History Main / XPacHeat

* Vladimir Kozlov. Too easy. He began to be pushed to the moon months within debuting and was even originally planned to be given the WWE Championship at one time. Any problems?... Oh yeah, he couldn't wrestle. Yes he was a heel all this time, so it could be translated to heel heat, but the smart fans hate him even more. To back this up, they recently turned him into an American loving goofy babyface, and the fans still hated him. It took a team up with the hilarious Wrestling/SantinoMarella and a serious expansion of his moveset to become tolerable, though he was eventually fired... And Wrestling/CMPunk cut a promo where the audience cheered his being brought up.

* This trope was actually ''invoked'' when KurtAngle debuted in the then-WWF. He was such a cheesy, over-the-top good guy (think Beaver Cleaver in a singlet) that it was almost painful to watch. And then he started wrestling: not "pro" wrestling, but collegiate/Olympic style wrestling, with holds even more drawn out than usual, and downplaying what few showy and impressive bits there were. This went on for ''weeks'', to the point that the fans didn't need any prompting to begin the "boring" chants, and many wondered why anyone thought bringing "the other kind" of wrestler in was a good idea. Then Angle [[FaceHeelTurn snapped under the constant verbal abuse, yelled at the fans, and changed his style into a somewhat brutal form of technical catch-as-catch-can pro wrestling]], the X Pac heat turned into the regular kind, and people were reminded that, sometimes, [[MagnificentBastard everything goes exactly as]] [[VinceMcMahon Vince]] [[MagnificentBastard wants it to]].
* Bo Dallas (Taylor Rotunda, real-life son of Mike "Irwin R. Schyster" Rotunda and brother of [[Wrestling/TheWyattFamily Windham "Husky Harris/Bray Wyatt" Rotunda]]) has been seeing a lot of this through 2013. In January he was entered into the Royal Rumble where he proceeded to eliminate Wrestling/WadeBarrett (the reigning Intercontinental champion at the time), get into a feud with Barrett about this, and proceed to go over him clean in a singles non-title match. While WWE tried to recreate Maven's infamous elimination of the Undertaker and push Dallas right out of the gate, most fans saw him as a generic, incredibly green babyface who made Barrett look bad. WWE did catch onto this after awhile and took him back to NXT. But even there he continues to be a powerful force, winning the NXT Championship by defeating legit fan favorite Big E Langston (an act that caused the live audience to turn their back to the ring following the victory and any other time Bo is seen). It's clear regardless of where he is and how unsavory he is to the fans, Bo Dallas is meant for great things in WWE.

* The No Limit Soldiers were hated because they were a rap group in a promotion whose audience were primarily white Southern males who dislike {{rap}}. Even though they were supposed to be faces, they acted like heels, couldn't wrestle, had a bloated roster of ten wrestlers, and most were less than pleasant in real life (particularly Swoll, an obese and unlikeable man eventually arrested for dodging child support while making $100K a year from WCW), and, even with Master P, had terrible raps. Their rivals, the West Texas Rednecks, were an inversion of this trope, as they were supposed to be heels but appealed to the fans more, particularly when they recorded a [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments downright hilarious]] song titled "Rap is Crap", held their own against the No Limit Soldiers with only four wrestlers, and had Wrestling/CurtHennig, widely considered one of the best ever in the business and a really nice guy to boot, as their leader. It's no surprise the latter stable became a collective EnsembleDarkHorse, and, of the former, only ReyMysterioJr ever went on to any kind of success.

* JohnCena is a case of not having any heat to begin with, becoming very popular, getting X-Pac Heat with both barrels, and then shaking it off in an odd way. Fans were pretty apathetic to Cena up until WWE decided to run with a Halloween joke impression he did of Vanilla Ice, turning him into the very over Doctor of Thuganomics. Then came his first world championship win at [=WrestleMania 21=] against [[JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]], where a lot of people became convinced he just couldn't wrestle. Between feuds with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, his X-Pac Heat really took off (not helped at all by his abandonment of the Thuganomics gimmick, which if nothing else had been a good source of legitimately funny smack-talk whenever Cena cut a promo, replaced by the WWE using him as a generic 80s-style babyface with no actual gimmick at all). His matches also became rather generic, with most amounting to him getting beat up the entire time before suddenly "overcoming the odds" with his FiveMovesOfDoom. The X-Pac Heat died down once smarks noticed a 2006 interview from Cena himself saying he'd rather drop down the card and redevelop his character but hasn't been allowed to.

"Heat" is a term used in ProfessionalWrestling to describe any reaction to a wrestler and his gimmick/character. {{Face}} and {{heel}} heat can make or break a character, while not getting any heat is the KissOfDeath in the industry.

Normally, it is possible to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap correct an unfavorable response by altering a wrestler's character or shifting their position in the company]]. It is significantly harder to overcome X-Pac Heat; unlike TheScrappy, the audience is reacting not to an annoying ''character'', but to a bad or overexposed ''performer''.

In short: if you LoveToHate the character, it's heel; if you just hate the character, it's TheScrappy; if you hate the performer, it's X-Pac Heat.

Note that the live audience in professional wrestling is considered to be InUniverse because it is such a major part of the show. When the reaction is obvious and on-camera, examples involving it can be considered objective, unlike those involving the viewers at home or other media.

''Please only add ProfessionalWrestling examples.''

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman Sean "X-Pac" Waltman]]. He was part of the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder and [[{{Wrestling/DGenerationX}} [=DeGeneration=] X]] stables in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was actually a popular performer during this time. Several years and a heel turn later, DX was long since over and X-Pac hadn't evolved his character in any significant way. Despite not getting pushed or doing much of anything, he was still booked on just about every show, winning a disproportionate amount of matches against opponents who were often more interesting than he was. Fans soon started regarding X-Pac matches as a safe time to take a bathroom break.\\

Both the X-Pac persona and Waltman himself (due to his membership in Wrestling/TheKliq soon became ''really'' grating, as he gyrated and gestured around and acted like a petulant little tool, making the crowds who were ''supposed'' to find him rotten hate him on a ''personal'' level instead of a kayfabe one. The vicious combination of declining performance due to years of injuries, a stale personality (to put it mildly), and a reputation for attaching himself to a hot act, losing to them, but then squashing them cleanly with a rematch to ensure he captured more attention, caused wrestling fans to start chanting "X-Pac sucks".\\

* By the end of JeffJarrett's last run as NWA champion in Wrestling/{{TNA}} in 2006, fans were pleading with him to "Drop the title! Drop the title!" There were even chants of "Fuck you, Jarrett! Fuck you, Jarrett!"
** Jarrett was truly hated by TNA fans for good reasons. During the first four years, he held the NWA championship for nearly three years. Occasionally, he would lose at a pay per view, only to win the title back at the very next show. Fans saw the title as meaningless, since it had just become a prop for Jarrett. Jarrett's matches were also pretty boring, not only because you knew he would always win, but because he just wasn't that good of a wrestler. In EVERY match he had at the time, he resorted to running into the crowd. To make matters worse, Jarrett was more than just the CreatorsPet. As one of the owners of TNA Wrestling, he was the creator. It was almost as if he helped build TNA just so he can make himself the champion. It's no wonder some fans started calling him [[TripleH Triple J]]

!!Please only add ProfessionalWrestling examples.

** In one of the rare examples of escaping X-Pac Heat, The Big Show took some time off, dropped 50 pounds and got in shape, and came back. He is now ''massively'' over. Khali didn't get over until they overhauled him into a face, gave him a Bollywood-musical styled theme, and started calling him "The Punjabi Playboy", complete with him having the Khali Kiss-Cam. It worked, even though he still can't wrestle.

** Jarrett was truly hated by TNA fans for good reasons. During the first four years, he held the NWA championship for nearly three years. Occasionally, he would lose at a pay per view, only to win the title back at the very next show. Fans saw the title as meaningless, since it had just become a prop for Jarrett. Jarrett's matches were also pretty boring, not only because you knew he would always win, but because he just wasn't that good of a wrestler. In EVERY match he had at the time, he resorted to running into the crowd. To make matters worse, Jarrett was more than just the [[TheWesley]]. As one of the owners of TNA Wrestling, he was the creator. It was almost as if he helped build TNA just so he can make himself the champion. It's no wonder some fans started calling him [[TripleH Triple J]]

** Jarrett was truly hated by TNA fans for good reasons. During the first four years, he held the NWA championship for nearly three years. Occasionally, he would lose at a pay per view, only to win the title back at the very next show. Fans saw the title as meaningless, since it had just become a prop for Jarrett. Jarrett's matches were also pretty boring, not only because you knew he would always win, but because he just wasn't that good of a wrestler. In EVERY match he had at the time, he resorted to running into the crowd. To make matters worse, Jarrett was more than just the [[CreatorsPet]]. As one of the owners of TNA Wrestling, he was the creator. It was almost as if he helped build TNA just so he can make himself the champion. It's no wonder some fans started calling him [[TripleH Triple J]]

[[folder:ProfessionalWrestling]]
* By the end of JeffJarrett's last run as NWA champion in Wrestling/{{TNA}} in 2006, fans were pleading with him to "Drop the belt! Drop the belt!"

* The TropeNamer is Sean "X-Pac" Waltman. He was part of the [[{{Wrestling/NewWorldOrder}} New World Order]] and [[{{Wrestling/DGenerationX}} DeGeneration X]] stables in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was actually a popular performer during this time. Several years and a heel turn later, DX was long since over and X-Pac hadn't evolved his character in any significant way. Despite not getting pushed or doing much of anything, he was still booked on just about every show, winning a disproportionate amount of matches against opponents who were often more interesting than he was. Fans soon started regarding X-Pac matches as a safe time to take a bathroom break.\\

Both the X-Pac persona and Waltman himself (due to his membership in [[{{Wrestling/TheKliq}} The Kliq]]) soon became ''really'' grating, as he gyrated and gestured around and acted like a petulant little tool, making the crowds who were ''supposed'' to find him rotten hate him on a ''personal'' level instead of a kayfabe one. The vicious combination of declining performance due to years of injuries, a stale personality (to put it mildly), and a reputation for attaching himself to a hot act, losing to them, but then squashing them cleanly with a rematch to ensure he captured more attention, caused wrestling fans to start chanting "X-Pac sucks".\\

* The No Limit Soldiers were hated because they were a rap group in a promotion whose audience were primarily white Southern males who dislike {{rap}}. Even though they were supposed to be faces, they acted like heels, couldn't wrestle, had a bloated roster of ten wrestlers, and most were less than pleasant in real life (particularly Swoll, an obese and unlikeable man eventually arrested for dodging child support while making $100K a year from WCW), and, even with Master P, had terrible raps. Their rivals, the West Texas Rednecks, were an inversion of this trope, as they were supposed to be heels but appealed to the fans more, particularly when they recorded a [[CrowningMomentOfFunny downright hilarious]] song titled "Rap is Crap", held their own against the No Limit Soldiers with only four wrestlers, and had CurtHennig, widely considered one of the best ever in the business and a really nice guy to boot, as their leader. It's no surprise the latter stable became a collective EnsembleDarkHorse, and, of the former, only ReyMysterioJr ever went on to any kind of success.

Then there's '''X-Pac Heat'''. This is when the audience boos and insults a wrestler not because they hate the character, but because ''they hate the performer''. It can be because they've been pushed too hard, they have political power behind the scenes, or because they're terrible performers. For wrestlers, this often refers to guys who have poor matches (or actively wreck the pushes of others) and become overexposed despite crowds not caring for them one way or the other (either as heroes or as villains). This is not a heel, a villain whom fans [[LoveToHate want to see punished]]; an X-Pac is someone fans don't want to see ''at all''. It's a very specific form of breaking {{kayfabe}} by the fans and happens to be quite rare.

* JohnCena is a case of not having any heat to begin with, becoming very popular, getting X-Pac Heat with both barrels, and then shaking it off in an odd way. Fans were pretty apathetic to Cena up until WWE decided to run with a Halloween joke impression he did of Vanilla Ice, turning him into the very over Doctor of Thuganomics. Then came his first world championship win at [=WrestleMania 21=] against [[JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]], where a lot of people became convinced he just couldn't wrestle. Between feuds with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, his X-Pac Heat really took off (not helped at all by his abandonment of the Thuganomics gimmick, which if nothing else had been a good source of legitimately funny smack-talk whenever Cena cut a promo, replaced by the WWE using him as a generic 80s-style babyface with no actual gimmick at all). His matches also became rather generic, with most amounting to him getting beat up the entire time before suddenly "overcoming the odds" with his FiveMovesOfDoom. The X-Pac Heat died down once smarks noticed a 2006 interview from Cena himself saying he'd rather drop down the card and redevelop his character but hasn't been allowed too.

** Although most people would consider this guy to be in the minority now... ironically because Wrestling/MarkHenry's {{heel}} work has since become very, VERY effective.

* The dud on the [=WrestleMania XX=] card, a match between Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg where Lesnar was immediately showered with boos and chants of "You Sold Out", in reference to him retiring from wrestling to play football with the Minnesota Vikings. This continued to an extent in Lesnar's brief return to wrestling in Japan and even his mixed martial arts career after he was picked up by UFC, where he humorously decided to cut a heel style promo after winning their heavyweight belt.

* Bo Dallas (Taylor Rotunda, real-life son of Mike "Irwin R. Schyster" Rotunda and brother of [[Wrestling/TheWyattFamily Windham "Husky Harris/Bray Wyatt" Rotunda]]) has been seeing a lot of this through 2013. WWE seems insistent that this kid be treated like a future Hall of Famer while the audience has strongly differing tastes. In January he was entered into the Royal Rumble where he proceeded to eliminate Wrestling/WadeBarrett (the reigning Intercontinental champion at the time), get into a feud with Barrett about this, and proceed to go over him clean in a singles non-title match. All the while, everyone is giving him heck for his obvious greenness and he does himself no favors by flubbing promos. WWE did catch onto this after awhile and took him back to NXT. But even there he continues to be a powerful force, winning the NXT Championship by defeating legit fan favorite Big E Langston (an act that caused the live audience to turn their back to the ring following the victory and any other time Bo is seen). It's clear regardless of where he is and how unsavory he is to the fans, Bo Dallas is meant for great things in WWE.

*** Mind you, this was after ''fifteen'' years of the guy suffering XPacHeat but staying because of Vince's obsession with big men.

* This trope was actually ''invoked'' when KurtAngle debuted in the then-WWF: he was such a cheesy, over-the-top good guy (think Beaver Cleaver in a singlet) that it was almost painful to watch, and then he started wrestling. Not "pro" wrestling but collegiate/Olympic style wrestling, with holds even more drawn out and what little showy and impressive bits were downplayed. This went on for ''weeks'' to the point that the fans didn't need any prompting to begin the "boring" chants, and many wondered why anyone thought bringing "the other kind" of wrestler in was a good idea. Then Angle [[FaceHeelTurn snapped under the constant verbal abuse, yelled at the fans, and changed his style into a somewhat brutal form of technical catch-as-catch-can pro wrestling]], the X Pac heat turned into the regular kind, and people were reminded that, sometimes, [[MagnificentBastard everything goes exactly as]] [[VinceMcMahon Vince]] [[MagnificentBastard wants it to]].

*** A lot of Cole's detractors also just find his heel persona grating. There are heel commentators that are fun and amusing in their insanity (Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, Wrstling/CMPunk), there are heel commentators that look past babyface and heel and pronounce a backstab good thinking even if it was an assholish thing to do (WWE career Tazz), and there are those who are just annoyingly obnoxious (Wrestling/AttitudeEra Wrestling/JerryLawler, Mark Madden). Cole is the latter.

*** Some of the aforementioned problems (Cole sucking up to Miz) have been remedied and Miz has since been turned {{Face}}... but an ill-advised decision by WWE to revive the [[RicFlair Figure Four Leglock]] and give it to Miz as a finisher did no favors for his (already shaky) reputation in the eyes of wrestling purists. One can only imagine the firestorm that started when people started finding out that the face turn - and finisher - were originally slated for EnsembleDarkhorse DolphZiggler.

* As MarkHenry was walking to the ring for a match against CMPunk on the April 2, 2012 edition of ''WWERaw'', a fan behind him held up a sign that said this:

** Although most people would consider this guy to be in the minority now... ironically because MarkHenry's {{heel}} work has since become very, VERY effective.

* Bo Dallas (Taylor Rotunda, real-life son of Mike "Irwin R. Schyster" Rotunda and brother of Windham "Husky Harris/Bray Wyatt" Rotunda) has been seeing a lot of this through 2013. WWE seems insistent that this kid be treated like a future Hall of Famer while the audience has strongly differing tastes. In January he was entered into the Royal Rumble where he proceeded to eliminate Wrestling/WadeBarrett (the reigning Intercontinental champion at the time), get into a feud with Barrett about this, and proceed to go over him clean in a singles non-title match. All the while, everyone is giving him heck for his obvious greenness and he does himself no favors by flubbing promos. WWE did catch onto this after awhile and took him back to NXT. But even there he continues to be a powerful force, winning the NXT Championship by defeating legit fan favorite Big E Langston (an act that caused the live audience to turn their back to the ring following the victory and any other time Bo is seen). It's clear regardless of where he is and how unsavory he is to the fans, Bo Dallas is meant for great things in WWE.

** Funnily enough, the Dynamic Dudes contained later modern day X-Pac Heat recipient John Laurinaitis

** The reason why he was able to stay so long despite drawing XPacHeat? Vince loves big men, and offered him an unprecedented '''10''' year contract back in 1996.

* When [[{{Wrestling/Lita}} Lita]] [[RealLifeWritesThePlot cheated on]] [[{{Wrestling/MattHardy}} Matt Hardy]] with [[{{Wrestling/Edge}} Edge]], both Lita and Edge were showered with legitimate anger from the fans -- which only intensified after Vince [=McMahon=] fired ''Hardy'' for complaining about the situation online. Their respective storylines had to be scrapped, and Lita was forced to turn heel. Edge, a natural heel, was able to turn the X-Pac Heat into regular heel heat relatively quickly, and Hardy getting re-hired calmed things down a lot. Lita did not get the fans' approval back so easily -- she was still showered with boos and vicious insults a few years later, and actually quit wrestling entirely over it -- but she was [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments well received when she made a one night return in 2007]]. She was ''very'' well received when she returned for the 1000th episode of ''Raw'' when she performed her infamous moonsault on Heath Slater. During the latter, she was referenced as a legendary "Diva" (what the WWE calls its female wrestlers), a far cry from [[SlutShaming another four-letter word she was once referred to as]].

* Some fine examples of the practice from old-school [[{{Wrestling/ECW}} ECW]] fans towards the later Syfy Channel Revival can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPsksJxmqA&feature=related here.]] Note particularly the "YOU BOTH SUCK!" chant, which is where it clearly changes from normal heat to X-Pac Heat.

* Eric Watts from the early days of WCW. He was pushed because [[{{Nepotism}} he was the son of Cowboy Bill Watts]], who was in charge of WCW at the time. He was a crappy wrestler, didn't have a great physique, and was nearly booed out of the building whenever he appeared. The sad part is that he did eventually develop some talent in the ring and a decent look, but was so notorious for his nepotistic push that he still couldn't get over and promoters were afraid to push him very hard.

*** Mind you, this was after ''fifteen'' years of the guy suffering XPaxHeat but staying because of Vince's obsession with big men.

* When [[{{Wrestling/Lita}} Lita]] [[RealLifeWritesThePlot cheated on]] [[{{Wrestling/MattHardy}} Matt Hardy]] with [[{{Wrestling/Edge}} Edge]], both Lita and Edge were showered with legitimate anger from the fans -- which only intensified after Vince [=McMahon=] fired ''Hardy'' for complaining about the situation online. Their respective storylines had to be scrapped, and Lita was forced to turn heel. Edge, a natural heel, was able to turn the XPacHeat into regular heel heat relatively quickly, and Hardy getting re-hired calmed things down a lot. Lita did not get the fans' approval back so easily -- she was still showered with boos and vicious insults a few years later, and actually quit wrestling entirely over it -- but she was [[HeartwarmingMoments well received when she made a one night return in 2007]]. She was ''very'' well received when she returned for the 1000th episode of ''Raw'' when she performed her infamous moonsault on Heath Slater. During the latter, she was referenced as a legendary "Diva" (what the WWE calls its female wrestlers), a far cry from [[SlutShaming another four-letter word she was once referred to as]].

* [[{{Wrestling/VickieGuerrero}} Vickie Guerrero]]. The hate the crowd had (and still has) for her during her run as GM of ''SmackDown'' was absolutely brutal. The screaming lowlight of her X-Pac Heat was at a PPV, where she came out to restart a match. Through the booing, you can very clearly hear a fan yell "[[{{Wrestling/EddieGuerrero}} THE WRONG GUERRERO]] [[DudeNotFunny DIED!]]". Since then she's gotten better, mainly with reducing her screen time and taming down her heel persona; now fans boo her because they love to boo her.
** Vickie is a fantastic example of the creative department taking the ball and running with it. Capitalizing on her annoying voice (which at first is why she got XPacHeat but became the signature of her on-screen personality; her shrill "EXCUSE ME!!!" being her CatchPhrase), her ability to generate heat in WWE is unmatched. Wrestlers working in the industry for ''years'' couldn't hope to get the level of fervor she gets just by ''showing her face''. True, she probably can never, ever get over as a face with her character's direction but she's unquestionably leaving her mark.
* Vladimir Kozlov. Too easy. He began to be pushed to the moon months within debuting and was even originally planned to be given the WWE Championship at one time. Any problems?... Oh yeah, he couldn't wrestle. Yes he was a heel all this time, so it could be translated to heel heat, but the smart fans hate him even more. To back this up, they recently turned him into an American loving goofy babyface, and the fans still hated him. It took a team up with the hilarious Santino Marella and a serious expansion of his moveset to become tolerable, though he was eventually fired... And [[{{Wrestling/CMPunk}} CM Punk]] cut a promo where the audience cheered his being brought up.
* [[DumbassDJ Bubba the Love Sponge]]. He was brought in around the time [[{{Wrestling/HulkHogan}} Hulk Hogan]] came to {{TNA}} as he hijacked Jeremy Borash and Christy Hemme's job as backstage interviewer, leading to loud "FIRE BUBBA" chants from the audience. It doesn't help that not too long ago he said [[DudeNotFunny "Fuck Haiti"]] on his radio show after the tragic earthquake, leading to Awesome Kong kicking his ass backstage for his disrespect to the numerous lives lost or ruined. One not-so-sincere apology later (with Hogan siding with him and making PMS jokes about Kong) and Kong asked for her release from the company. Bubba later ambushed Kong during her appearance on ''The Cowhead Show'' which turned out to be an elaborate setup by Bubba and show host Mike Calta to lure Kong on the show in the first place. This eventually led to his firing from TNA, capped by MickFoley giving Bubba a legitimate forearm to the face. [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing Guess how the fandom responded.]]
* A classic of this trope were the Dynamic Dudes, who were skateboarding wrestlers. When they received a face push by having manager JimCornette betray them for an opposing heel tag team (the Midnight Express), the audience cheered Cornette.

* A new stable in {{TNA}} is called Shore (Rob Eckos and Becky Bayless), two wrestlers who are [[ShallowParody paper-thin parodies of]] ''JerseyShore'' cast-members "The Situation" and "Snooki." They debuted before the "Bound for Glory" PPV on 10/7/10, and by their second appearance (said PPV), fans were universally booing them out of the arena.

* Good god, MichaelCole. His constant {{trolling}} of the crowd has taken him to new levels - his "Anonymous GM" emails, his incessant crapping all over [[SmartMark smark]]-beloved wrestlers like [[BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] and [[RonKillings R-Truth]], his creepy fanboying of TheMiz, and his severe lack of respect for JimRoss don't just make fans want to boo him, but want to wring his neck. Even a little payback from his screwed-over broadcast partner JerryLawler hasn't dimmed Cole's huge amounts of smarm. There's playing a heel commentator, and then there's Michael Cole.

*** A lot of Cole's detractors also just find his heel persona grating. There are heel commentators that are fun and amusing in their insanity (BobbyHeenan, CMPunk), there are heel commentators that look past babyface and heel and pronounce a backstab good thinking even if it was an assholish thing to do (WWE career Tazz), and there are those who are just annoyingly obnoxious (AttitudeEra JerryLawler, Mark Madden). Cole is the latter.

** Hysterically, after ECW folded and was bought out by then-WWF, Justin had a very short tenure. He retired from wrestling, and got a job as the ''overnight stock manager'' at a Target superstore in New Jersey. After working there for a while, he ''got back into wrestling'' and, though confined to the independents, got a respectable level of popularity.