History MisaimedFandom / ProfessionalWrestling

** Except in the above cases, the Misaim was that [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem management were only going to put over stars]] ''they'' wanted/crafted (ex. Sheamus and [[Wrestling/JohnCena John Cena]]) [[CreatorsPet regardless of the fans being tired of them]] and expected said [[ViewersAreMorons audience to boo/cheer whoever they were told to]] (ex. Sheamus’s CurbStompBattle over Daniel Bryan) instead of who actually ''earned'' their reactions through [[ScrewDestiny hard work]] ''despite'' the bad (read: Jobber) hands [[TheyJustDidntCare management half-heartedly dealt them.]] This was the whole crux of CM Punk’s WorkedShoot that Cena actually agreed with as leverage against McMahon that “You (Vince) could make a dozen more of me.” At the same time, Ryder was [[TheDeterminator self-made]] through his online videos ([[GladIThoughtOfIt “inspiring” management to do likewise]]) as JokeCharacter or [[LethalJokeCharacter not,]] he got ''over'' with the fans in ''spite'' of the higher-ups intending for him to rot at the bottom of the roster. Basically [[DorkAge 2015,]] alone proved not only that [[ControlFreak McMahon]] (see his Trivia and YMMV pages for further emphasis) hasn’t [[AesopAmnesia learned]] anything from this, but would also sooner [[TakeThatAudience spite his own audience]] by putting over people ''he'' [[Wrestling/RomanReigns wants]] [[FollowTheLeader the way he wants]] [[EpicFail and]] [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks the]] [[TheDogBitesBack people]] [[JadeColoredGlasses are]] [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy tired]] [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere of it.]]

* It's well known in the WWE that it's really, really hard to get a Canadian audience to consider a Canadian wrestler as the heel in a given match unless they happen to be fighting another Canadian. WWE specifically renamed rising [[WrestlingMonster monster heel]] [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Canadian Earthquake (John Tenta)]] to simply Earthquake going into ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} VI'', which was held in Toronto.

** This happens WAY more often then it should. At nWo Souled Out 97, a match between Masahiro Chono (Japanese) and Chris Jericho (Canadian) resulted in "USA!" chants. EricBischoff would lampshade this by saying something to the effect of "The fans know where they live."

** 2011 saw the crowd use the ''WHAT?'' to heckle a [[FaceHeelTurn freshly-turned]] [[RonKillings R-Truth]], to great comedic effect.

* When Floyd Mayweather was booked to face Wrestling/TheBigShow at Wrestlemania 24, he was originally projected as the face, supposedly putting his boxing career at risk against a much larger opponent. Most fans, however, hated Mayweather's showboating and were so glad to see Show come back from retirement that WWE had to quickly reverse the roles.

* In 2013, during a Wrestling/MarkHenry promo on Sheamus:

* In 2013, during a Wrestling/MarkHenry promo on Wrestling/Sheamus:

* No-one should have been surprised that in a company where the majority of viewers were young men, that the smoking hot MickieJames and her pyscho lesbian gimmick would get over as a face rather than the plan for her to be the heel in her feud with Trish.

** Similarly, at ''WCW [=Mayhem=] 99,'' November 21, 1999, which was held in Toronto, the Canadian fans booed the {{Face}} Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and cheered the {{Heel}} Sid [=Vicious=], because of the WWE party line that Goldberg was a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ripoff, and Sid was previously an on-and-off WWE guy.

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], Wrestling/ZackRyder, the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) {{Face Heel Turn}}s (Bryan's about a month into his reign, Punk's in the middle of the summer) while Zack lost the belt to Wrestling/JackSwagger, and [[DemotedToExtra stopped]] [[PutOnABus wrestling]] on Raw or Smackdown.

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], Wrestling/ZackRyder, the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) {{Face Heel Turn}}s (Bryan turned about a month into his reign while Punk would turn in the summertime) while Zack lost the belt to Wrestling/JackSwagger, and [[DemotedToExtra stopped]] [[PutOnABus wrestling]] on Raw or Smackdown.

* Once during a British Bulldogs ([[Wrestling/DynamiteKid The Dynamite Kid]] and Wrestling/DaveyBoySmith) vs. Wrestling/TheIronSheik[=/=]Nikolai Volkoff (w/"The Doctor of Style" Slick} match, the crowd was chanting "USA USA", even though the {{Face}}s were British. Commentator Wrestling/JesseVentura [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this by saying, "Oh listen, they are cheering for Slick!"

* Once during a British Bulldogs (The Dynamite Kid and Wrestling/DaveyBoySmith) vs. Wrestling/TheIronSheik[=/=]Nikolai Volkoff (w/"The Doctor of Style" Slick} match, the crowd was chanting "USA USA", even though the {{Face}}s were British. Commentator Wrestling/JesseVentura [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this by saying, "Oh listen, they are cheering for Slick!"

** Similarly, at ''WCW [=Mayhem=] 99,'' November 21, 1999, which was held in Toronto, the Canadian fans the {{Face}} booed Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and cheered the {{Heel}} Sid [=Vicious=], because of the WWE party line that Goldberg was a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ripoff, and Sid was previously an on-and-off WWE guy.

** This might have been a good thing, since the West Texas Rednecks were getting over with the fans and starting to bring people in to watch the shows. [[SarcasmMode So WCW, in its infinite wisdom, killed the angle dead. Thank you,]] VinceRusso.

* Similarly, at ''WCW [=Mayhem=] 99,'' November 21, 1999, which was held in Toronto, the Canadian fans booed Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and cheered the {{Heel}} Sid [=Vicious=], because of the WWE party line that Goldberg was a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ripoff, and Sid was previously an on-and-off WWE guy.

Examples of MisaimedFandom for characters in ProfessionalWrestling.

* StoneColdSteveAustin's "[[BigWhat WHAT?]]" during his 2001 heel run (''[[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling WHAT?]]'') definitely qualifies. He would say "WHAT?" (''WHAT?'') whenever someone tried to speak (''WHAT?'') during his promos as a way (''WHAT?'') to intimidate his opponent. However, it eventually caught on (''WHAT?'') with the fans (''WHAT?''), basically killing his heel push (''WHAT?''), and causing Austin to slowly revert to becoming a face again. (''WHAT?'') The audience would use the "WHAT?" chant (''WHAT?'') whenever someone tried the overdone style of "Short Statement Followed By Dramatic Pause" Promo Cutting.(''WHAT?'')
** This in turn lead to a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for TheUndertaker:

** Also one for HulkHogan, twisting it around into his personal CatchPhrase:

** In 2010, long after Austin's departure, the crowd at {{WWE Raw}} events uses the ''WHAT?'' to punctuate the reading of the anonymous general manager's emails by announcer Michael Cole.

---> '''R-Truth''': "Don't WHAT me!"
* After a few weeks of frustration concerning tag partner Tajiri, EddieGuerrero went [[BerserkButton berserk when Tajiri touched his low-rider]] (in reality, Tajiri had been thrown into the car by an opponent) and tossed Tajiri into the windshield. The next ''[=SmackDown=]'', Eddie cut a promo saying that he was only going to look after number one, which was supposed to be a heel turn, but the fans had begun to buy into the Lie, Cheat, and Steal face persona cultivated just a few weeks prior with Los Guerreros' feud with [[TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam Team Angle]] that the action fit the criteria, and the crowd ''cheered'' for Eddie. Suffice to say, Eddie stayed a babyface.
* In {{WCW}}, there was the {{heel}} faction, The West Texas Rednecks, who were fans of country music. They feuded against the hip-hop artist, MasterP and the No Limit Soldiers, who were pushed as faces. Problem was, that WCW held their shows in the south, where rap music was hated. Not only that -- CurtHennig and company were charismatic wrestlers who deliberately acted funny, and had a catchy theme song, while Master P's crew were ebonics-spouting stereotypical thugs who drastically outnumbered their foes (thus coming across as bullies and the heels as brave victims). Because of this, The West Texas Rednecks were cheered by the Southern crowd, and their song, "Rap is Crap", actually received airtime on Country stations.

* The Dudley Boyz' 2000 run in the WWF. During their matches, the Dudleys would drive their opponents through a wooden table. When they did this [[WouldHitAGirl to females]], it was supposed to give them heel heat, but the audience ''liked'' it. The point of DoubleStandardAbuse can be argued all day, but in any case, it's a far cry from [[Wrestling/JakeRoberts Jake]] "[[Wrestling/JakeRoberts The Snake]]" [[Wrestling/JakeRoberts Roberts]] even ''attempting'' to hurt Miss Elizabeth being considered a MoralEventHorizon.
* When Floyd Mayweather was booked to face TheBigShow at Wrestlemania 24, he was originally projected as the face, supposedly putting his boxing career at risk against a much larger opponent. Most fans, however, hated Mayweather's showboating and were so glad to see Show come back from retirement that the WWE had to quickly reverse the roles.
* Ted Dibiase was supposed to be booked as the babyface during the Legacy breakup and have a singles push. WWE's build up was going to have Orton be the heel with Ted being the popular babyface but Orton's antics made him so popular with the fans that it made him look like the face of the feud so WWE had to do a quick change and have Ted Jr remain heel. Edge even lampshaded this in a promo during his confrontation with Orton.
* In the start of EV2's feud with Fortune the crowd was rooting for the stable Fortune, even during the beatdown that Fortune gave EV2, the night after EV2 had their reunion PPV, the crowd was chanting for Fortune. Spoony even commented that it's hard to root against Fortune because they were booked as a fun heel group, and was the kind of group that you might like to hang out with. It also made sense that the group, outside of RicFlair, consists of a bunch of upcoming TNA superstars while EV2.0 consists of a bunch of people that are past their prime.
* This is how the smark community works in general. Their basic rule is: You must love and cheer for the best pure technical wrestler, no matter how bad his character is made out to be. You get extra points if doing so wrecks one of the WWE's live shows.
** They'll also cheer a {{Heel}} if his persona happens to be ''very'' entertaining. The best example currently is TheMiz, who, at best, could be considered decent in the ring, but his {{Troll}} character is so hilariously petty that [[SmartMark Smarks]] just fell in love with the guy. Until WWE ran with it by giving him more screen time and putting the belt on him, at which point they turned and criticized his in-ring action again.
** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], [[Wrestling/ZackRyder Zack Ryder]], the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) {{Face Heel Turn}}s (Bryan turned about a month into his reign while Punk would turn in the summertime) while Zack lost the belt to Wrestling/JackSwagger, and [[DemotedToExtra stopped]] [[PutOnABus wrestling]] on Raw or Smackdown.
* It's well known in the WWE that it's really, really hard to get a Canadian audience to consider a Canadian wrestler as the heel in a given match unless they happen to be fighting another Canadian. WWE specifically renamed rising [[{{WrestlingMonster}} monster heel]] [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Canadian Earthquake (John Tenta)]] to simply Earthquake going into WrestleMania VI, which was held in Toronto.
* In another example of the Canadian audience turning things topsy-turvy for bookers, when HulkHogan returned to the WWE they were setting him up to continue his Hollywood HulkHogan heel persona and feuding with then-face [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]]. The only problem was that the climax of the feud took place at Wrestlemania X8 in Toronto. Since WCW had rarely ventured north of the border, Canadian fans still largely remembered the classic face HulkHogan and proceeded to go completely wild over him, and booing The Rock, to the point where, by the end of the match, they had accomplished a completely unplanned HeelFaceTurn. You could hear the disbelief at the announcing table as this was going on.
** That wasn't really a Canadian thing. The audience was starting to turn in favor of Hogan even before Wrestlemania X8. The crowd exploded in cheers at the Raw event the week before when Hogan pinned Rock in an nWo vs Rock and Austin handicap tag match held in Detroit. It was really much more of a "Rock is getting stale" feeling coinciding with a huge nostalgia rush for Hogan and the nWo who hadn't been around for a few years.

** That wasn't really a Canadian thing. The audience was starting to turn in favor of Hogan even before Wrestlemania X8. The crowd (including me, I was in attendance) exploded in cheers at the Raw event the week before when Hogan pinned Rock in an nWo vs Rock and Austin handicap tag match held in Detroit. It was really much more of a "Rock is getting stale" feeling coinciding with a huge nostalgia rush for Hogan and the nWo who hadn't been around for a few years.

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], [[Wrestling/ZackRyder Zack Ryder]], the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) {{Face Heel Turn}}s while Zack lost the belt to Wrestling/JackSwagger, and [[DemotedToExtra stopped]] [[PutOnABus wrestling]] on Raw or Smackdown.

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], [[Wrestling/ZackRyder Zack Ryder]], the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) {{Face Heel Turn}}s while Zack lost the belt to Wrestling/JackSwagger, and [[DemotedToExtra stopped [[PutOnABus wrestling]] on Raw or Smackdown.

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? Wrestling/CMPunk, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson DanielBryan]], [[Wrestling/ZackRyder Zack Ryder]], the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) FaceHeelTurn and Zack [[PutOnABus lost the belt and stopped wrestling on Raw or Smackdown]].

** Similarly, the concept of "Indie darlings" and "Internet celebrities" leads to someone who should be either [[{{Heel}} booed]] or [[JokeCharacter laughed at]] ending up being cheered more than the rest of the promotion put together. Sometimes this forces the writers' hands, if only for a short while. Case in point? CMPunk, DanielBryan, [[Wrestling/ZackRyder Zack Ryder]], the WWE, World Heavyweight and US champions at the same time. [[CatchPhrase Woo, woo, woo! You know it!]] At least until Punk and Bryan were given a gradual (and believable) FaceHeelTurn and Zack [[PutOnABus lost the belt and stopped wrestling on Raw or Smackdown]].
* It's well known in the WWE that it's really, really hard to get a Canadian audience to consider a Canadian wrestler as the heel in a given match unless they happen to be fighting another Canadian. WWE specifically renamed rising [[{{WrestlingMonster}} monster heel]] Canadian Earthquake (John Tenta) to simply Earthquake going into WrestleMania VI, which was held in Toronto.

* StoneColdSteveAustin's "[[BigWhat WHAT?]]" during his 2001 heel run (''[[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling WHAT?]]'') definitely qualifies. He would say "WHAT?" (''WHAT?'') whenever someone tried to speak (''WHAT?'') during his promos as a way (''WHAT?'') to intimidate his opponent. However, it eventually caught on (''WHAT?'') with the fans (''WHAT?''), basically killing his heel push (''WHAT?''), and causing Austin to slowly revert to becoming a face again. (''WHAT?'') The audience would use the "WHAT?" chant (''WHAT?'') whenever someone tried to the overdone style of "Short Statement Followed By Dramatic Pause" Promo Cutting.(''WHAT?'')

* This is how the smark community works in general. Their basic rule is: You must love and cheer for the best pure technical wrestler, no matter how much of a CompleteMonster his character is made out to be. You get extra points if doing so wrecks one of the WWE's live shows.

** They'll also cheer a {{Heel}} if they're persona happens to be ''very'' entertaining. The best example currently is TheMiz, who, at best, could be considered decent in the ring, but his {{Troll}} character is so hilariously petty that [[SmartMark Smarks]] just fell in love with the guy. Until WWE ran with it by giving him more screen time and putting the belt on him, at which point they turned and criticized is in-ring action again.

* It's well known in the WWE that it's really, really hard to get a Canadian audience to consider a Canadian wrestler as the heel in a given match unless they happen to be fighting another Canadian.