History NeverLiveItDown / ProfessionalWrestling

* Paul Roma will never live down the match he had against Wrestling/AlexWright at ''[=SuperBrawl=] V'' in 1995, where Roma no-sold Wright's offense, openly mocked him and kicked out of the final pinfall at two even though the ref counted three anyway, all because Roma didn't want to job to Wright. Not helped by the fact that Roma was fired from WCW shortly afterwards and aside from a couple dark matches in WWF, he never worked for another major promotion again.

* Wrestling/CMPunk in his WWE run gained a reputation during that time as being a straight shooting wrestler with a BJJ and Muay Thai background, even going so far as to incorporate some aspects of those arts into his moveset, so during that time, he definitely had a "legit" aura surrounding him. His debut as a mixed martial artist on 09/10/16 saw that aura get completely shattered, where he lost his first match against Mickey Gall in a completely one-sided bout. His second match saw his "pro-wrestling MMA" image get completely scorched against Mike Jackson and while his loss was overturned some years later, he still wasn't able to dominate that match in any capacity and the damage had been done. Because of all this, the image of professional wrestlers being legit "tough guys" took a big hit during that time (at least before Wrestling/JackSwagger undid some of this damage with his moderate MMA success) and even now, CM Punk is still seen as the poster boy for why professional wrestlers should never try their hand at real combat sports.

** 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? Wrestling/AndreTheGiant." became endlessly mocked amongst smark fans as a reason why Reigns wasn't ready to be pushed. [[note]] Allegedly, this was because, since Reigns is Wrestling/TheRock cousin, Vince figured that he could say stupid crap and get it over like Rocky does. Unfortunately, Reigns is less of a LargeHam than his cousin, so the stuff just sounds as dumb as it would without someone like Rock saying it. [[/note]]

* Pro Wrestling is fake entertainment that claims to be real. Well, it was, until the 1990s[[note]]Actually 1989, when WWF owner Vince McMahon testified in front of the New Jersey State Senate that professional wrestling is indeed predetermined, in an attempt to get wrestling deregulated. It didn't work. They basically acknowledged it on TV for the first time when Vince gave the infamous "Bret screwed Bret" speech on Raw in 1997, though throughout the years beforehand there were veiled references to it being fixed, notably Brian Pillman grabbing a mic and telling WCW booker Kevin Sullivan "I respect you... bookerman!" and then walking out on their PPV match [[/note]], when they finally came clean.

* Wrestling/{{WCW}} was once the second largest wrestling promotion in the U.S. and a dangerous threat to 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 a few examples have stood the test of time as reasons why the company fell.

* Wrestling/JonMoxley is most famous for being a part of Wrestling/TheShield alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. But what he became ''infamous'' for after he left WWE and joined AEW is blading and bleeding in a majority of the matches he's been in since he has more creative freedom under Tony Khan. By now, having blood all over his face is what Moxley is most well-known for, with veteran wrestlers like Booker T and Bully Ray criticizing his excess bleeding, current wrestlers like CM Punk taking shots at Moxley's bleeding in promos, and fans making jokes that Mox bleeds whenever he kisses Renee or performs some mundane task.

* Paul Roma will never live down the match he had against Wrestling/AlexWright at ''[=SuperBrawl=] V'' in 1995, where Roma no-sold for Wright, openly mocked him and kicked out of the final pinfall at two even though the ref counted three anyway, all because Roma didn't want to job to Wright. Not helped by the fact that Roma was fired from WCW shortly afterwards and (aside from a couple dark matches in WWF) he never worked for another major promotion again.

* Wrestling/JonMoxley is most famous for being a part of Wrestling/TheShield alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. But what he became ''infamous'' for after he left WWE and joined AEW is blading and bleeding in a majority of the matches he's been in since he has more creative freedom under Tony Khan. By now, having blood all over his face is what Moxley is most well-known for, with veteran wrestlers like Booker T and Bully Ray criticizing his excess bleeding and fans making jokes that Mox bleeds whenever he kisses Renee or performs some mundane task.

* Paul Roma will never live down the match he had against Wrestling/AlexWright at ''[=SuperBrawl=] V'' in 1995, where Roma no-sold for Wright, openly mocked him and kicked out of the final pinfall at two even though the ref counted three anyway, all because Roma didn't want to job to Wright. Not helped by the fact that Roma was fired from WCW shortly afterwards and he never worked for another major promotion again.

* Wrestling/AlSnow is most known for his 1999 feud with Wrestling/BigBossMan, where Boss Man kidnapped Snow's pet Chihuahua Pepper, killed, cooked and fed the dog to Snow. In particular, the feud's payoff, a "Kennel from Hell" match where the two would face off in a steel cage surrounded by a "Hell in the Cell" cell, with ferocious rottweilers in between the two structures. Due to the company failing to find trained attack dogs, they instead used local pet rottweilers, who didn't pay any attention to either participant and spent the entire match urinating, defecating and fornicating at ringside. The Kennel from Hell match didn't damage Big Boss Man's reputation as much, largely due to Boss Man getting involved in a few other controversial feuds following this, along with his sudden passing a few years later.

* Wrestling/AlSnow is most known for his 1999 feud with Wrestling/BigBossMan, where Boss Man kidnapped Snow's Chihuahua Pepper, killed, cooked and fed the dog to Snow. In particular, the feud's payoff, a "Kennel from Hell" match where the two would face off in a steel cage surrounded by a "Hell in the Cell" cell, with ferocious rottweilers in between the two structures. Due to the company failing to find trained dogs, they just used local pet rottweilers, who didn't pay any attention to either participant and spent the entire match urinating, defecating and fornicating at ringside. The Kennel from Hell match didn't damage Big Boss Man's reputation as much, largely due to Boss Man getting involved in a few other controversial feuds following this, along with his sudden passing a few years later.

** Adult storylines, including necrophilia, [[WouldHitAGirl assaulting women]], giving birth to hands, accidential abortions and baby-punting, Satanism, disrespect of one's boss and much more, during the WWF's "Attitude Era." This was used by the opponents of Linda [=McMahon=] (R-Connecticut) in several of her campaigns for the United States Senate.

* Wrestling/AlSnow is most known for his 1999 feud with Wrestling/BigBossMan, where Boss Man kidnapped Snow's Chihuahua Pepper, killed, cooked and fed the dog to Snow. In particular, the feud's payoff, a Kennel from Hell match where the two would face off in a steel cage surrounded by a Hell in the Cell, with ferocious rottweilers in between the two structures. Due to the company failing to find trained dogs, they just used local pet rottweilers, who didn't pay any attention to either participant and spent the entire match urinating, defecating and fornicating at ringside. Big Boss Man's reputation didn't take nearly as large of a hit as Al Snow's did, largely due to Boss Man getting involved in many other controversial feud's following this, along with his sudden passing a few years later.

* Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams had a long successful wrestling career, with stints in companies such as WCW and Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling. Most fans today associate him with his brief stint in the WWF, where he was knocked out by Bart Gunn in the Brawl for All tournament, forever shattering his reputation as a legitimate tough guy. It doesn't help that he was allegedly the favorite among the bookers, to the point where he was allegedly paid the prize money in advance and the judges were believed to skew in favor of Williams.

* Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams had a long successful wrestling career, with stints in companies such as WCW and Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling. Most fans today associate him with his brief stint in the WWF, where he was knocked out by Bart Gunn in the Brawl for All tournament, forever shattering his reputation as a legitimate tough guy. It doesn't help that he was allegedly the favorite among the bookers, to the point where he was allegedly paid the prize money in advance.

** Even to this day, is still unable to get out of the shadow of their DorkAge, the Hogan/Bischoff era. The fact that the person who brought Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/EricBischoff in, Dixie Carter, remained in charge of the company until it was literally no longer called TNA, making a ton of boneheaded business decisions even while TNA came the closest it's ever had to going out of business since she bought her way into the company helped none. And given that the TNA name is no longer in use, even if the company does ever manage to live it down, the letters TNA likely never will.

* Wrestling/StacyKeibler and her [[ShesGotLegs legs]]. To hear a lot of people talk, you'd think that was the only body part she had that actually looked good. Even when Keibler was on the second season of ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'' - and was arguably the single best performer on the program - host Tom Bergeron couldn't shut up about the legs. Even worse is the widespread perception of Keibler as a FauxActionGirl who couldn't defend herself at all in the ring unless she choked her opponent with her foot (which is illegal if you do it for more than five seconds). While the Foot Choke ''was'' one of Keibler's signature moves (even after her HeelFaceTurn), it wasn't her only move—in fact, fans of her [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Duchess of Dudleyville]] run will remember that she once had a killer spinning heel kick. And wags who are constantly saying that Keibler "couldn't wrestle" forget that she attended the WCW Power Plant wrestling school (which had an ''80 percent dropout rate'') and that on those rare occasions when she participated in non-{{Fanservice}} matches, she could hold her own and even deliver bodyslams.

* Wrestling/AshleyMassaro has two things she can't live down: her terrible wrestling skills (though that was the fault of WWE as Ashley was a big fan of wrestling and genuinely wanted to wrestle) or a scandal in 2008 when she was linked to a high-class escort agency. Even after her tragic suicide in 2019, these events were still discussed, albeit more sympathetically.

* Wrestling/CMPunk in his WWE run gained a reputation during that time as being a straight shooting wrestler with a BJJ and Muay Thai background, even going so far as to incorporate some aspects of those arts into his moveset, so during that time, he definitely had a "legit" aura surrounding him. His debut as a mixed martial artist on 09/10/16 saw that aura get completely shattered, where he lost his first match against Mickey Gall in a completely one-sided bout. His second match saw his "pro-wrestling MMA" image get completely scorched against Mike Jackson and while his loss was overturned some years later, he still wasn't able to dominate that match in any capacity and the damage had been done. Because of all this, the image of professional wrestlers being legit "tough guys" took a big hit during that time and for a while (at least before Wrestling/JackSwagger undid some of this damage with his moderate MMA success), CM Punk was seen as the poster boy for why professional wrestlers should never try their hand at real combat sports.

** Apparently Roman has "[[ReallyGetsAround lots of rough nights]]" keeping him away from making promotional interviews. [[labelnote:explanation]]The day after setting the record for most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble, Reigns couldn't make it to a few Shield promotional interviews hyping up the upcoming night's episode of ''Raw'' in Cleveland. A few fans who saw videos of these interviews on Website/YouTube would notice that when/if ever the interviewers asked about Reigns' absence, Ambrose would say that he "[[{{Understatement}} had a rough night]]", yet failed to connect other dots that they were all on the same day, such as Rollins and Ambrose's outfits being the same in all of them, as well as clear mention of both Cleveland and the upcoming ''Raw''. The "lots of rough nights" thing is the resulting impression those fans would usually come away with.[[/labelnote]] Thankfully {{downplayed|Trope}} if not {{averted|Trope}}, as it never caught on to the point his real life fiancee and daughter will ever hear of it and come away with the resulting UnfortunateImplications about his fidelity.

* 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 a while, although that would be only the beginning of his downfall. For more, see below.

* Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr joins Kevin Nash, Wrestling/{{Edge}}, and Wrestling/MarkHenry as a wrestler infamous for [[DentedIron getting seriously injured quite often]] (a DontTryThisAtHome PSA he made for WWE where he talked about how many surgeries he required on his knee became a soundbite associated with this). His [[OlderThanTheyLook age]] and his small stature are ''sometimes'' taken into account by sympathetic fans.

** 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 retired him from the ring (until his signing with Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling at least), while Bálor's not only cost him months of action but also cost WWE its newly-crowned Universal Champion, derailing storylines in the process. Many fans are criticizing Rollins for being a dangerous worker, even though all of those injuries were accidents and in Sting's case, his age and lengthy career certainly compounded on his injury.[[note]]Rollins isn't totally blameless here, though the main problem is at the top. Both Balor and Sting were injured by a bucklebomb, which is exactly what it sounds like and is a really dangerous move no matter who's doing it. He should have known better (especially on a 60 year old Sting), but WWE should have banned this move company-wide long before.[[/note]]

** 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 retired him from the ring (until his signing with Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling at least), while Bálor's not only cost him months of action but also cost WWE its newly-crowned Universal Champion, derailing storylines in the process. Many fans are criticizing Rollins for being a dangerous worker, even though all of those injuries were accidents and in Sting's case, his age and lengthy career certainly compounded on his injury.

* Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} beating [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] at [=WrestleMania=] 28 in just 18 seconds was obviously designed to be such a moment for Bryan InUniverse, but he overcame that and became one of the company's biggest stars two years later, and it ironically enough became an example for Sheamus instead, in which it is seen as a symbol of his CreatorsPet status.