Why Didn't this guy work?
 

It looked like he was going to become the new Randy Savage. He sort of got a good run as a face. High flying exciting offense, wasn't much on the stick but you didn't have to be back then. Everybody loved Sable and then things just went backwards.


I know just about everyone hates him now, but when I was 12 I thought he was awesome. I'm not saying "world champion" but I am saying that as a fan friendly complementary character to Shawn Michaels he was perfect.


So what went wrong with him?

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

Sable happened

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

He didn't draw. Nobody wanted to see him. Any heat he got was simply because people wanted to see Sable. Without her he was a bum.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

His gimmick killed him. Really did we need a Little Richard wrestler?

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

Sable became more popular than him.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

He was a fun high flying act in WCW and early WWE days. He had a serious knee injury in WWE that really killed his exciting high flying offense though. After that injury he got brought back in a boxer type of gimmick and his offense was beyond lame. His storyline with Sable was decent but her powerbombing him etc. made him look really weak. The feud got Sable over huge and buried Mero.

I don't think he ever really had main event potential. He was just a solid mid-card guy at best.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

That's what I needed to know. I didn't know he got injured. I thought he got stifled by the front office. All the talk about Sable is an obvious response not really worth discussing because it was clear then what was going on.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

I really think it was a simple gimmick problem, another victim of taking a horrible gimmick and never being able to recover respect. The guy was talented, charismatic, and had the look. But a make up wearing, prissy doll face was not going to get over in1990. To his credit he played the part like a champ, unknowingly killing any cred.

There have been dozens of asexual heels, or flamboyant heels, but not faces until later......Adrian Street had some face runs but he started as a heel.

I do think he had potential.... main event potential, he had everything you could want except for good booking and writting.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

Yeah "Johnny B. Badd" was not a good idea, even if I think Mero pulled it off better than most wrestlers could. It just wasn't going to work one way or another.

Re: Why Didn't this guy work?
 

WCW, Johnny B Badd wasn't really nothing special.

I did enjoy him as "Wildman" Marc Mero, though.

But, by the time WWE ventured into the Attitude Era, the writing was on the wall for Mero. Due to his strong Christian beliefs, he turned down various storylines and just wanted out of the business. Personally, I feel he could have been pretty successful in the mid card.