LogFAQs > #898402388

#129 - James Ellsworth Nominated by: paulg

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Ellsworth, for a brief moment, captured lightning in a bottle and served as a quite enjoyable part of a title storyline that deserved more attention. AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose had a great little feud in December of 2016, and Ellsworth served as a pawn that somehow found himself pinning the world champion. Given his "aw shucks" personality and easy-to-love catchphrase introduced on RAW against the indomitable Braun Strowman, it all came together in an entertaining holding position feud that has sadly become fairly quickly forgotten.

Ellsworth reminded me of an everyman character in almost every way except that he was just a little too pitiable. So instead of being a guy you could root for, you mostly just felt sympathy for him. Then, when he turned heel, he yanked all of that away and it certainly left incredulity. "Who does this little shit think he is?" I would think to myself. At first, as he transitioned into Carmella's manager, I thought there might be something special there, but WWE quickly proved that they just didn't have much left in the tank when it came to Ellsworth, and he was put out on his ass. It's really too bad, as Carmella certainly lost what little heat she had when Ellsworth disappeared. He had become instant heel venom by the end; it's probably why Becky Lynch was able to earn such a fantastic babyface reaction when she beat him in his last appearance.

But with all of this positivity, you have to wonder why he ranks so low. Ultimately, I think Ellsworth had proven by the end of his run that his character was out of juice. There was just nothing left for him to do. He was starting to become a Santino quality character, and I know that for me personally, nothing was worse than the forced romance between Carmella and Ellsworth - especially since Ellsworth had talked about his wife and kids on Talking Smack before. It kind of ruined the entire concept of the character for me, and I tihnk most things that come into contact with Carmella became worse for it. I don't see a ton of upside in Ellsworth, and soon we'll be entering a territory with a lot of great talent and ability on this list, so here is where we drop off Ellsworth, continuing on to bigger and better things.
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