History NeverLiveItDown / ProfessionalWrestling

* Wrestling/{{WCW}} was once the second largest wrestling promotion in the U.S. and a dangerous threat to Wrestling/{{WWE}} (then known as WWF), but the catastrophic management, egos and bad booking during its last two years killed the company and it was purchased by its former competitor for scraps, with most people only remembering the negative things about the company rather than the positives. To list everything they can't live down could have its own page, but the primary things are:

* Amy "Wrestling/{{Lita}}" Dumas' career was never the same again in 2005 after cheating on Wrestling/MattHardy with Adam "Wrestling/{{Edge}}" Copeland. She was on the verge of a mental breakdown due to the constant chants of "Slut" (among many others), and retired. [=Edge=] did get flack also, being one of Hardy's closet friends, but it actually helped him because he was already one of WWE's top heels at the time, and the success he's had since surpassed what anyone would have predicted during the previous seven years of his career. Hardy, in turn, became known for his inability to get over this for awhile, although that would be only the beginning of his downfall. For more, see below.

* Wrestling/{{WCW}} was once the second largest wrestling promotion in the U.S. and a dangerous threat to Wrestling/{{WWE}} (then known as WWF), but the catastrophic management, egos and bad booking during it's last two years killed the company and it was purchased by its former competitor for scraps, with most people only remembering the negative things about the company rather than the positives. To list everything they can't live down could have its own page, but the primary things are:

** Shawn got some ''amazing'' heat thanks to his legacy in Montreal in 2005 prior to his match against Hulk Hogan [=SummerSlam=] with a scathing heel-esque promo that included {{Troll}}ing the audience with Bret Hart's music and entrance video.

** Shawn got some ''amazing'' heat thanks to his legacy in Montreal in 2005 following [=SummerSlam=] with a scathing heel-esque promo that included {{Troll}}ing the audience with Bret Hart's music and entrance video.

* The Divas in general [[BestKnownForTheFanservice tend to be remembered primarily for posing nude]] in ''{{Playboy}}'' if they do so. This is probably why Keibler repeatedly refused to pose - not that it did her much good. Regardless of whether or not they posed for Playboy, they're all remembered as being bad wrestlers who only got into wrestling for the money and fame, were only hired because of their looks and slept with everyone to get to the top. The only ones exempt from this stereotype are Wrestling/{{Chyna}}[[note]]Though her later career as a porn actress and trainwreck of a personal life overshadowed her entire wrestling career before her death.[[/note]] Wrestling/TrishStratus, Wrestling/{{Lita}}, Wrestling/BethPhoenix, Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart, and most female wrestlers from NXT.

* Wrestling/BrunoSammartino is currently the longest reigning WWF Champion in the company's history. However, he's also known for his extremely strained relationship with the current wrestling history and especially Vince [=McMahon=], to the point where, every year, he refuses to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Hardly anyone ever mentions that he has been inducted into plenty of other Hall Of Fames or shows up at plenty of other wrestling events, such as Wrestling/RingOfHonor. Apparently there is nothing to professional wrestling beyond WWE. He was finally inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.

* The Spirit Squad and its leader, Kenny Dykstra. The only member who enjoyed any success WWE following its split up is Nicky, who was repackaged as ''Wrestling/DolphZiggler''. He ended up becoming a Triple Crown Champion, one of the WWE's major stars, and an EnsembleDarkhorse to the entire fandom - which is ironic, because the gimmick was originally created to put over Kenny. However, that worked to his disadvantage, and he became forever associated with the gimmick. Even to this day, Kenny Dykstra is ''still'' the butt of Spirit Squad jokes. But worse than Dykstra, who at least has people like Wrestling/PaulHeyman talking up how great he is, is Mike Mondo, whose career has spawned something of a {{hatedom}}, mostly because of his Spirit Squad involvement. Since Dolph has no allusions to his previous gimmicks, this allows him to avoid this trope.

* Wrestling/SamoaJoe went undefeated on TNA Impact for over a year. He was the first person to hold more than one TNA championship at one time. He held the {{tag team}} championships by himself. Oh, he had a career before TNA, where he was the longest running champion of both UPW and Ring Of Honor, we could go on, but more than any of that or anything else, the most important fact about Joe's career is that he was ambushed by ninjas who loaded him into the back of a van and drove off to the apathy of his employers, coworkers and Florida law enforcement.

** When Vince started personally writing Reigns' promos leading up to ''Royal Rumble 2015'', two of the corniest phrases Vince made him say, "Sufferin' succotash, son!" and "You know who didn't have to remind people they were a giant? Andre the Giant." became endlessly mocked amongst smark fans as a reason why Reigns wasn't ready to be pushed.

* Wrestling/{{Cameron}} is known for three things: citing "Melina vs. Alicia Fox" as her favorite match, attempting to pin someone who was laying face down and being an intolerable bitch on ''Series/TotalDivas''.

* Wrestling/{{Cameron}} is known for three things: citing "Melina vs. Alicia Fox" as her favorite match, attempting to pin someone who was laying face down and being in intolerable bitch on ''Series/TotalDivas''.

** Being associated with (and frequently MisBlamed for) ''three'' high-profile superstar injuries — to Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/{{Sting}}, and Wrestling/FinnBalor — within the span of 13 months, despite spending six of those months sidelined by a knee injury of his own. It didn't help that Sting's injury ultimately retired him from the ring, while Bálor's not only cost him months of action but also cost WWE its newly-crowned Universal Champion, derailing storylines in the process.

* The Divas in general [[BestKnownForTheFanservice tend to be remembered primarily for posing nude]] in ''{{Playboy}}'' if they do so. This is probably why Keibler repeatedly refused to pose - not that it did her much good. Regardless of whether or not they posed for Playboy, they're all remembered as being bad wrestlers who only got into wrestling for the money and fame, were only hired because of their looks and slept with everyone to get to the top. The only ones exempt from this stereotype are Wrestling/{{Chyna}}[[note]]Though her later career as a porn actress and trainwreck of a personal life overshadowed her entire wrestling career before her death.[[/note]] Wrestling/TrishStratus, Wrestling/{[Lita}}, Wrestling/BethPhoenix, Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart, and most female wrestlers from NXT.

* The Divas in general [[EveryoneRemembersTheStripper tend to be remembered primarily for posing nude]] in ''{{Playboy}}'' if they do so. This is probably why Keibler repeatedly refused to pose - not that it did her much good. Regardless of whether or not they posed for Playboy, they're all remembered as being bad wrestlers who only got into wrestling for the money and fame, were only hired because of their looks and slept with everyone to get to the top. The only ones exempt from this stereotype are Wrestling/{{Chyna}}[[note]]Though her later career as a porn actress and catastrophic personal life overshadowed her wrestling career.[[/note]] Wrestling/TrishStratus, Wrestling/{[Lita}}, Wrestling/BethPhoenix, Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart, and most female wrestlers from NXT.

* The Wrestling/BellaTwins will likely forever be known as blackholes who have absolutely no talent and only got their positions by SleepingTheirWayToTheTop. Though Brie ''might'' be able to do it, since her husband is Daniel Bryan who has been screwed by management for their personal favorites, despite being by far and away the most popular wrestler the company has had in almost fifteen years. Nikki, not so much, since her significant other is Wrestling/JohnCena, who has been the face of the company for years, even when it's clear that the fans are sick of having him shoved down their throats (though they like Cena the performer well enough). Not helping matters is the fact that the wrestler the fans want to see take Cena's spot in WWE more than anyone else is indeed Bryan, or Nikki's 301 day title reign in which she hardly defended the belt during the latter half of the reign due to an injury. Since John Cena became RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in late 2015, Nikki is considered to be a better wrestler than Brie, and her successor, Charlotte, has had an even more infuriating championship reign, some are anticipating her return and she might live this down if she does well enough.

* Wrestling/{{WCW}} was once the second largest wrestling promotion in the U.S. and a dangerous threat to Wrestling/{{WWE}} (then known as WWF), but the catastophic management, egos and bad booking during it's last two years killed the company and it was purchased by its former competitor for scraps, with most people only remembering the negative things about the company rather than the positives. To list everything they can't live down could have its own page, but the primary things are:

* And speaking of Kevin Nash, here's a guy that suffered a biceps tear, took four months to rehab his injury, returned to action in a 6-man-tag and tore his quadriceps within twelve seconds of tagging in. To this day, one of the most common jokes among wrestling fans is how injury-prone Nash is.
** And, as mentioned before, for a guy with a 20+ year career, he's always going to carry the stigma of the guy who tried to bury Wrestling/EddieGuerrero and Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, [[RunningTheAsylum breaking Goldberg's streak]] only to drop the title the very next night via the Fingerpoke of Doom.

* More infamously, Wrestling/MichaelCole will never truly escape his ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} 15'' screw up in which he blew the ending to the main event during a segment for WWE Shop. Even though there are other controversies involving Cole (some fair and some overblown), that one incident always seems to be the one screw up that is overblown to the point where people think that Cole always botches on commentary.
** In 2010, Cole was known as the guy who loves Wrestling/TheMiz, hates [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], and is the spokesman for the Anonymous Raw General Manager.

* Wrestling/EvaMarie will always (rightfully) be remembered as a terrible wrestler who is apparently only there for money and fame. She was placed on the main roster almost immediately after being signed and recieved only minimal training. Despite going down to developmental to work on her skills, she has hardly improved at all and has a terrible character to go along with it.

* Regardless of his quality (and the memorability over time) of his matches, Wrestling/TripleH will always be accused of [[WagTheDirector playing politics]] to hold back wrestlers he perceived as a threat to his position. A typical SmartMark reaction towards a Triple H victory will be "OMG, TRIPLE H BERRIES HIS OPPONENT, LULZ!" For the record, Triple H is guilty of office politics, but so was every other member of Wrestling/TheKliq, which includes Wrestling/ScottHall, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels and Wrestling/XPac. Popular wrestlers have been have out-maneuvered and held down by the more politically minded since the days of Wrestling/LouThesz actually; Trips just seems to be the one who can't escape the stigma.

* Wrestling/BrunoSammartino is currently the longest reigning WWF Champion in the company's history. However, he's also known for his extremely strained relationship with the current wrestling history and especially Vince [=McMahon=], to the point where, every year, he refuses to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Hardly anyone ever mentions that he has been inducted into plenty of other Hall Of Fames or shows up at plenty of other wrestling events, such as Wrestling/RingOfHonor. Apparently there is nothing to professional wrestling beyond WWE.
** Finally averted in 2013.

* Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr joins Kevin Nash, Wrestling/{{Edge}}, and Wrestling/MarkHenry as a wrestler infamous for [[DentedIron getting seriously injured quite often]]. His [[OlderThanTheyLook age]] and his small stature are ''sometimes'' taken into account by sympathetic fans.
** Mysterio might have an even worse stigma now; Perro Aguayo, Jr, died in the ring during a match that involved Mysterio, and already some people are saying Mysterio killed Aguayo.

* Wrestling/{{Cameron}} is known for two things: citing "Melina vs. Alicia Fox" as her favorite match and attempting to pin someone who was laying face down.
* Wrestling/EvaMarie will always (rightfully) be remembered as a terrible wrestler who is apparently only there for money and fame. She was placed on the main roster almost immediately after being signed and recieved only minimal training. Despite going down to developmental to work on her skills, she has hardly improved at all and has a terrible character to go along with it. Hatred of her is so memetic that she's been called the Justin Beiber of pro wrestling.

** The WCW Power Plant had a poor reputation as a training facility, largely because the biggest star they trained was Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} (see his listing), and while she was there, Wrestling/{{Madusa}} said "All [Stacy and Wrestling/TorrieWilson] did was whine and complain". When they came to WWE during the Invasion, Wrestling/{{Ivory}} was assigned to train them and she said, "They were horrible! They were uncooperative, unwilling to learn. What did I ever do to deserve those two?" As a manager, Stacy regularly played the DamselInDistress and the only times she was portrayed as someone who could hold their own the ring was when she kept going over on Wrestling/MollyHolly in October 2004 (generally regarded as VillainDecay on Molly's part rather than Stacy TookALevelInBadass), when WWE were trying to build her up in preparation to become Women's Champion, only to have her turn down the title on the grounds that she wasn't a wrestler. Since leaving WWE, Stacy herself has said she was only in the business for the exposure to launch her acting career.
* The Divas in general [[EveryoneRemembersTheStripper tend to be remembered primarily for posing nude]] in ''{{Playboy}}'' if they do so. This is probably why Keibler repeatedly refused to pose - not that it did her much good.

[[folder:Specific Pro Wrestling Companies]]

* Wrestling/EvaMarie will always (rightfully) be remembered as a terrible wrestler who is apparently only there for money and fame. She was placed on the main roster almost immediately after being signed and recieved only minimal training. Despite going down to developmental to work on her skills, she has hardly improved at all and has a terrible character to go along with it. Hatred of her is so memetic, it rivals that of Music/JustinBeiber.

* All professional wrestlers are steroid-abusing sissies in tights who make lots of money pretending to fight and then dying of drug abuse in their fifties.

%%[[folder:Specific Pro Wrestling Companies]]
%%[[/folder]]

* Wrestling/{{Sting}} seems to be known for three things these days: being the dumbest man in wrestling (since all of his allies inevitably turned on him and he always forgave them, only to be betrayed again), never winning any of his feuds and for having [[http://cdn.sescoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/nwo-sting.jpg bad hair]].

* Wrestling/{{Sting}} seems to be known for three things these days: being the dumbest man in wrestling (since all of his allies inevitably turned on him and he always forgave them, only to be betrayed again), never winning any of his feuds and for having [[http://cdn.sescoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/nwo-sting.jpg bad hair]].

* Wrestler/{{Goldberg}} will always be known as a poor man's Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin who only got into wrestling [[MoneyDearBoy to make money]], only knew two moves, yet squashed everyone without paying his dues, delivering a [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending]] superkick to Bret Hart, and getting beaten by Wrestling/ChrisJericho in a RealLife fight.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]