Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, MVP, Mr. Kennedy, maybe Carlito, William Regal, Wade Barret(Nexus) and John Cena.

HBK, Carlito Cool, Mr. Kennedy, Big Show (not including the ECW World), JBL, Kurt Angle

Theres a lot more I feel like I could name, but the list is kind of biased in a way, because I rooted for these guys at one point or another because they had gimmicks that were over at certain points. Furthermore, I feel like even if certain guys were not in WWE for a long time, they still should have been given stronger consideration for pushes. They have taken risks before, but somehow in these particular cases they saw fit not to.

The first one come to my mind is Wade Barrett. He has everything Vince wants. He has  the look, the size, and the promo skill. Not to mention, he is a good brawler as well. I don't know why Vince didn't push him. My only guess is that he pissed off Vince but WWE decided to cover it up. If I has a wrestling company, I want to use Wade Barrett as my second guy (Eli Drake is my pick to be my poster boy, lol) (H).

Shelton Benjamin would be a great champion during Ruthless Aggression Era. Imagine Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit vs Benjamin in a Triple Threat match for WWE Championship. They can have some classic matches there.

Mr. Kennedy and MVP I agree. They both have natural charisma and great promoers, they would be great world champions.

EDIT: I forgot Cody Rhodes lol. He can be a great Face and a great Heel. A world champion material there.

Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, MVP, R-Truth, Wade Barrett, and Bray Wyatt are the main ones I think would have been great champs.

HBK deserved one last reign but AFAIK he didn't want it. Wade Barrett needed it to get Nexus truly over. Mr. Kennedy was absolute FIRE for a good while and deserved a reign. Split over Rhodes tbh.

Seems like everyone is forgetting Drew McIntyre was the chosen one but also, Wade Barrett, William regal, goldust, and  Cody Rhodes

Wyatt, Barrett, Rhodes, HBK.

I think there's something to be said in people not accepting a good midcard worker at face value anymore.  Rick Rude never had to be at the top of the card, nor did Hennig or Arn, and I'd say they were more well-rounded than some of the names people drop as 'missed opportunity champions'.

There are a lot of guys that I'm a fan of that I would've liked to have seen do better.  Shane Helms, Brian Kendrick, Cesaro, Matt Morgan, and about 2/3rds of Natural Born Thrillers from WCW, but I think there's a difference in me liking the Sean O'Haire 'Devil's Advocate' gimmick or Mark Jindrak's 'Reflection of Perfection' stuff and thinking they should've been the face of the company.  To me, guys like Shelton Benjamin and John Morrison fall into that category of great midcard attractions that shouldn't really be elevated past that.other than maybe as serving as a contender to the throne now and again.

With my obligatory lengthy rant out of the way, here are a few that I think were real missed opportunities.

1. MVP.  He could work, he could talk, he had a heat seeking look and a made for main event gimmick.  In an era of spoiled billionaire athletes being patted on the back for playing schoolyard games for a living, MVP made for a really cool idea for the athletic and realistic Ruthless Aggression Era.  He managed to not only get a feud with Matt Hardy over without sleeping with his girlfriend or 'breaking' him, but the guy managed to make the Overdrive, one of the worst wrestling moves on the planet, a legit match ender.  They should have elevated him and made him a champion who negotiates his world title fights, like these UFC and boxing champions who duck out for months at a time.

2. Bubba Ray Dudley: Remember when the first draft split happened and the WWE decided to be out-of-the-box and edgy by splitting the Dudley Boyz? Devon went on to be a reverend with some never drew a dime bodyguard who faded into obscurity after the gimmick was dropped, and Bubba went on to feud against Evolution and really started to show the first glimmers of what he would become in TNA as Bully Ray.  The biggest flaw in that push was that Bubba was a babyface.  A guy that, I'd argue with anyone, was probably the biggest heat seekers on the microphone in the 90's as a foul mouthed, disgusting, inbred heel was stuck in the unenviable situation of being on top as a babyface against Triple H of all people.  The Bubba push didn't last, but I remember being impressed with him working with what he was given

3. William Regal.  Remember when Regal was an evil GM (not pee in tea, but "I'm shutting down Raw because you people are ingrates")? I have no doubt in my mind that if his demons hadn't taken hold, he would have been world champion.  He was the most over thing on the show and debatably the last great evil general manager figure.  Throwing the world title on top of that would have been infuriating.  

4. Wade Barrett.  Wade Barrett was a ready made main eventer when they got a hold of him.  Outside of Daniel Bryan, Wade was my odds on favorite to win NXT simply because his shtick of being teacher's pet to Jericho made the show watchable when actual good wrestlers weren't in the ring.  While guys like McIntyre and Cody were thrown into the lime light too early only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them almost immediately, Wade was always capable of holding a presence amidst a face full of nobodies in the Nexxus, look threatening in a dead end endeavor like Corre, and make silly gimmicks like Bad News Barrett a reason to tune in.  Sadly,I think a key to a lot of his reinvention was his injury prone nature.  There were times when it felt like they were almost ready to pull the trigger and 'snap', there goes the collar bone.

Mr Kennedy was/is complete trash

/thread

Cody Rhodes
Kurt Angle
John Morrison
The Hardys

I also agree that Kennedy is overrated. During his time in WWE we liked him cuz his gimmick was interesting and he had butt loads of charisma. But since his time in TNA he's shown to be more sizzle and less steak

Benjamin big time

I feel like Matt Hardy should have won the 2009 Royal Rumble instead of Randy Orton. 

Matt vs Jeff didn't have to be the closer, but I feel like a rivalry between the two for the belt would have made the match more exciting.

Shawn Michaels

That's it

Wade Barrett during the Nexus angle, Cody Rhodes should have won MITB instead of Sandow, JBL should have had another title reign as well

Shawn Michaels. Also agree with Cody having won MITB instead of Sandow!

Mark Henry should have got the WWE Championship after his fake retirement.

Cody Rhodes, John Morisson.

Loads of people. I remember back in my noob Y!A days people would ask, "Who will be in the main event at WrestleMania 30" and a lot of responses were Cody, Ted, Kofi, etc. And I at one point legitimately thought all of those guys would be a world champion one day, especially Cody. 

Wild to think that the actual answer to that question was Batista and Randy Orton. (And DBry but yeah)

I also really thought Morrison would become a World Champion.

Kevin Thorn aka Mordecai. People thought it was a gimmick that would suck (never reached its potential anyways) and the guy lingered a bit in ECW and left WWE. If built properly I could've seen him take on The Undertaker had he kept the Mordecai gimmick. It was really fresh and awesome, he seemed like the "anti-Undertaker" with all white (kinda like HBK's WM 25 attire).

Anyways, yeah, maybe it was wishful thinking but I really thought he was gonna be a world champion someday. Oh well.

Kofi needs it already, even if it's just a Ziggler run.

Does Kurt Angle even count as an option if he hasn't been a wrestler in WWE for 11 years?

Anyway, I would pick William Regal, but he probably would have been a World Champion if he hadn't fucked up his own push by getting suspended. The first guy that comes to mind when I think "He should have been World Champion by now" is probably Cesaro. He's an incredible talent that may not have amazing mic skills, but him getting so over by sheer wrestling ability has a lot to say in my opinion. Granted, I'd have to REALLY think about people who have been in WWE for the past 10 years, but I'd definitely put Cesaro up there on my list.

Drew McIntyre is one I definitely thought would end up World Champion with the push he initially got, but unfortunately it never came to fruition.

Edit: Didn't notice this thread was posted in 2016, so I suppose Angle is viable since he wrestled for like half a year in 2006.

I would pass my answer to Cesaro. The man is simply a unique individual who possesses so many glorious traits. His inane charisma, his diverse move set, his durability in the ring, his ability of changing wrestling styles in between his matches -- he is just that stupendous. The fact that he has been pushed down a bit from having a world title... because of having not so good mic skills, is absolutely ridiculous.

I still feel Jerry Lawler should've won the World Title in 2011. It would've been a really polarizing and controversial decision but imo WWE needs more of that. Make people feel anything can happen.

Kaise Boëtius wrote:

I would pass my answer to Cesaro. The man is simply a unique individual who possesses so many glorious traits. His inane charisma, his diverse move set, his durability in the ring, his ability of changing wrestling styles in between his matches -- he is just that stupendous. The fact that he has been pushed down a bit from having a world title... because of having not so good mic skills, is absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with this a 100%

Cesaro has def deserved better than what he has been given thus far in the WWE.