YMMV / Christian

• Awesome Music: Pick one of his themes, any one. Highlights include "At Last" and "Just Close Your Eyes" (both versions) in WWE, and "Take Over" (which is definitely not "My Last Breath") in Total Nonstop Action and All Elite Wrestling.
• Crosses the Line Twice: His entire Heel schtick in AEW consists of him just crossing line after line at light speed from bringing up people’s dead dads to shamelessly hitting on his rivals’ moms. And it's getting the crowd laughing with him instead of booing him.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Towards the end of his initial WWE run, Christian's "Captain Charisma" gimmick got so over with the crowd that he was getting cheers over actual faces—most notably the guy they were grooming to be the next big thing: John Cena. This is in 2005 when such things were mostly unheard of. Rather than turn him face, or at the very least push him as a consistent main eventer, WWE had his only world championship match be relegated to a triple threat due to Chris Jericho's heel turn (which, to be fair, the heel turn itself was Jericho's idea as he wanted to put Cena over as the man who got him fired and dragged out kicking and screaming), then moved him to SmackDown so they could edit the chants for Christian out of his matches. This ensured WWE would fail to keep Christian at the negotiating table, leading to him being seen in TNA very shortly after his WWE contract ran out.
  • In his return to WWE, this trope bit Christian in the ass a bit. Both times he's lost titles have been indirectly attributed to a fan vote putting him into the match where he would lose his title. The first time was the oft-mentioned title reign of two days to Randy Orton when the live audience 'voted' that they wanted to see that match, and the second time was during his latest IC Championship run, where the week before, WWE ran a fan vote as to which champion (between himself, the US Champ Santino Marella, and the Divas' Champion Layla) the fans wanted to see defend their title at RAW 1000. Christian won the poll...and lost his title to The Miz.
  • Upon turning Heel in AEW, combined with how often he Crosses the Line Twice in his promos against his opponents, alongside the positive reception to his performance in matches, many have considered this to be Christian's best run in his professional career. Helping this was then-AEW World Champion MJF and his gradual turn towards Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain rather than stay a full-blown Heel, elevating Christian's villainous traits more and more into the limelight. By the start of 2024, Christian was effectively the promotion's top villain.
• Harsher in Hindsight: His constant whining for "one more match" during his Heel run takes on a much more somber meaning now that a string of successive injuries may mean that he may be forced to retire from in-ring action - and without an official "send-off" match, to boot. Fortunately negated, at least for now, by his 2020 return from retirement.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Christian was effectively the only reason anyone watched WWE and ECW in 2009. Considering he was a borderline main event talent who, at the height of his popularity, was more over than John Cena, on a show filled with younger, unestablished talent and mid carder jobbers like William Regal, it was only to be expected.
• Memetic Mutation: The reaction of announcer Todd Grisham at Christian's return to WWE in 2009:
  It's...it's Christian.
  • "Tomko, gimme a beat." "No."
  • While one of the best in the biz, Christian sadly is also responsible for this botch.
    • "Shit!"
  • "Stay off the internet, buddy."
  • "Your father is dead." ^ExplanationA trend during Christian's Heel run in AEW is for him to target a wrestler's deceased father and just trash them for Heel heat. It started with "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry, and continued to Wardlow and Brian Pillman Jr. This led to fans claiming that Christian only goes after wrestlers with dead fathers so he can proceed to bury them live. When Christian showed up to a cut a promo on Nick Wayne and brought up that Wayne had a father, the entire audience went into a collective gasp knowing what Christian was about to say.
    • "Father of the year" ^ExplanationAn ironic meme to describe Christian in his AEW Heel run (though less ironic after he took on "The Patriarch" moniker and became leader of the same-named faction with Nick Wayne, Killswitch (formerly Luchasaurus) and Shayna Wayne); even AEW commentator Nigel McGuinness, who shills for the antagonists, occasionally says this about Christian.
• Shocking Moments: His surprise return at the 2021 Royal Rumble brought a huge grin to the faces of Christian's fans, particularly his reunion with Edge... but only a month later, he showed up in All Elite Wrestling as the "big signing" Paul Wight had teased would happen at Revolution 2021, complete with his classic TNA theme.
• Strawman Has a Point: Following his 2014 Face–Heel Turn, he's returned somewhat to the tantrum-throwing brat persona of his younger years - although in some cases his rages and rants are pretty much justified. He was right, for instance, in pointing out that, as Chief Operating Officer, Triple H shouldn't let Randy Orton get away with causing so much mayhem, because after all Triple H himself was once on the receiving end of that mayhem when Orton put both Vince and Shane McMahon (Triple H's in-laws) in the hospital and nearly raped Stephanie McMahon (his wife). Ultimately defied, as Triple H simply didn't care about all that anymore.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: His theme in TNA and AEW, "Take Over", sounds a lot like Evanescence's "My Last Breath".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Never mind the fact that his WHC title run was insultingly short. A feud between Christian and Randy Orton for the title would have actually been pretty cool, especially considering that they're the top 2 guys on Smackdown and, because of the Draft, its Main Event scene hasn't been established yet. When they actually went through with the feud, despite going on to have some of the best matches of 2011 to the point it could've been WWE's feud of the year had it not been for Cena vs Punk, the fact that it started with the immediate title switch, yet another reminder that Vince simply doesn't see Christian as a Main Event player, then had the popular underdog chaser be the one to turn heel instead of the establishment mainstay who ended his dream reign in under a week, soured the feud from jump in the eyes of many fans.
  • And of course, prior to Christian making his WWE return, Jeff Hardy was regularly being attacked by a mystery assailant: guess who it was going to be until somebody higher up decided that since it was so "obvious" it shouldn't happen? Although to be fair, the WWE fanbase immediately figured out that it was meant to be Christian behind the attacks. The WWE gave the angle to Matt Hardy instead, so that they could pull an Ass Pull on the fans.
  • TNA might have generated a bit more interest in Slammiversary 2012 had they advertised that Christian, the reigning WWE Intercontinental champion, was going to appear on their pay-per-view. Instead, they chose to announce it on Twitter a few days before.
• Vindicated by History: His actions as a Heel in 2011 — namely the enmity towards Randy Orton, the questioning of Triple H, and the general complaints against the WWE machine for costing him his dream World Heavyweight Championship run — becomes completely justified in kayfabe by the rise of The Authority in 2013.
• The Woobie: "Oh, hi Grandma Edna! Did you see, I—<Deflated> Yeah. He's here."
  • Also counts as The Unfavorite - almost Hilarious in Hindsight when one considers the treatment each has been given by the company since.

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