History RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap / ProfessionalWrestling

* When [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]] debuted in the Wrestling/{{WW|E}}F in '96 as [[http://www.thewrestlinglegendsforum.com/wrestlecrap/rocky.html Rocky Maivia]], his super-nice-guy persona was ''hated'' by fans despite everything the WWF did to make him a big deal, due to a combination of HypeAversion and the fact they perceived him to be a phony (''no one'' could be ''that'' nice). After being sidelined with an injury, he [[FaceHeelTurn came back]] as member of the {{heel}} group Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination, with a new JerkJock attitude. He's a charismatic, funny guy with a real gift for speaking, and once he was freed from being so milquetoast he was able to use those skills to put on some of the best trash-talking in wrestling history. Fans were very entertained by this and [[EvilIsCool started cheering him]], which launched him into superstardom.
** There's a reason that WWE's "[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown]]!" brand (even when it was just a second show for a unified WWF) had been named after one of his {{catchphrase}}s.
** And the really funny part? By most accounts Wrestling/DwayneJohnson ''actually is'' as nice as the Rocky Maivia character was.

* Here's one to blow your mind, action movie fans: when [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]] debuted in the Wrestling/{{WW|E}}F in '96 as [[http://www.thewrestlinglegendsforum.com/wrestlecrap/rocky.html Rocky Maivia]], his super-nice-guy persona was ''hated'' by fans despite everything the WWF did to make him a big deal, due to a combination of HypeAversion and the fact they perceived him to be a phony (''no one'' could be ''that'' nice). After being sidelined with an injury, he [[FaceHeelTurn came back]] as member of the {{heel}} group Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination, with a new JerkJock attitude. He's a charismatic, funny guy with a real gift for speaking, and once he was freed from being so milquetoast he was able to use those skills to put on some of the best trash-talking in wrestling history. Fans were very entertained by this and [[EvilIsCool started cheering him]], which launched him into superstardom.

* It might be shocking for fans to believe this but Wrestling/{{Charlotte}} was widely held up as the most useless NXT Diva after she debuted. Although playing a {{Face}}, she came across as a DesignatedHero and appeared to be being protected in the ring. Fans also worried that she didn't have any of her [[Wrestling/RicFlair father's]] trademark charisma — especially after her first pitiful attempt at cutting a heel promo. Then she had the NXT Takeover match where she defeated Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart to win the NXT Women's Championship. All the indifference was immediately forgotten and Charlotte was held up as a top Diva in the making. However, after being called up to the main roster in mid-2015 and eventually degenerating into a Flair clone, she has slid into BaseBreakingCharacter status. As of a FaceHeelTurn, she has shaken off some of her heat however.

* Wrestling/{{Carmella}} struggled to connect with crowds when she first debuted on NXT. The problem was that she was the TokenEvilTeammate to Enzo Amore and Big Cass. Fans found her arrogant princess character grating, and felt she didn't fit in with Enzo and Cass's act. NXT seemed to change tack and Carmella TookALevelInKindness to be more openly supportive towards Enzo and Cass. She became a {{Face}} properly, showcasing herself as a PluckyGirl much better than an AlphaBitch. She now gets great reactions. However, she ended up becoming a Scrappy once more when upon winning the Smackdown Women's Championship, several times would end up beating [[EnsembleDarkhorse Asuka]] who until losing to Charlotte at Wrestlemania, had been on an unbeaten streak longer than Goldberg's, making the former look weak in comparison and fans thinking of her as a CreatorsPet. After losing the title and going back down the women's midcard, she'd end up once again being rescued after showing significant improvement in the ring and having a hilarious partnership with [[Wrestling/RonKillings R-Truth]].

* While Wrestling/DominikMysterio initially got some hype surrounding him and his first match was impressive, fans began to turn on him due to him being seen as incredibly bland in the ring and in personality. Him joining the Judgement Day and turning heel helped a bit, but what truly rescued him was how committed he was to portraying a cowardly heel, which resulted in him being labeled as one of the best parts of Raw.

* The famous Wrestling/NewWorldOrder stable was in a big part, a way to rescue the boring InvincibleHero Wrestling/HulkHogan from the Scrappy Heap. However, the NWO eventually managed to turn the entire WCW into a giant scrappy: they changed Hogan from boring InvincibleHero to boring InvincibleVillain, instead of ''removing the boring and invincible bits.''

* While Dominik Mysterio initially got some hype surrounding him and his first match was impressive, fans began to turn on him due to him being seen as incredibly bland in the ring and in personality. Him joining the Judgement Day and turning heel helped a bit, but what truly rescued him was how committed he was to portraying a cowardly heel, which resulted in him being labeled as one of the best parts of Raw.

* Even Sean "{{X|PacHeat}}-Pac" Waltman can be rescued. On a few different occasions in WWF/E, he briefly overcame his heat just by finding his workrate and wrestling a good match. One was a singles match with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero and one was a tag match where Wrestling/XPac teamed with Wrestling/JeffHardy against two Alliance wrestlers. Later in 2011, Waltman decided to do three shows with Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}. He reverted to the 1-2-3 Kid gimmick (even going so far as to shave his beard). He worked hard on all three matches. Lost his trios match although he didn't drop the fall, won a 4 way dance with Amazing Red, Obariyon, and Wrestling/{{Frightmare}} with a top rope X-Factor, and in his third match put over popular indy wrestler [[Wrestling/SamiZayn El Generico]]. Afterwards he claimed he'd had more fun wrestling for Chikara than he'd had wrestling in years.

* TNA Knockout Talia Madison was a scrappy since her first pay per view appearance and Wrestling/VelvetSky was a ''huge'' scrappy when she was in Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople, hated for her patchy ring skills and the fact that she was MsFanservice and nothing else. After a supposed HeelFaceTurn, that saw people mostly in support of supposed heels ODB and Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}}, Sky suddenly started getting over, improved in the ring and it's safe to say she became one of the biggest stars TNA ever had. She was even cheered going against miss popularity herself '''Mickie James'''.

* By around 2022, many were wondering why Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, despite having not done much of note over the past few years, was still around despite many other more beloved and spry superstars being released in the past two years alone. Pairing him with young upstart Ridge Holland or former NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne (this time given a pointless name change as Butch) didn't help, with many just seeing them as another stable who would get muted responses on the best of days. Holland in particular did himself no favors when he accidentally broke the neck of the beloved Big E, while Butch was seen as another casualty of Vince's desire to take any NXT star he can and change them for the worse. However, things changed after Sheamus' match of the year contender against Gunther at ''Clash at the Castle'', where despite his age, he gave an absolute banger of a performance that highlighted his grit and toughness and made many reevaluate his presence for the better. Slowly but surely he and the Brawling Brutes would morph into {{Determinator}} {{Blood Knight}}s whose tenacity and stiffness made their matches a sight to behold, especially with how much punishment they're willing to take.

* Wrestling/JohnCena was, for many people, way on top of the Scrappy Heap during his initial main event push (and subsequent WWE title reign), when he was booked as unstoppable. He was often booed even as a {{face}}, and the amount of heat he got on the One Night Stand PPV was brutal. Arguably it wasn't until his feud with Wrestling/{{Edge}} and a long series of subsequent good matches (and improved technical skills) that many Internet smarks warmed up to him. On the other hand, a lot of people took a perverse pleasure in some of the more virulent anti-Cena reactions, since the people who were booing him were also fuelling a massive rise in WWE attendance during that period.

* Wrestling/VickieGuerrero was brought into World Wrestling Entertainment during a feud between Wrestling/{{Chavo Guerrero|Jr}} and Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}} during what was termed [[FanNickname Eddiesploitation]], eventually turning heel and siding with Chavo. Fans hated her and [[XPacHeat not in the way they were supposed to]] as they found her annoying. Then WWE decided to team her and Chavo up with top heel Wrestling/{{Edge}} in a stable known as La Familia and make her the General Manager of Smackdown. During this time, they intentionally played up her annoyingness, making her more shrill and having her loudly exclaim "Excuse me!" Because of it, she's now one of the biggest heels in the company and regularly gets what can only be described as nuclear heat. The reason for her push is due to Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, who is said to be one of her late husband Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's biggest fans.

* Many {{Wrestling/ECW}} fans had lost major respect for Wrestling/MikeAwesome for jumping ship to Wrestling/{{WCW}} while world champion, and he was greeted with massive heat at ECW One Night Stand. After an [[{{Pun}} awesome]] match against Wrestling/MasatoTanaka, fans started chanting "This matches rules!" and he along with Tanaka got standing ovations. Even Wrestling/JoeyStyles, who made some [[FunnyAneurysmMoment controversial remarks]] during the match had started to commend him.

* CJ Parker surpassed Bo Dallas as the resident X-Pac Heat magnet. He didn't get bad reactions as a generic jobber, but once he started winning and developed a neo-hippie gimmick, complete with long dreadlocks, fans outright hated him, bombarding him with [[LampshadeHanging Change Your]] [[BreakingTheFourthWall Gimmick chants]] and boos. Feuding with [[EnsembleDarkhorse the very popular]] Wrestling/TylerBreeze didn't help his cause either. NXT attempted to channel this heat into the right kind of heat by turning CJ Parker heel, into a smugly superior "eco-warrior" character who holds up protest signs and bashes the fans for destroying the planet. This went over better, and he wasn't getting the "change your gimmick" chants anymore. Nonetheless, it didn't improve CJ's standing in the card and he was released in early 2015. Soon after that, however, he moved to the highly regarded Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, changed his name to Juice Robinson and has since become one of the company's most charismatic and beloved babyfaces, becoming the IWGP United States Champion in an excellent match against [[Wrestling/JayWhite "Switchblade" Jay White]] and having standout matches against Wrestling/KennyOmega, Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito and Hirooki Goto. [[UpToEleven His stardom has risen to the point where many now see him winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as not a matter of "if", but "when".]]

** Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years of being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair of injury-based vacations (Finn injuring his shoulder during the ''inaugural match'' as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-time title-holders. Hell, before Roman got his hands on it many were under the belief that the Universal Championship was cursed.

** Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years of being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair of injury-based vacations (Finn injuring his shoulder during the ''inaugural match'' as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-time title-holders.

* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years of being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair of injury-based vacations (Finn injuring his shoulder during the ''inaugural match'' as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-time title-holders.

* For years, Wrestling/RomanReigns was one of the biggest recipients of XPacHeat, to the point of it sometimes being referred to as Reigns Heat. Some of it died down when his leukemia came back, but he was still rather middling as a face. But in what might be the most triumphant example of escaping Scrappydom, after taking time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic to be with his family, Roman returned at Wrestling/SummerSlam in August of 2020 and attacked both Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Wrestling/BrayWyatt, seemingly returning as a heel. Any questions about whether this turn was for real were wiped away when he then aligned with Wrestling/PaulHeyman and won the title at Payback, signing the contract ''while the match was happening'' and cheating to win the title. He then debuted his new heel persona, The Tribal Chief, which gained widespread acclaim from fans and pundits due to his character being an arrogant badass whose brain is just as much of a weapon as his body and willing to do whatever it takes to keep his spot as "Head of the Table". He then proceeded to put in some of the best in-ring work in his career with programs with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens. Roman is now considered THE reason to watch ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown [=SmackDown=]]]''. And just to top it off, his new theme music made the IWC ''explode'' and declare that Roman is now truly his own man.

* For years, Wrestling/RomanReigns was one of the biggest recipients of XPacHeat, to the point of it sometimes being referred to as Reigns Heat. Some of it died down when his leukemia came back, but he was still rather middling as a face. But in what might be the most triumphant example of escaping Scrappydom, after taking time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic to be with his family, Roman returned at Wrestling/SummerSlam and attacked both Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Wrestling/BrayWyatt, seemingly returning as a heel. Any questions about whether this turn was for real were wiped away when he then aligned with Wrestling/PaulHeyman and won the title at Fastlane, signing the contract ''while the match was happening'' and cheating to win the title. He then debuted his new heel persona, The Tribal Chief, which gained widespread acclaim from fans and pundits due to his character being an arrogant badass whose brain is just as much of a weapon as his body and willing to do whatever it takes to keep his spot as "Head of the Table". He then proceeded to put in some of the best in-ring work in his career with programs with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens. Roman is now considered THE reason to watch ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown [=SmackDown=]]]''. And just to top it off, his new theme music made the IWC ''explode'' and declare that Roman is now truly his own man.

* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years of being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn injuring his shoulder during the ''inaugural match'' as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn injuring his shoulder during the ''inaugural match'' as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of ''[=SmackDown=]'' after years being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn's injuring his shoulder during ''inaugural match'' as well Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) as well as absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

* For years, Wrestling/RomanReigns was one of the biggest recipients of XPacHeat, to the point of it sometimes being referred to as Reigns Heat. Some of it died down when his leukemia came back, but he was still rather middling as a face. But in what might be the most triumphant example of escaping Scrappydom, after taking time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic to be with his family, Roman returned at Wrestling/SummerSlam and attacked both Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Wrestling/BrayWyatt, seemingly returning as a heel. Any questions about whether this turn was for real were wiped away when he then aligned with Wrestling/PaulHeyman and won the title at Fastlane, signing the contract ''while the match was happening'' and cheating to win the title. He then debuted his new heel persona, The Tribal Chief, which gained widespread acclaim from fans and pundits due to his character being an arrogant badass whose brain is just as much of a weapon as his body and willing to do whatever it takes to keep his spot as "Head of the Table". He then proceeded to put in some of the best in-ring work in his career with programs with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens. Roman is now considered THE reason to watch [[Wrestling/WWESmackDown [=SmackDown=]]]. And just to top it off, his new theme music made the IWC ''explode'' and declare that Roman is now truly his own man.
* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Chanmpionship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of Wrestling/SmackDown after years being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn's injuring his shoulder during ''inaugural match'' as well Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) as well as absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

** Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Chanmpionship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of Wrestling/SmackDown after years being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn's injuring his shoulder during ''inaugural match'' as well Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) as well as absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

* Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Chanmpionship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and ''the'' title of Wrestling/SmackDown after years being a complete joke damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair injury-based vacations (Finn's injuring his shoulder during ''inaugural match'' as well Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) as well as absenteeism by part-timer title-holders.

* For years, Wrestling/RomanReigns was one of the biggest recipients of XPacHeat, to the point of it sometimes being referred to as Reigns Heat. Some of it died down when his leukemia came back, but he was still rather middling as a face. But in what might be the most triumphant example of escaping Scrappydom, after taking time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic to be with his family, Roman returned at Wrestling/SummerSlam and attacked both Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Wrestling/BrayWyatt, seemingly returning as a heel. Any questions about whether this turn was for real were wiped away when he then allied with Wrestling/PaulHeyman and won the title at Fastlane, signing the contract ''while the match was happening'' and cheating to win the title. He then debuted his new heel persona, The Tribal Chief, which gained widespread acclaim from fans and pundits due to his character being an arrogant badass whose brain is just as much of a weapon as his body and willing to do whatever it takes to keep his spot as "Head of the Table". He then proceeded to put in some of the best in-ring work in his career with programs with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens. Roman is now considered THE reason to watch [[Wrestling/WWESmackDown [=SmackDown=]]]. And just to top it off, his new theme music made the IWC ''explode'' and declare that Roman is now truly his own man.

* For years, Wrestling/RomanReigns was one of the biggest recipients of XPacHeat, to the point of it sometimes being referred to as Reigns Heat. Some of it died down when his leukemia came back, but he was still rather middling as a face. But in what might be the most triumphant example of escaping Scrappydom, after taking time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic to be with his family, Roman returned at Wrestling/SummerSlam and attacked both Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Wrestling/BrayWyatt, seemingly returning as a heel. Any questions about whether this turn was for real were wiped away when he then aligned with Wrestling/PaulHeyman and won the title at Fastlane, signing the contract ''while the match was happening'' and cheating to win the title. He then debuted his new heel persona, The Tribal Chief, which gained widespread acclaim from fans and pundits due to his character being an arrogant badass whose brain is just as much of a weapon as his body and willing to do whatever it takes to keep his spot as "Head of the Table". He then proceeded to put in some of the best in-ring work in his career with programs with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens. Roman is now considered THE reason to watch Wrestling/SmackDown. And just to top it off, his new theme music made the IWC ''explode'' and declare that Roman is now truly his own man.

* CJ Parker surpassed Bo Dallas as the resident X-Pac Heat magnet. He didn't get bad reactions as a generic jobber, but once he started winning and developed a neo-hippie gimmick, complete with long dreadlocks, fans outright hated him, bombarding him with [[LampshadeHanging Change Your]] [[BreakingTheFourthWall Gimmick chants]] and boos. Feuding with [[EnsembleDarkhorse the very popular]] Wrestling/TylerBreeze didn't help his cause either. NXT attempted to channel this heat into the right kind of heat by turning CJ Parker heel, into a smugly superior eco in towarrior character who holds up protest signs and bashes the fans for destroying the planet. This went over better, and he wasn't getting the "change your gimmick" chants anymore. Nonetheless, it never panned out for CJ and he was released in early 2015. Soon after that, however, he moved to the highly regarded Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, changed his name to Juice Robinson and has since become one of the company's most charismatic and beloved babyfaces, becoming the United States Champion in an excellent match against [[Wrestling/JayWhite "Switchblade" Jay White]] and having standout matches against Wrestling/KennyOmega, Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito and Hirooki Goto. [[UpToEleven His stardom has risen to the point where many now see him winning the World title as not a matter of "if", but "when".]]

* The 24/7 Championship was initially considered a ReplacementScrappy to the Hardcore Championship from the moment it was introduced since fans were expecting to see the latter returning instead of a new tittle. The tittle is pretty much the Hardcore Championship but without the Hardcore aspect. Even the belt design and name of the title was hated. Under the hands of R-Truth however, the title escape its Scrappy status within days and it becomes the highest viewed segments of both Raw and [=SmackDown=] over the next few months.