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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Chris Graham''': Well, they always do. This year, Arizona was supposed to make the Elite Eight. Instead, once again, they turned out to be the Tournament's [[Person as Verb|Peyton Manning]].
'''Ted Trimble''':<ref>played by Peyton Manning</ref>
'''Chris Graham''': Well, you know how, every year, Arizona comes in with impressive stats and all the hype, and, [[Trope Namer|every year, they.. fizzle out!]]
'''Ted Trimble''': Yeah.. sure. But why is that a Peyton Manning?
'''Chris Graham''': You know that expression.
'''Ted Trimble''': No.
'''Mandy Jensen''': Um.. it's like -- how do I put this? When someone has this great reputation, but you always wonder why, because, when it really counts, they can't deliver?|''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', ESPN's NCAA Tournament Pool Party}}
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Compare [[Fake Ultimate Hero]], where most people seem to realize they are not that great, and [[Ted Baxter]], when it's the person himself who has a bloated self-esteem.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130923192005/http://snltranscripts.jt.org/06/06ppool.phtml The name comes from an SNL sketch while Manning was hosting after he won the Super Bowl.]
This is different from [[Informed Ability]] in that the person might have the skills and you have seen them, but they are not able to finish the job with them. A villain who regularly faces a [[Boring Invincible Hero]] is likely to be this. Fans of these teams tend to become [[Acceptable Hobby Targets]].
{{examples}}
=== Auto Racing ===
* Due to the large fields, this trope can occur many times in auto racing:
** In the NASCAR ranks, this trope arguably defines Mark Martin, a perennial crowd and statistical favorite through his career (even into his early 50s), but he's never won a Cup Series championship nor a Daytona 500; many fans think he's been ripped off of at least one of each (the best known of each being the dastardly 46-point penalty that wasn't his fault, costing him the championship against Dale Earnhardt in the early 1990s, and the infamous finish of the 2007 Daytona 500 regarding NASCAR allowing him and race winner Kevin Harvick to fight to the checkers while a last-lap Big One occurred behind them in a situation where NASCAR would throw the caution flag in other scenarios).
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** In recent years, Carl Edwards has become one of these, having the misfortune to be one of the best non-Hendrick drivers in an era dominated by Hendrick drivers (the most heartbreaking example being losing in 2011 to the Hendrick-affiliated Tony Stewart <ref>who basically paid off other drivers to let him win</ref> in a tiebreaker, he led by three points going into the race).
=== College Sports ===▼
▲== College Sports ==
* The University of Michigan football team was well known for most of the '00s to have an exceptional season, and then lose both The Game versus Ohio State (the biggest rivalry in college football) and their Bowl game. The worst was in 2006, when Michigan went into The Game after a perfect season ranked #2 to OSU's #1 and barely staved off an embarrassment losing 42-39, and then proceeded to go to the Rose Bowl and get thoroughly thrashed by the University of Southern California 32-18. [[Sarcasm Mode|Go Blue.]]
** Making this a real [[Kick the Dog]] moment was that just the day prior to the now-famous edition of The Game, legendary Michigan coach and former Ohio State assistant Bo Schembechler died.
** Two words for you, my friend: [[Never Live It Down|Appalachian State]].
** Ohio State's victory in The Game 2006 turned out to be a Pyrrhic one; they ended up losing to Florida in the national title game. Speaking of...
* Ohio State is a perennial powerhouse and generally acknowledged by everybody except Michigan fans as the top team in the Big 10. But they also have a well-earned reputation for postseason futility against the Southeastern Conference,<ref>They haven't fared much better in regular season games against the SEC, recording only 1 win in school history against an SEC team other than eternal losers Kentucky and Vanderbilt.</ref>
* While we're still on the subject of Big Ten teams, let's not forget Michigan State. They have been known by fans and detractors alike as "illusionists" and "pretenders": often times they would always get off to a flying start only to end with late season collapses and embarrassing losses. For the 2010-2011 season, it seemed that they may have finally proven themselves to be a real contender,<ref>
** They finally shed the label in 2011-12 by beating an SEC opponent (Georgia) in the Outback Bowl. ''In double-overtime.'' The fact that it came down to hoping for Georgia's kicker to miss a chip-shot field goal in the first overtime and blocking a field-goal in the second overtime did not make the win any more impressive.
* In College Basketball, the NCAA men's and women's tournaments are a subversion of this trope, given that besides the usual powerhouses, different teams tend to appear every other year. One exception is Arizona, who was the last men's team with a notable tournament streak-25 straight appearances (until 2010). In fact, one of the attractions to March Madness is that it's incredibly, exceedingly difficult for one team to make it to the Final Four two years in a row. On the women's side, however, that is not exactly the case with [[Boring Invincible Hero
** University of North Carolina has been a long-dominant team, but had a nasty reputation between 1976 and 2005 as the '''U'''niversity '''N'''oted for '''C'''hoking, because they only won ''three'' championships in thirty years despite regularly making the top 8 or the Final Four.
** People who fill out men's brackets have learned to take Duke and Kentucky no further than the Elite Eight in most cases. In fairness, Duke won the national title in 2010, and Kentucky in 2012.
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* Clemson in everything.
=== MLB ===▼
▲== MLB ==
* The 00's New York Yankees were known for this. They were coming off of their unbelievable run of 4 World Series titles in five years from 1996-2000. However, between 2001 and 2008, they achieved the top seed in the AL 3 times and made the World Series twice, and didn't win a single title, one of the longest stretches in the history of the club. They had three particularly notable years in that stretch. First was in 2001, when they fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team in only its 4th year, in the World Series, making the D-backs the youngest team in modern American professional sports to win their sport's title. The second was 2004, when they became the first team in MLB history and only the third team in the history of American sports to lose a best-of-7 series after racing out to a 3-0 lead, falling to the division rival Boston Red Sox. The third time was in 2008, when they missed the postseason for the first time since the early 90s.
** There was also Dave Winfield, whom George Steinbrenner called "Mr. May" due to his failure to perform in October when it mattered. Alex Rodriguez seems to hold this role now (former Yankees manager Joe Torre has revealed that Rodriguez's nickname "A-Rod" was altered in the locker room to "A-Fraud" for his poor postseason performances), though his recent clutch performance in the 2009 Yankees series win might shake that a bit.
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** This whole ordeal is now [[Harsher in Hindsight]] for the Rays and Yankees. Both teams lost in the AL Division Series to the Rangers and Tigers, respectively. "Game 162" was meaningless for the Yankees; they had already won the AL East and were in the playoffs win or lose.
** It's also this for the Braves when you remember that the Cardinals ended up winning the title.
** And the historical capper: Both teams set the mark for biggest blown September leads in baseball ''history''. The Red Sox led the Rays for the AL Wild Card by 9 games on September
** Needless to say, probably the greatest day of baseball ''ever''.
* The New York Mets have gotten this in the past few years. Oftentimes, they'll start the year playing fairly well, but by August or September, things will go wrong enough for them to be out. The worst of these were their epic collapses in both 2007 and 2008.
* The Houston Astros have been this any time they field a good team. Of particular note is their late-90's run, where they won the NL Central three years in a row, but not once made it past the Division Series.
=== NBA ===▼
▲== NBA ==
* The San Antonio Spurs seem to have turned into this. They had the best western record in 2011, then proceeded to lose to the 8th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. They had the best record again in 2012, reached the western conference finals, won the first 2 games and then proceeded to lose 4 straight.
* The Utah Jazz in [[The Nineties]]. Their power forward Karl Malone had a tendency to shoot worse and be less assertive in the playoffs.
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***** Since then, LeBron's eventual descent has led many people to believe that just perhaps, [[The Cuckoolander Was Right|it wasn't so insane after all]].
** LeBron James might just be on his way to being an individual player example of this trope, as after his eventual descent by taking his talents to South Beach, it still proved to be fruitless with the Heat being upset by the Mavericks in the Finals. It didn't help that in the series, LeBron was notably ineffective in the fourth quarter (leading to many jokes about how asking LeBron to give you change for a dollar will get you 75 cents<ref>[[Don't Explain the Joke|as in, 3 quarters]]</ref>), not scoring more than 10 points in the 4th quarter of any game. Nor did it help that the Heat's other two stars, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (especially Wade) generally seemed to be putting forth much greater effort. Basketball fans (''especially'' those from Cleveland) see this as quite a fitting outcome.
* NBA cousins Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter are widely considered individual-player versions of this trope, to such an extent that nearly EVERY team they play on (they've both played for 4+ teams EACH) happen to find limited success in the post-season. Tracy McGrady's Houston Rockets eventually ended a drought of not winning a Playoff series since acquiring
** As of the 2011-12 season both McGrady (by now playing for the Atlanta Hawks) and Carter (playing for the Dallas Mavericks) were bounced in the first round by the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively.
*** The Atlanta Hawks dealt with injuries and inconsistent play throughout the team, the Dallas Mavericks lost [[Stone Wall|Tyson CHandler]] in the off-season and their defense and rebounding took a major hit because of it.
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** Even worse, the Kings at their peak were a victim of a fixing at the hands of referee Tim Donaghy, swinging the crucial Game 6 of the 2001 conference finals back in the Lakers favor when the Kings had a commanding lead and a ticket to the NBA Finals in hand.
=== NFL ===▼
▲== NFL ==
* Peyton Manning who for over a decade with both the University of Tennessee and Indianapolis Colts seemed to always choke and fold before he finally won the [[Super Bowl]] in 2007, yet he was always near the top of the best QB list and received a ton of endorsements despite his record.
** He's slowly gaining that reputation back, having made the playoffs every year since, winning 12+ games in all but one of those seasons, nabbing 2 NFL MVP awards, and even making it to Super Bowl XLIV, where his Colts were favored against the New Orleans Saints. And yet, during that streak from 2007-2010, the Colts went one-and-done in the playoffs 3 out of 4 years and lost in the Super Bowl the one year they won any playoff games.
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** ....Against the [[The Juggernaut|1984 San Francisco 49ers]]. Marino never stood a chance.
* The Dallas Cowboys, despite being one of the most successful teams in NFL history, had not won a playoff game for years until their home win in the 2010 wildcard round. This has become increasingly worse for Cowboy fans in the last two years with the Cowboys being easily one of the most dominant teams in the league, but choking in the first round (first time was against the Seahawks with a gimme field goal being botched and the second time they lost outright to the heavy underdog Giants). The Cowboys finally got a postseason win over Philadelphia in the NFC wild-card round.
** And this isn't the '''FIRST''' time that could apply for the Cowboys. During a stretch between 1966 and 1970, the Cowboys were one win away from advancing to the NFL (pre-merger) Championship game (losing to Cleveland in the divisional playoffs in 1968 and 1969), after narrowly losing to Green Bay the two preceding years in surprisingly close matches that cost Dallas a shot at appearing in the first two [[Super Bowl
** One more instance of this trope hitting the Cowboys was the early 1980s. Between the 1980 and 1982 seasons, Danny White ([[Replacement Scrappy|replacing the retired Roger Staubach]]) led Dallas to 3 straight NFC Championship appearances only to lose all three, first to Philadelphia, then San Francisco following a thrilling conclusion with young quarterback Joe Montana throwing the winning pass to a leaping Dwight Clark, and finally [[The Rival|arch-rival]] Washington in a game where Danny was knocked out early. These games, combined with the Cowboys' decline soon after, relegated Danny White to the status as being known as [[My Friends and Zoidberg|the Dallas quarterback between Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman]], despite having stats that surpassed Aikman and rivaled Roger's.
*** Another instance of this trope in regards to Cowboys
* The Minnesota Vikings. are an even better example, as they're one of the two teams that have gone to the Super Bowl four times and failed every time.
* The early-90s Buffalo Bills make every other entry on this page look like clutch players. They won 4 straight AFC Championships and attending 4 straight Super Bowls, the only four in their history. To this day, they're 0-4 in Super Bowls. And they haven't been back to the playoffs in 10 years, since they were eliminated by the "Music City Miracle". Most notably, in 2004 they entered the last week of the season needing to beat Pittsburgh to get in to the playoffs, with Pittsburgh having already locked up their seed and resting their starters. ''They lost at home to Pittsburgh's 2nd and 3rd string by a touchdown.''
** A common [[Fun with Acronyms]] joke: "Boy I Lose Lots of Superbowls"
* The Houston Oilers. Ever wonder why they were nicknamed "Choke City"? It's because they made the postseason during a seven year stretch between 1987 and 1993, but had three exceptional collapses during the postseason between 1991 and 1993.
** First, the 1991 Divisional playoff game against Denver. The high-powered offense of the Oilers shot out to a 21-13 halftime lead, and late in the game a punt pinned the Broncos back to their 2-yard line, where trailing 24-23, John Elway led a late-game drive punctuated by two fourth-down conversions to set up the winning field-goal in what some dubbed "The Drive II" (same spot on field, and almost five years after "the Drive")
** The second would be the most infamous. The Oilers raced to a 35-3 lead over the two-time AFC champion Buffalo Bills in the AFC wild-card game, when [[Put Me
** The last one came in the Astrodome after the Oilers had gone on to clinch the #2 seed and a first-round bye. They went on to face the Kansas City Chiefs where, after starting the fourth quarter holding on to a slim 10-7 lead, the Oilers became the victim of another comeback, this time orchestrated by Joe Montana that culminated in a 28-20 loss.
* The Houston Texans took ten seasons and four quarterbacks in the same year to make their first playoffs. When they first started, it was expected they would be terrible because of their expansion status. But after awhile, they put together talented players and their finishes in the late 2000's were disappointing.
** The fact that ESPN analysts often picked them as "a team to watch out for" and "playoff-bound" did not help matters, as their disappointing finishes rewarded them with nicknames such as "Forever 8-8" and "Next Year's ''Divisional'' Champions", a combination of an insult and a reference to the Cowboys' years of being this trope in the 60s.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers between 1994 and 2004 (all under Bill Cowher) advanced to the AFC Championship game five times and lost four of those (and would have lost the 1995 game against Indianapolis had receiver Aaron Bailey not dropped a last-second Hail Mary). The really frustrating fact about this? All five of those games, the Steelers were the home team.
* Another American football example: the Cleveland Browns went to three conference championships in four years (
** The City of Cleveland itself can qualify. They haven't won a professional sports title since 1964. The heavily-favored Cavaliers didn't even make it to the Finals in 2009.
** Joke: Do you know why Toledo, Ohio doesn't have a professional football team? Because then Cleveland would want one too.
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** The 2011 season had an odd example; thanks to not one, not two, but THREE teams slipping up in the last week of the season (Jets, Broncos and Raiders), the Bengals made the playoffs regardless of losing to the Ravens in their last regular-season game. The Bengals then went on to get destroyed by the Houston Texans, who were playing their first playoff game in franchise history.
** Thus they're better known to fans as the Cincinnati ''[[Fan Nickname|Bungles]]''.
* Although in most years they're straight-up hapless [[Butt Monkey
** It was basically this trope that resulted in ''Barry freaking Sanders'' to retire from the game, even though he was within one good season of passing Walter Payton, and barring injury, could've put the all-time rushing record out of even Emmitt Smith's reach. The Lions followed up two of their best seasons, 1991 (going 12-4 and getting their only playoff win since 1957 to date, over an up-and-coming Dallas squad) and 1995 (in which Herman Moore and Brett Perriman became the first teammates to finish 1-2 in total receptions) with 5-11 records the following year. Barry didn't walk away because of any issues with coach Bobby Ross, as was speculated at the time, but because the front office absolutely failed to make the necessary moves to improve the team (especially on defense), and the lack of a winning culture that resulted drained him of his love for the game. Needless to say, [[It Got Worse]] under the Matt Millen administration, which saw the Lions' [[Butt Monkey]] status not only cemented, but fellow perennial cellar-dweller Arizona make the Super Bowl for the first time (a feat the Lions have yet to accomplish).
** The 2011 Lions, which went 10-6, have given the team new hope. Only to those hopes dashed by a dominating 45-28 loss to the New Orleans Saints...who not long ago were in the same "perennial [[Butt Monkey]]" boat as the Lions.
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* Under head coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons have had four straight winning seasons and playoff appearances in three of them. All three of those playoff appearances (two wild cards, one divisional) a first appearance loss. The fact that in each loss, the team that beat them would go on to the Super Bowl, probably doesn't help, nor does the fact that they were the favored team in each of their losses.
** This has lead to Matt Ryan receiving the "overrated" and "choker" label by his detractors: A common response used in any response to people talking about Matt Ryan being one of the league's top quarterbacks on [[Image Boards]] is "Playoff wins: 0". Kind of ironic, when you remember his days at Boston College, where he was known as a clutch QB (Hence the nickname, Matty Ice).
* The Baltimore Ravens are starting to show some dangerous signs of becoming just another team that can't seal the deal. Since their Super Bowl Win over a decade ago (2000-01 Season), it's been nothing but seasons of "almosts" in the Charm City. For the past decade now the Ravens have been an AFC contender consistently fielding one of the league's most prolific Defenses led by stars Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. It hasn't brought the Ravens much success from 2002-2007 when Baltimore underwent a long postseason win drought (Reached the Postseason Twice, lost both first games at ''home'' until the losing streak was snapped in 2008), but that was perhaps easier for fans to take than the John Harbaugh-coached period of 2008 to the present, where the Ravens have reached the playoffs four seasons in a row and coming up short of the Super Bowl each time. The latest postseason collapse (2011-12 AFC Championship Game) perhaps being the most painful chapter yet, thanks to Lee Evans<ref>''Dropped the Game-Winning Touchdown that would've sent the Ravens to the Super Bowl.''</ref> and Billy Cundiff
** The four straight AFC Championship losses have caused the Ravens to be labelled as the [[Spiritual Successor]] to the early 90s Buffalo Bills mentioned above
=== NHL ===▼
▲== NHL ==
* In the NHL, the Ottawa Senators are perennial division leaders, with two conference leaderships, and one President's Trophy (awarded to the team that finishes with the most points). They're only second to the Detroit Red Wings in regular season wins for a decade. No Stanley Cup has been won by Ottawa as of yet. They also boast the dubious distinction of winning the most playoff rounds for a team without a Stanley Cup for a decade.
** And when the Senators did make it to a Stanley Cup final, the game-winning goal in the cup-losing game was [[Epic Fail|booted into their own net by the goalie]].
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** To be fair, in 2012, when the Capitals arguably got their fizzling out done during the season itself when they dramatically failed to meet very high expectations, after squeaking into the post-season they played fairly respectably through two long playoff rounds, upsetting the reigning champions in the first round, but they still lost in the second.
* The Philadelphia Flyers. Thirty-four playoff appearances in forty-two seasons (and fourteen of the last fifteen), but only two Stanley Cups, and none since 1975. Part of the problem is that unbelievable consistency prevents them from bottoming out and having the ability to select a slur of high draft picks; their arch rival Pittsburgh Penguins are built on the first overall pick in 2003 (Marc-Andre Fleury), second overall in 2004 (Evgeni Malkin), first overall in 2005 (Sidney Crosby), and second overall in 2006 (Jordan Staal). Not to mention how the Penguins had a meteoric rise in the 1980s after drafting a young Mario Lemieux...
** The Flyers "bottomed out" in the mid-1990s, spending heavily to acquire the rights to Eric Lindros from Quebec (which was the first of a series of trades that built the Nordiques into the Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche). They did eventually build back up, led by the "Legion of Doom" line,<ref>Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg</ref>
* The Detroit Red Wings were this for a period of about a decade, having rebuilt from the "[[Fan Nickname|Dead Things era]]" to make back-to-back Conference Finals and making the playoffs in 9 of 10 seasons (the 1989-90 season was rife with internal strife, resulting in [[Dork Age|management trading away several young stars for washed-up veterans]]), but never getting over (swept by the New Jersey Devils in the 1995 Finals, nearly trading away Steve Yzerman to Ottawa). Finally, in 1997, the team got over on new arch-rival Colorado, and then swept the Flyers to win their first Cup in 42 seasons, and the first of four Cups in 11 seasons. Still, it seemed to be feast or famine for the Wings; prior to 2006-07, they either won the Cup or ended in the first or second round.
* The Vancouver Canucks have consistently made the playoffs and won their division throughout the 00's but always falling short even after getting Roberto Luongo, a guy many consider to be the best goaltender in the world didn't improve their efforts.
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* Player version: Brian Savage, most notably of the Montreal Canadiens. Savage always went on an early season tear, only to disappear throughout the season.
=== WNBA ===▼
▲== WNBA ==
* The Chicago Sky of the WNBA were founded in 2005 and get into the playoff race every year, only to trip at the finish line. This happened again in 2011, despite an accomplished coach and several great players.
** The Atlanta Dream have only existed for 4 years, but they're already looking like a good example. In 2010 they made it to the WNBA Finals...and got swept. In 2011 they made the Finals again...and got swept again. Who wants to bet they'll make it a three-peat?
*** In fairness to the Dream, they were facing the Minnesota Lynx, who had rookie juggernaut Maya Moore and had completed one of the biggest turnarounds in WNBA history.
=== Soccer ===▼
▲== Soccer ==
* ''Everyone'' on the England national football team, which despite containing some of the best and most famous players in the world haven't won a major tournament since they won [[The World Cup]] in 1966.
** Before the Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup titles, the Spanish football team would also qualify. Both English and Spanish players have enjoyed success at club level, though.
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* In Brazil, Vasco, Botafogo, Palmeiras and Internacional became infamous in the 2000s for going far but tanking in at least one championship per year (Vasco was runner-up [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-24yo1w9kRes/T59Afm5TCdI/AAAAAAAAeHE/yUzIR6Xtgzg/s1600/VASCO-VICE-14-vezes.jpg 14 times in 12 years], and Inter managed to finish second thrice in five Brazilian championships, plus losing to an African team in the FIFA Clubs World Cup!).
=== Other Sports ===
▲== Other Sports ==
* Tim Henman is possibly the canonical British equivalent - he's the one everyone follows and cheers for at [[Wimbledon]], even going so far as to have a massive seating area for his fans (Henman Hill), despite being knocked out in the quarter- or semi-finals of every Wimbledon he's entered.
** Andy Murray, another fellow Brit, shares this problem as well.
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** Abbott left UFC with an 8-10 record, by far the worst record by anyone with at least that many fights. He is the only UFC tournament competitor to finish both second and third twice.
=== [[Professional Wrestling]] ===▼
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s angle for the revival of [[ECW]] was based on this - Rob Van Dam was built up as, in Joey Styles' words, the greatest competitor to never win a World championship, heading into his battle with WWE Champion John Cena in the main-event of the revival show One Night Stand. By the time the show was over, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he wasn't without one anymore.]] ▼
▲== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
▲* [[WWE]]'s angle for the revival of [[ECW]] was based on this - Rob Van Dam was built up as, in Joey Styles' words, the greatest competitor to never win a World championship, heading into his battle with WWE Champion John Cena in the main-event of the revival show One Night Stand. By the time the show was over, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he wasn't without one anymore.]]
* [[Chris Benoit]] was the subject of a similar storyline going into ''[[Wrestlemania]] XX'', where both [[Triple H]] and [[Shawn Michaels]] made a huge deal over the fact that, despite receiving numerous opportunities, he always seemed to choke in world title matches, and thus both felt he was not in their league. Guess who won?
* As it stands, most would probably go with either The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase or "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig as the greatest competitor to have not been granted the world title.
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* Then, there's [[Lex Luger]]. He choked against [[Ric Flair]] (multiple times), Yokozuna (twice), and Hollywood Hulk Hogan.. all for either the NWA/WCW or WWF Championships.
== Other Examples ==
===
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
* A commercial for Staples features the main character rattling off a series of office archetypes (the paranoid employee, the lazy employee, etc,) before turning to one employee and saying, "Joe, you continue not living up to your resume."
=== [[
* As much is said about Kamina of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', he actually <s>[[The Worf Effect|never]]</s> [[The Worf Effect|hardly ever won a fight on his own]], and [[The Worf Effect|only ever]] mostly succeed when [[Bash Brothers|fighting with]] Simon. Granted when they are fighting, Kamina appears to be doing most of the work. Also, he was able to get Simon to stop being such a wimp, basically get the whole story and rise of man thing started {{spoiler|and come back from the dead as a ghost or something to get everyone out of a [[Lotus Eater Machine]]}}, which makes him [[The Messiah|something else entirely]].▼
* Mai Valentine/Kujaku from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. Her duelist cred is often accused of being an [[Informed Ability]], but it's really this. She ''has'' displayed great skills at times, but never manages to deliver when it comes to the big duels. Of course, much of the blame for this is due to Plot Demanded Losses (of ''course'' Mai's not going to be able to beat [[The Hero]] or the [[Big Bad]], no matter what her skills are).▼
* In ''[[The Game Plan]]'', [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] plays one of these before he meets his long-lost daughter.
* Played with in ''By The Sword''. [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy|Alex Villand]] believes his father was like this, because his father was a fencing champion who died after [[Let's Fight Like Gentlemen|a duel with a student of his that he had challenged]] because said student was having an affair with Villand Senior's wife. This leads the younger Villand to muse "He spent half his life winning fencing tournaments, but the only time in his life he was a fight that mattered he got himself killed". This fuels Villand's [[Combat Pragmatist|win at any cost, no matter how dirty your tactics]] approach to fencing and life. {{spoiler|Later that student, now out of prison for the killing Villand Sr, sets Villand Jr straight. Villand's father had given the student a live rapier while arming himself with only a [[Nerf Arm|practice sword]], and beat the student within an inch of his life with the practice sword. At the end, humiliated by his defeat, (in part because the student had been an [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]] too back in the day) the student had stabbed Villand Senior [[In the Back]] when senior was ready to show him mercy}}.
* One of the reasons why Shooter McGavin from ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'' was such A [[Jerkass]] was because he was never able to get the Golden Jacket.
=== [[
▲* As much is said about Kamina of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', he actually <s>[[The Worf Effect|never]]</s> [[The Worf Effect|hardly ever won a fight on his own]], and [[The Worf Effect|only ever]] mostly succeed when [[Bash Brothers|fighting with]] Simon. Granted when they are fighting, Kamina appears to be doing most of the work. Also, he was able to get Simon to stop being such a wimp, basically get the whole story and rise of man thing started {{spoiler|and come back from the dead as a ghost or something to get everyone out of a [[Lotus Eater Machine]]}}, which makes him [[The Messiah|something else entirely]].
▲* Mai Valentine/Kujaku from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. Her duelist cred is often accused of being an [[Informed Ability]], but it's really this. She ''has'' displayed great skills at times, but never manages to deliver when it comes to the big duels. Of course, much of the blame for this is due to Plot Demanded Losses (of ''course'' Mai's not going to be able to beat [[The Hero]] or the [[Big Bad]], no matter what her skills are).
* Byzantium in ''[[AH World Cup]]'' is meant to be an [[Expy]] of the Netherlands in [[The World Cup]], always one of the favorites to win it all but never actually does. Even in the actual simulations, Byzantium struggled against teams they were expected to win against, drawing all their matches before they were finally defeated when facing another favorite.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* The Rafale fighter plane. Consistantly touted by French aviation fans and a few others as close, equal or better than the F-22 despite the disagreements of the foremost authorities on the matter and even a number of French politicians and defense experts. Has been the focus of a major PR campaign in weapons sales by Sarkozy after no foreign sales ten years after going into production to no result, and looks to see either no sales ever or half a squadron's worth of planes. In early 2009 France itself cut production, amidst governmental backroom beatings of the Dassault Thales' managerial staff. Contrast with the highly successful Mirage series, compare with LeClerc.
** Sounds more like these "French aviation fans and a few others" have been [[Drinking the Kool Aid|drinking the Kool-Aid]] about the [[It Was Okay|Dassault Rafale]], rather than it being an
*** Maybe it's a [[Cult Classic]]?
** It does, however, easily match or surpass performance of its actual competitors on the export market: the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (American), Eurofighter Typhoon (British/German/Italian), Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Swedish), and Mikoyan MiG-29M and MiG-29K (Russian). The F-16 has been exported to 25 nations, the F/A-18 to 7, the Typhoon to 3, the Gripen to 4, the MiG-29M to 2, and the MiG-29K to 1. The Rafale, as of October 2011, has yet to secure a single export contract.
** Interestingly, one of the potential buyers for the Rafale was the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi...which France took a leading role in overthrowing by using their own Rafales to bomb the hell out of his military. Perhaps the new government formed by the rebels, which both saw the Rafale in action and has considerable reason to be grateful to France, will finally provide Dassault the opening they need?
* William Jennings Bryan electrified the Democratic National Convention with his famous cry of "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." and at the tender age of 36 (only one year older than the Constitutional minimum of 35), he became the youngest major-party nominee in history, and he put his dazzling oratorical power to good use, traveling 18,000 miles in three months, giving 500 speeches in 100 days - He lost by a huge landslide in the Electoral College. He was nominated again in 1900 - and lost by another huge landslide. He sat out the 1904 election, quite rightly realizing that he had no hope of beating popular incumbent Theodore Roosevelt. When Roosevelt stepped down in 1908, Bryan jumped back in and proceeded to lose by his biggest margin ever.
* Similarly, Adlai Stevenson had a reputation as a campaigning orator, and suffered two landslide defeats in a row against [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. In fairness, he ''was'' campaigning against the hero of [[World War II]] in Europe in a time of unprecedented prosperity.
** Stevenson seemed to be quite aware of how little chance of victory he had. When a supporter told him that every intelligent American would vote for him, he responded, [[Take That|"That's not enough. I need a majority."]]
*** Huh. Having contempt for the voters turns out to be a ''bad'' strategy. Who knew?
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