History OvershadowedByControversy / ProfessionalWrestling

* ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XIX'' was considered by most means a great show, with a classic main event between Wrestling/BrockLesnar and Wrestling/KurtAngle, a show-stealing battle between Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, the long-awaited encounter between Wrestling/VinceMcMahon and Wrestling/HulkHogan, and the final match of the [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Rock]]/[[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Austin]] [=WrestleMania=] trilogy in what would be the latter's final ever match. However, one match that people would rather forget would be the battle between Wrestling/TripleH and Wrestling/BookerT for the World Heavyweight Championship. The build-up to the match consisted of Triple H characterizing Booker with racist stereotypes of African Americans, such as talking about his real life arrest record, referencing the stereotype of blacks being violent criminals, or telling Booker to do Spinaroonies at his order, referring to how black entertainers in the Jim Crow era were often patronized by their white audiences. He even stated that people like Booker, implying African Americans, don't deserve to be world champion. While all of that is bad in itself, what really makes this feud so hated is the fact that Triple H ''won the match'', and waited ''a full minute'' after hitting his finishing move to pin Booker (although this was more because it took him more than half a minute to recover as Booker T had been legitimately injured by the move).

* Wrestling/JohnMorrison and Wrestling/{{Melina}}'s backstage heat overshadows most of the things they've accomplished in their wrestling careers. Melina slightly more so, since Morrison has gotten some of his recognition back due to his work in Wrestling/{{AAA}} and Wrestling/LuchaUnderground, in addition to eventually breaking up with Melina and getting together with Taya Valkyrie, someone who's courted much ''less'' controversy, comparatively speaking.

* Wrestling/TessaBlanchard and Wrestling/ImpactWrestling got into a massive amount of hot water in 2020. During the latter half of the 2010s, Impact was rapidly spiraling into irrelevance from their days at WWE's biggest rival, and with the launch of Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling in 2019, it looked like they would finally be on their death bed. Because of that, Impact had to come up with a big stunt to regain relevance in an increasingly crowded field. Thus, at their ''Hard to Kill'' event that January, Blanchard was booked as one half of the first intergender match to main event a major company's pay-per-view in the US, challenging Wrestling/SamiCallihan for the world title, and going on to defeat him, making her the first female wrestler to win the top male title in a major promotion. Unfortunately, that which would have been a moment of glory for Blanchard, Impact, and all of women's wrestling was destroyed the day before the match, when Blanchard sent out a message on Twitter that was apparently [[OpenMouthInsertFoot meant]] to be an inspirational message to women across the wrestling world. This instead triggered a flood of backlash from women wrestlers who claimed to have been bullied by Blanchard, with some alleging she made racist remarks at them. Despite the controversy, Impact had no choice but to give her the title, as despite all the problems surrounding her, letting a man win the historic match-up would bring a whole new level of terrible optics. While the backlash died down shortly afterwards and Impact kept the title on her for the time being, it did seem to have dashed any hopes that Blanchard would jump ship to AEW as had been rumored by several people, with many alleging that putting the title on her was meant to be a deterrent. (Tessa would eventually be fired and stripped of the world title on June 25 of the same year, but it wasn't because of the controversy, but because she refused to send taped promos after being left stranded in Mexico and not being able to travel to the U.S. due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.)