Took a Level in Badass/Professional Wrestling


 * Japanese professional wrestling does this in a number of ways. Most Japanese wrestlers start out as lower-than-dirt Jobbers who lose pathetically unless they're wrestling each other, in which case they use stock moves to decide the victor (the German Suplex is a huge crowd-pleaser in Japan partly because it is the official finisher of anyone who doesn't have a distinct finisher yet). After spending a few years as total losers, these wrestlers will then get Put On a Bus to wrestle overseas, after which they come back with a more distinctive wrestling style and a new, more badass Finishing Move that allows them to climb the ranks. This gets taken even further in some promotions, in which the new finisher becomes So Last Season and the wrestler breaks through to the very top with another finisher and another level in Badass.
 * One of the most famous uses of this was the All Japan Pro Wrestling 1995 Champion's Carnival. Akira Taue had spent years as a bit of a Creator's Pet because, while a competent grapler, he was constantly Overshadowed By Awesome in his tag team with Toshiaki Kawada and was given top billing despite being nowhere near the level of fantastic main-event technicians like Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Foreign Wrestling Heel Steve Williams, and the aforementioned Kawada. However, during the Carnival (a round-robin tournament for a title opportunity), Taue discarded his goofy agility-based offense in favor of brutal power moves that better suited his height and awkward build. The more power-based moveset and accompanying winning streak made a Dark Horse Victory look very plausible going into a match with the nigh-unbeatable Misawa.
 * One somewhat related example is Kazushi Sakuraba, who wasn't anything remarkable as a pro wrestler, but then switched to real-life fighting and became one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.
 * This is often the result of a push after a wrestler turns heel or face. One example would be the late great Owen Hart. Although always a talented wrestler, early in his WWE career he had a fairly plain gimmick and was often booked to lose. After he turned on his brother Bret Hart, he was given the win in their classic Wrestlemania match and became a credible threat to anyone on the roster.
 * Trish Stratus is arguably one of the best female examples of this trope. Formerly a Valet who's only purpose was to be Eye Candy, she eventually trained and became one of the best and most respected in-ring female wrestlers in the WWE.
 * Santino Marella has arguably taken one of the more natural evolutions into this trope, starting off as an incompetant jobber that often served as the punching bag for the majority of the roster, Marella has slowly shown more impressive agility and actual wrestling skills and become Tag Team Champion alongside Vladmir Kozlov. While still played for comic relief he at least can actually pull of the Cobra now.
 * Santino started as an inversion of this trope, actually. His first appearace (in the WWE anyway) was being called out as a "random fan" during an event in Italy, where he ended up not only fighting Umaga for his Intercontinental title, but BEATING him to claim the championship. For a while he was portrayed as a somewhat talented if amateurish technical wrestler with a couple of unique mannerisms (usually odd mispronunciations or choice of words), who slowly lost level after level and devolved into a complete Cloudcuckoolander. He finally seems to be getting a bit better, bringing him into this trope again.
 * He's still a bit nutty (The Cobra, anyone?) but as of the 2/17/12 Smackdown, he somehow survived a battle royal, being one of the last four out of twenty superstars and took out Ezekiel Jackson, Drew Mc Intyre and David Otunga for this prize: to become the last wrestler for the Smackdown Elimination Chamber. The only thing that remains to be seen is how he'll perform.
 * He was of the last two in the Chamber match (and eliminated two competitors), put the Cobra on Daniel freakin' Bryan and seems to getting huge pops from the crowd. There seems to be a potential push here and his goofiness only seems to help give him a hint of Crazy Awesome.
 * As of 3/5/12 he's taken enough levels to actually defeat Jack Swagger and become the new United States Champion.
 * The Miz started off as an annoying goofball who could barely remember lines as the host for the Diva Search. Now he's WWE Champion, and holds his own pretty well against established stars like Randy Orton and John Cena.
 * Miz even defeated Cena at Wrestlemania during the main event to retain his title . It didn't stick, but hot damn, it's still pretty impressive for a guy who started off doing reality shows.
 * The Rock started his career as a talented yet under appreciated face but after he turned heel he began his rise as the "most electrifying man in sports entertainment"
 * Steve Austin started his WWF career as just a random henchman of Ted Di Biase, but thanks to a now-legendary promo at the 1996 King of The Ring event ("Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!"), Austin gradually transformed into the stone-cold bad ass that fans eventually grew to love, cementing his place as a true legend of the ring and helping to put pro wrestling on the map in the late 90s.
 * Mark Henry arrived in WWE in 1996 and was immediately billed as the World's Strongest Man and given a push. However, due to injuries and a number of embarassing gimmicks, he was always treated as an afterthought by wrestling fans despite his size and strength until 2011 (fifteen years later, mind you), when he pulled a Face Heel Turn and was booked hard as an unstoppable monster. He eventually won the World Heavyweight Championship by absolutely destroying Randy Orton, and has been demolishing everything in his path ever since.
 * It's a well-known fact that a large number of WWE Divas didn't start out as trained wrestlers. A lot of them came into wrestling from other venues, such as gymnastics, dance, or even modeling. However, they do train hard and inevitably improve. Gradually the quality of their matches goes from "Terrible" to "Not bad with a good opponent" to "Slightly better than a carry job should be" to "Wow, where did that come from?" Michelle McCool, Layla, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, and Alicia Fox have all done this in recent years.
 * Once upon a time, there were two brothers: Brett and Brian Major. They were a tag team, standard fare...and then they teamed up with Edge and became Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. Then they became part of La Familia, then split up, and one went to ECW. Here we focus on Zack Ryder, who pretty much wasn't billed as 'great' to begin with. Hailing from Long Island, dressing himself as if he was a wrestler in the Attitude Era he still didn't make it. Then, he created a web show in a last attempt to get notice and not get himself fired. After struggling to make name of himself on the web, garnering support from fans and other wrestlers alike, and polishing his in-ring technique to no end, he eventually got a Number One Contender's match at WWE TLC 2011 and became the new United States Champion. WOO WOO WOO. You know it.
 * Sheamus was known to be a powerful wrestler when he debuted, but then got pushed out of the spotlight for quite sometime. Cue late 2011 and here he comes, being the only person to stand up against a monstrous Mark Henry and was powerful enough to kick the World's Strongest Man unconscious. Also, he was able to get out of the Khali Vicegrip by pushing it off with his own hands. It seems that Sheamus is also becoming back to being the badass he originally was.