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Youtube Channel Comments Policy
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SportsTranscript
00:00 As sleigh bells ring and chestnuts roast, Santa Claus is checking his list twice to
00:04 figure out which WWE superstars have been naughty or nice.
00:08 In 2023, there should be nothing but lovely gifts in everyone's stockings, but in years
00:12 past, that was very much not the case.
00:14 Suspensions have historically commenced the payment for a particularly good time out or
00:18 a way to make a big, meaty man bigger and meatier, and some of those suspensions have
00:22 come at particularly bad times for those who have received them, resulting in them having
00:26 to remove the rocket that has been strapped to their backs.
00:28 But more importantly, they probably got coal in their stockings that year.
00:32 Merry Holiday!
00:33 I'm Tempest Hailing from PartsFunKnown and these are 7 Major WWE Pushes Canceled by Suspensions.
00:39 But before we get on with this list, make sure that you like this video, subscribe,
00:42 and go over to our Patreon where we have a full, exclusive episode of Survival Series
00:48 where we recount every single Pay-Per-View main event of 2023.
00:53 Number 7.
00:54 Randy Orton Survivor Series has come and gone and family
00:57 Mandy "Randy" Orton has finally returned.
00:59 Ain't that just dandy?
01:01 Certainly the most newsworthy thing to come out of that show.
01:03 Wink.
01:04 But while Randy seems like a chilled out viper these days, in his youth, he was known as
01:08 one of the bigger dickheads of the WWE locker room, something that got him on the bad side
01:12 of talent and management over time.
01:15 Orton has three suspensions to his name in WWE, which you would think would violate WWE's
01:20 three-strike policy and result in his termination, but when you're one of the company's golden
01:24 geese, you can never really be on management's bad side.
01:28 The latter two came in periods where Orton was floating around the card with not much
01:31 on, but the first suspension came in 2006, the week of WrestleMania.
01:36 The story goes that Orton smoked some of the devil's lettuce backstage after a match,
01:40 and was suspended immediately after WrestleMania 22 for his bad behavior.
01:44 Now those who know me know I get along with Mary Jane, but I don't think blazing up
01:48 in the studio after a podcast would go down very well.
01:51 It wasn't in question that Rey Mysterio was going to leave Mania with the big gold
01:54 belt, but Orton's suspension kept him from being one of Rey's immediate challengers,
01:58 ending his first resurgence into the world title scene in over a year.
02:02 6.
02:03 R-Truth R-Truth has played the role of goofball comedy
02:06 guy in WWE for most of his career, with 2011 being the lone example of Truth being a serious
02:11 character.
02:12 Well, as serious a character as he could be as he talked to an imaginary fan named Lil
02:16 Jimmy confused "acrophobia" with "arachnophobia" and said the name "Air Boom" sounded like
02:22 a sneaky fart, but he was a heel so it was something different.
02:25 And this heel run led to a main event tag match against The Rock and John Cena, so it
02:29 isn't outlandish to say that this was the peak of his WWE run.
02:33 But that run came to a screeching halt precisely one day after that tag match at Survivor Series,
02:39 as The Miz turned on Truth on Raw, followed immediately by WWE announcing Truth had violated
02:44 the wellness policy.
02:45 It was the death blow that killed what little momentum Truth had from earlier in the year
02:49 when he actually showed signs of being interesting, and while Truth would return a month later
02:53 and have a run in with The Miz in the notoriously sh*t 2012 Royal Rumble, he never got close
02:58 to the two pay-per-view main events he had in 2011.
03:01 5.
03:02 Rey Mysterio 2009 was one of the better years for the
03:05 WWE Intercontinental Championship, due in no small part to Rey Mysterio and his rivalries
03:10 with Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler.
03:12 In terms of being pushed as one of the top wrestlers in the company, 2009 was actually
03:16 one of the better years of Mysterio's career as well.
03:18 Or it was, until poor Rey got slapped with a 30-day suspension in September for violating
03:23 WWE's wellness policy, resulting in his immediate dropping of the IC title to John
03:28 Morrison.
03:29 It came out of nowhere too.
03:30 Rey had just successfully defended the title in a fantastic Summerslam opening match against
03:34 Ziggler, beating him for the second pay-per-view in a row, and then bam, he loses the title
03:38 to Morrison instead.
03:39 Fans felt that was weird, especially as Ziggler wouldn't win the Intercontinental title
03:43 for the first time until almost a year later.
03:45 Upon his return, Mysterio was getting booed by fans at Hell in a Cell, and he was relegated
03:49 to being brutally beaten by Batista for the rest of the year.
03:52 Whether or not he would have been as heavily involved in Batista's all-time great "You
03:56 were supposed to be my friend!" heel turn had he not been excommunicated from the IC
04:01 title scene, we will never know, but the sharp downturn in the ferocity of Rey's push post-suspension
04:06 was as apparent as the setup to the 619.
04:09 Honestly, this entry could have been for the IC title as well, considering that a month
04:12 after Morrison won the thing, he was losing to the Miz at bragging rights, but a belt
04:16 can't get suspended, as far as we know.
04:18 So let's move on to...
04:20 4.
04:21 William Regal
04:22 I have learned a few things during my time living in England.
04:24 Brits lose their shit if the temperature isn't between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius, never order
04:28 fish and chips from a pub, and everyone f***ing loves William Regal.
04:32 Regal was one of the most underrated WWE stars during the 2000s, often being subjected to
04:37 the butt of many a joke, like teaming with Eugene, getting his tea pissed in, or putting
04:41 his lips on Vince McMahon's derriere, all because he was guilty of the crime of being
04:46 a wrestler.
04:47 But for one brief time, it looked as if Willie Reigs was finally going to break through into
04:51 the upper echelon of the WWE roster when he won the King of the Ring tournament in 2008.
04:56 William Regal, colon King of the Ring, was a title that tasted like a buttered crumpet
05:01 when said, and things started on a pretty positive note, with Regal going on a power
05:05 trip during his first few weeks, storming into the production truck, and ending Raw
05:09 prematurely while Triple H and Randy Orton were wrestling over the WWE Championship.
05:13 But just as he started being opposed by the freshly turned babyface Mr. Kennedy, Regal
05:17 was hit with his second wellness policy violation, and was suspended for 60 days.
05:22 He was fired in kayfabe before returning a couple months later, but by that time he was
05:26 King of the Ring in TitanTron graphic alone.
05:28 His push was dead, and while he did manage to capture the Intercontinental Championship
05:32 for a final time, he lost it two months later with zero proper title defenses to his somewhat
05:37 royal name.
05:38 #3.
05:39 Jeff Hardy 11-year-old Tempest learned disappointment
05:42 at wrestling for the first time in his next-door neighbor's basement, learning the news that
05:45 Jeff Hardy had been suspended and would miss WrestleMania 24.
05:49 Oh to go back and let that little Tempest know that everything would work out.
05:52 The beginning of 2008 was a great time to be a Jeff Hardy fan.
05:55 He was getting his first sustained main event push in WWE, and was seizing the moment, having
06:00 talked about matches and angles on Raw leading up to a close match with Randy Orton at the
06:04 '08 Royal Rumble.
06:05 He was the runner-up in the Elimination Chamber, and then immediately qualified for the Money
06:09 in the Bank ladder match.
06:11 Little Tempest may not have known this at the time, but the plan internally was to have
06:15 Jeff finally get a win at WrestleMania and be crowned Mr. Money in the Bank.
06:19 It would have been the biggest win of his career to that point, but then Hardy failed
06:23 a wellness test, dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Jericho, and was suspended
06:27 for 60 days, missing WrestleMania and losing any chance he may have had to climb the thing
06:32 and do the thing to win the thing.
06:34 That distinction fell to CM Punk, so at least WWE landed on their feet, but Hardy had to
06:38 go back several spaces and build his momentum back up to the main event level.
06:43 Thankfully for Little Tempest, Jeff would ultimately go on to win the WWE Championship
06:47 at Armageddon that December and give Tempest the lesson that sometimes things work out
06:50 in wrestling too.
06:52 Number 2.
06:53 Mr. Kennedy However or not, everyone is so lucky.
06:56 Yes, there have been a number of people on this list that were able to find success again
07:00 once their suspensions derailed their momentum.
07:02 Unfortunately for Mr. Kennedy Kennedy, the same cannot be said for everyone.
07:06 I don't think I have ever seen a wrestler have more bad luck concentrated into one year
07:11 than Mr. Kennedy Kennedy had in 2007.
07:14 He began the year by winning the Money in the Bank ladder match, before a false injury
07:18 diagnosis led to him dropping the briefcase to Edge so he could go get surgery only to
07:22 find out he did not need it.
07:24 But hey, he's just a little unlucky.
07:26 He's still good.
07:27 He's still good.
07:28 But then, Kennedy Kennedy got drafted to Raw and was slated to be revealed as Mr. McMahon's
07:32 illegitimate son, a character that would have carried him through to a high-profile match
07:36 at WrestleMania 24.
07:37 But then the steroid scandal of 2007 happened, and a merry band of WWE wrestlers all got
07:42 suspended at once.
07:43 And who might have been among them but Mr. Kennedy.
07:46 Kennedy.
07:47 And as we all know, he was suspended.
07:50 Vince's son was revealed to be Hornswoggle before it was simply revealed that Lol Jay
07:54 K no he's not.
07:55 And never again did Mr. Kennedy get within a microphone's echo of the main event picture
07:59 again.
08:00 I feel like I'm forgetting something.
08:02 Kennedy.
08:03 And number one, Rob Van Dam.
08:05 Rob was gonna be the champ, but then he got something something.
08:09 I'm working on it.
08:10 It shouldn't be news to anyone that Rob Van Dam is a fan of blazing it up and smoking
08:14 that herb.
08:15 I mean, he's practically the wrestling face of weed.
08:18 But you probably couldn't find a better example of a time not to get high than Rob Van Dam's
08:23 2006 arrest while being WWE Champion and ECW Champion for all two of you WWE ECW fans.
08:30 Just weeks removed from his title win over John Cena at One Night Stand 2006, RVD and
08:34 Sabu were pulled over for speeding when the Fuzz found 18 grams of marijuana and five
08:39 Vicodin pills on the champ.
08:41 He may have been able to produce a prescription for the Vicodin, but a drug arrest meant Rob
08:45 was heading for a suspension, which he received just days later after dropping the WWE Championship
08:49 to Edge and the ECW Championship to the Big Show.
08:52 And as we all know, the words ECW Championship and Big Show should never be uttered in the
08:57 same sentence.
08:58 Van Dam was then suspended for 30 days, and when he got back, he never returned to the
09:03 WWE main event picture, even for a moment, leaving the company the following year.
09:07 At the very least, Rob got to make it to the mountaintop before his suspension, unlike
09:10 dear old Kennedy Kennedy.
09:12 But my God, for the fans that had been waiting years to see Rob Van Dam reach WWE's peak,
09:17 this was a gut punch with the ferocity of the kind of cough you do when you hit the
09:21 gas too hard.
09:22 And that's our list.
09:23 Please make sure you like this video, subscribe, and check out this clip from our Patreon-exclusive
09:28 survival series.