme song began with what sounded like a sedated elephant singing over a xylophone, before shifting into some lively metal) went undefeated on WWE Velocity, toppling Nunzio, Scotty 2 Hotty, Funaki, and Paul London, before asking for his release. Reportedly, Kazarian wanted out after learning that WWE didn't have any real plans for its Cruiserweight division, while Kazarian revealed that he was upset at being asked by the company to cut off his Antonio Banderas-esque long hair. Kazarian later chalked up his annoyance with the latter issue to his own immaturity at the time, though it didn't seem to hinder his career too much. He's still going strong at age 42, long after his obscure cup of coffee with the E.