History Woobie / ProfessionalWrestling

* [[Wrestling/CodyRhodes Cody Rhodes]] has been like this for much of his WWE career. On the September 2nd, 2014 episode of Monday Night RAW, Rhodes was "fired" by Triple H after Rhodes lost to Randy Orton (one of Triple H's friends).. He and Goldust were later rehired and were tag team champions until losing to The New Age Outlaws (another of Triple H's friends) during the Royal Rumble pre-show. Rhodes has since been used as filler as of late.

* Randi Rah Rah, in the short-lived but loved by its audience [[http://www.wowe.com WOW (Women of Wrestling)]] promotion in late 2000-early 2001. Her Team Spirit tag team partner Patti Pep did the promotion's big [[{{FaceHeelTurn}} heel turn]], siding with evil blonde Hollywood wannabe Lana Star, who changed Patti's name to Patti Pizazz. Oh, and Lana broke her mirror over Randi's eye.

* {{Wrestling/Virgil}}, if this [[http://kayfabecomedy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/virgil-wrestling-superstar.jpg infamous photo]] isn't evidence enough.

** [[Wrestling/KiaStevens Awesome Kong]] became one of these after she got fired for beating up Bubba the Love Sponge, ''even though Bubba's sucked TNA dry with his paycheck demands, and many were offended by his infamous "Fuck Haiti" comment.

** Even more of a woobie now after [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] crossed the MoralEventHorizon by chewing her up and spitting her out on the April 6th 2012 edition of ''[[Wrestling/{{WWESmackDown}} WWE [=SmackDown!=]]]'' just for giving him a good luck kiss before Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} beat him in 18 seconds at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} 28''.

** Ditto for Chavo Guerrero, despite being a very skilled fourth generation wrestler, he's been stuck in jobber level angles for years, reaching its nadir in a rivalry with a midget dressed as a leprechaun.

* Oh my goodness, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr. Where to start? He's often picked on by other much bigger wrestlers (kayfabe) for simply being the underdog, and with his small stature, it's easy to see why. He was also hit particularly hard by Eddie Guerrero's death, and Chavo Guerrero turning on him a few months later costing him the World Championship didn't help much either. And then there's the issue with CMPunk going after his family...

* What, no love for Rhino here? His contract was due to run out so he was forced to make a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Eric Bischoff]] because his so-called friends in [=EV2.0=] didn't seem to care about his impending job loss and he wanted to care for his daughter. Since then, he has lost all his friends, the fans have turned on him, and due to his inability to defeat Tommy Dreamer or Wrestling/RobVanDam, he didn't get his contract renewed anyway, making the entire exercise pointless.

* Wrestling/BretHart. In his lifetime, lost two brothers, one of whom was [[Wrestling/OwenHart in a tragic accident]] that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Bret could have prevented had he not left WWE the previous year]], lost his brother in law, who he was close to, and was the recipient of the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob

** Kelly was WWE's biggest Woobie long before that. From managing asshole boyfriend Mike Knox, to falling in love with Balls Mahoney only to see the Miz squash that, and to the fact she usually loses her matches (even getting pinned by Vickie Guerrero).

* Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck's whole character was originally ''built'' on this. He would take incredible beatings and, as Wrestling/PaulHeyman ''acknowledged'' on the ''Rise & Fall of ECW'' [=DVD=], "he had such sympathy."

* What, no love for Rhino here? His contract was due to run out so he was forced to make a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Eric Bischoff]] because his so-called friends in EV2.0 didn't seem to care about his impending job loss and he wanted to care for his daughter. Since then, he has lost all his friends, the fans have turned on him, and due to his inability to defeat Tommy Dreamer or Wrestling/RobVanDam, he didn't get his contract renewed anyway, making the entire exercise pointless.

** Even more of a woobie now after [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] crossed the MoralEventHorizon by chewing her up and spitting her out on the April 6th 2012 edition of ''[[Wrestling/{{WWESmackDown}} WWE [=SmackDown!=]'' just for giving him a good luck kiss before Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} beat him in 18 seconds at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} 28''.

** Wrestling/MickFoley revealed that the reason Vince tries so hard to put on the front he does is because he is so traumatized by his childhood that (t least until 2001, when ''Foley is Good'' was written) he would privately cry like a baby. If that doesn't excuse most if not all the messed up things Vince does wht would?

* An unlikely choice given his original role as a hated {{Foreign Wrestling|Heel}} [[WrestlingMonster monster heel]], but, [[Wrestling/NikitaKoloff "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff]] belongs on here. In late 1988, he walked away from wrestling to care for his wife Mandy, who was dying, and ultimately did die, of cancer. From 1984 until Magnum T.A.'s (there's another one) career-ending car accident, Koloff was one of Crockett's hottest heels, able to get the fans at TV tapings to cheer for the promotion's BigBad Ric Flair. Once he turned face and allied himself with Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Koloff became hugely popular. He'd have runs with Wrestling/{{WCW}} in 1991 and 1992 before retiring but never regained the momentum he once had.

* George "The Animal" Steele, during his 1985-1988 face run in the WWF. Steele's character was that of a neanderthal who could only grunt a few words ("Duh, 'Lizabeth! Cute! Love her!"), and gave fans the cutest puppy dog-eyed look during his ring entrances, promos, etc.; he was also well known for breaking open the ring turnbuckles and throwing the stuffing in his opponents' faces. His crush on Elizabeth (note the line earlier in this entry) sparked his best-known feud, with [[Wrestling/RandySavage Randy "Macho Man" Savage]] (a heel whose valet was Elizabeth, and whose character was that of "you'd better not even so much as glance at her or else I'll kill you"). Later, Steele was known to carry a hand puppet called "Mine" to the ring (that is, until Wrestling/AndreTheGiant ripped it up and stuffed its remnants down Steele's throat during one particularly brutal match ... OK, just kidding about that one.) Steele, by the way, was actually William James Meyers, a quite intelligent man who played the "neanderthal" type to perfection, and had successful runs in the WWF as both a villian (prior to 1985) and as a face.

* Tommy Dreamer
* The Wrestling/{{ECW}} in general is seen as the woobie of the professional wrestling brands.
* Though it may seem strange at first, the IWC thinks of Kane as a woobie for all of the terrible feuds he's been put in.

*** Watch the interviews of him after both EddieGuerrero and ChrisBenoit died. Note that he was the person who discovered that Eddie died and was one of the last people Benoit had spoken to before committing suicide. Also note how close Eddie and Chavo had been their entire lives and how the reportedly private Benoit must have felt about Chavo if he let him stay at his home and would call him before committing suicide.
* JeffHardy, during the recent rivalry with his brother, Matt, he was definitely this. Matt's use of mixing real life events into the situation to help sell the angle made it all the more powerful.
* Some see Vickie Guerrero as a {{Jerkass}} woobie, her husbands death, mixed with playing the queen bitch {{heel}} of the WWE made a lot of people feel sorry for her; made all the worse by her very noticeable weight gain becoming an angle for mockery.

* The Knockouts division of {{TNA}} has become this in the eyes of the IWC. What used to be a dead sexy division of ActionGirls has become the poor mans version of the WWE Divas, the irony in {{TNA}} making fun of the Wrestling/{{WWE}} for their treatment of the Divas is undeniable.
** Awesome Kong became one of these after she got fired for beating up Bubba the Love Sponge, ''even though Bubba's sucked TNA dry with his paycheck demands, and many were offended by his infamous "Fuck Haiti" comment.

* Poor, poor little Funaki. Seems he exists only to be pummeled by the likes of TheUndertaker, TheBigShow and Great Khali.
* Plenty of people are surprised by how they're feeling for JohnCena being forced to be part of (also the bitch of) TheNexus.
* Molly Holly. In real life, she's a devout Christian and refused to be a glorified stripper like many of the other Divas, wanting to be a good role model for young girls. So what did WWE do? As a punishment for not conforming to their ideas of what a Diva should be, she was put in a 2002 storyline where she was unmercifully ridiculed by everyone in the company over the alleged size of her derriere. In her shoot interview, she talked about how depressed she got during this time period.

* What, no love for Rhino here? His contract was due to run out so he was forced to make a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Eric Bischoff]] because his so-called friends in EV2.0 didn't seem to care about his impending job loss and he wanted to care for his daughter. Since then, he has lost all his friends, the fans have turned on him, and due to his inability to defeat Tommy Dreamer or RobVanDam, he didn't get his contract renewed anyway, making the entire exercise pointless.
* Admit it, you wanted to give KellyKelly a hug after Vickie fired her for helping {{Edge}} retain his title.

* [[ChickBusters AJ Lee]] when she got eliminated from NXT. Here was a girl who had dreamed of being a diva for most of her life and was stuck with an unlikeable gimmick in the early part of the show. And just minutes before her elimination she was in one of the best matches we'd ever seen from the divas. Hell even the critics who hated the show were calling her elimination a "miscarriage of justice". And yes, there were tears.

** Even more of a woobie now after [[BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] crossed the MoralEventHorizon by chewing her up and spitting her out on the April 6th 2012 edition of WWESmackDown just for giving him a good luck kiss before {{Sheamus}} beat him in 18 seconds at WrestleMania 28.
* The talented and unfortunate {{Christian}}. Spent many years of his career jobbing to the bigger names, and only received recognition when he teamed up with best friend {{Edge}}. He clawed in vain to get a main event status push, working his whole career towards it, and it finally came because Edge had to retire, so Christian would replace him to take on AlbertoDelRio for the WHC. When he won, he reportedly went up to VinceMcMahon, hugged him, and said "Thank you!" So what does Vince do next? Make Christian lose the WHC to RandyOrton, someone who has had a shorter career and more title shots/wins, not two days later at Smackdown. What makes it worse is at their rematch at Over the Limit, Christian lost yet again. BUT WAIT, there's more! On top of that, it's reported at the latest Smackdown taping that there was a match to determine who would be #1 contender for the WHC between Christian, MarkHenry, and {{Sheamus}}. [[spoiler: Sheamus won.]] With all these factors, it wouldn't be surprising to see Christian pull a FaceHeelTurn in the coming months.

* {{Lita}} anyone? Remember when MattHardy came onto Raw and said there was a question he wanted to ask her? Sounded like he was going to propose right? Then they were in a match with Lita's job on the line. Matt cost her the match and broke up with her, resulting in her being fired. Christian got her job back but the poor girl was a convincing crier.
** From the same story, you wanted to give TrishStratus a hug when she overheard Christian and ChrisJericho talking about a bet to see who could sleep with her or Lita first.
* George "The Animal" Steele, during his 1985-1988 face run in the WWF. Steele's character was that of a neanderthal who could only grunt a few words ("Duh, 'Lizabeth! Cute! Love her!"), and gave fans the cutest puppy dog-eyed look during his ring entrances, promos, etc.; he was also well known for breaking open the ring turnbuckles and throwing the stuffing in his opponents' faces. His crush on Elizabeth (note the line earlier in this entry) sparked his best-known feud, with [[RandySavage Randy "Macho Man" Savage]] (a heel whose valet was Elizabeth, and whose character was that of "you'd better not even so much as glance at her or else I'll kill you"). Later, Steele was known to carry a hand puppet called "Mine" to the ring (that is, until AndreTheGiant ripped it up and stuffed its remnants down Steele's throat during one particularly brutal match ... OK, just kidding about that one.) Steele, by the way, was actually Jim Meyers, a quite intelligent man who played the "neanderthal" type to perfection, and had successful runs in the WWF as both a villian (prior to 1985) and as a face.
* I'm surprised no one's mentioned VinceMcMahon yet. He had a terrible childhood with an abusive step-father, and has go on to say that had he not died, Vince would've killed him himself.

** MickFoley revealed that the reason Vince tries so hard to put on the front he does is because he is so traumatized by his childhood that (t least until 2001, when ''Foley is Good'' was written) he would privately cry like a baby. If that doesn't excuse most if not all the messed up things Vince does wht would?
* Bill and Randy Mulkey were a tag-team in Jim Crocket Promotions that developed a cult following as quite possibly the most sympathetic pair of jobbers of all time. The Mulkey Brothers were beaten and humiliated without getting so much as a single offensive move on a weekly basis. To rub salt in the wound their abysmal win-loss record was featured on NWA television each week when they wrestled. Shortly after they reached a record of 0-180, the team earned their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSkgE0d44ik first and only victory]] earning them entry in the Jim Crocket Cup and their own MomentOfAwesome.
* Oh my goodness, ReyMysterioJr. Where to start? He's often picked on by other much bigger wrestlers (kayfabe) for simply being the underdog, and with his small stature, it's easy to see why. He was also hit particularly hard by Eddie Guerrero's death, and Chavo Guerrero turning on him a few months later costing him the World Championship didn't help much either. And then there's the issue with CMPunk going after his family...

* What, no sympathy for Matthew "Tensai" Bloom? This is a guy who started with the terrible Prince Albert tattoo artist gimmick, got a decent run with Test as T&A, then ended up basically in purgatory until he became A-Train. His moster push failed, he got released, and went to Japan, where his run was decent enough for WWE to get him back. EarnYourHappyEnding? Nope. His push failed due to fans mocking him with "Albert" chants, and he became a jobber, before forming a joke team with Brodus Clay

* Tammy Lynn Sytch, after the untimely death of Chris Candido.

* The {{ECW}} in general is seen as the woobie of the professional wrestling brands.

* The {{ECW}} in general is seen as the woobie of the professional wrestling brands, it was just TooGoodToLast.

* Randi Rah Rah, in the short-lived but loved by its audience [[http://www.wowe.com WOW (Women of Wrestling)]] promotion in late 2000-early 2001. Her Team Spirit tag team partner Patti Pep did the promotion's big [[{{FaceHeelTurn}} heel turn]], siding with evil blonde Hollywood wannabe Lana Star, who changed Patti's name to Patti Pizazz. Oh, and Lana broke her mirror over Randi's eye.

* Wrestling/BretHart. In his lifetime, lost two brothers, one of whom was [[Wrestling/Owen Hart in a tragic accident]] that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Bret could have prevented had he not left WWE the previous year]], lost his brother in law, who he was close to, and was the recipient of the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4FkP822POU Dean Ambrose]]

* Tammy Lynn Sytch, after the untimely death of Chris Candido.

* Oh my goodness, ReyMysterioJr. Where to start? He's often picked on by other much bigger wrestlers (kayfabe) for simply being the underdog, and with his small stature, it's easy to see why. He was also hit particularly hard by Eddie Guerrero's death, and Chavo Guerrero turning on him a few months later costing him the World Championship didn't help much either. And then there's the issue with CMPunk going after his family...

* Though it may seem strange at first, the IWC thinks of Kane as a woobie for all of the terrible feuds he's been put in.

* Some see Vickie Guerrero as a {{Jerkass}} woobie, her husbands death, mixed with playing the queen bitch {{heel}} of the WWE made a lot of people feel sorry for her; made all the worse by her very noticeable weight gain becoming an angle for mockery.
** However, some see her as despicable, because she never should have agreed to enter the {{WWE}} for the Eddiesploitation money.

* The Knockouts division of {{TNA}} has become this in the eyes of the IWC. What used to be a dead sexy division of ActionGirls has become the poor mans version of the WWE Divas, the irony in {{TNA}} making fun of the {{WWE}} for their treatment of the Divas is undeniable.
** Awesome Kong became one of these after she got fired for beating up Bubba the Love Sponge, ''even though Bubba's sucked TNA dry with his paycheck demands, and many were offended by his infamous "Fuck Haiti" comment.

** Even more of a woobie now after [[BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] crossed the MoralEventHorizon by chewing her up and spitting her out on the April 6th 2012 edition of WWESmackDown just for giving him a good luck kiss before {{Sheamus}} beat him in 18 seconds at {{WrestleMania}} 28.

* Mike Awesome. He took a lot of heat for leaving ECW for WCW as World Champion. After that passed, he retired from wrestling to spend time with his family. Then his family left him. He didn't take it well, [[DrivenToSuicide at all]]

* Some see Vicky Guerrero as a {{Jerkass}} woobie, her husbands death, mixed with playing the queen bitch {{heel}} of the WWE made a lot of people feel sorry for her; made all the worse by her very noticeable weight gain becoming an angle for mockery.

*** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by {{Edge}} during his retirement speech. As he was thanking the people in the back for helping with his career, Vickie's name came up. As if on instinct, the crowd erupts in loud boos. Edge just smiled and mentioned that even when being spoken of out of {{kayfabe}}, the fact she can get the crowd to boo her is a testiment to how well she played her heel character.

*** It even extends outside the ring. She dated Andrew "Test" Martin until he passed away in March 2009.

* YourMileageMayVary, but some see Vicky Guerrero as a {{Jerkass}} woobie, her husbands death, mixed with playing the queen bitch {{heel}} of the WWE made a lot of people feel sorry for her; made all the worse by her very noticeable weight gain becoming an angle for mockery.

* Another YourMileageMayVary one, but plenty of people are surprised by how they're feeling for JohnCena being forced to be part of (also the bitch of) TheNexus.

* Bill and Randy Mulkey were a tag-team in Jim Crocket Promotions that developed a cult following as quite possibly the most sympathetic pair of jobbers of all time. The Mulkey Brothers were beaten and humiliated without getting so much as a single offensive move on a weekly basis. To rub salt in the wound their abysmal win-loss record was featured on NWA television each week when they wrestled. Shortly after they reached a record of 0-180, the team earned their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSkgE0d44ik first and only victory]] earning them entry in the Jim Crocket Cup and their own MomentOfAwesome.