Realistically, just about any wrestler who is overpushed (that is to say, given more screen-time and wins than their talent level or popularity would deserve) could be a Creator's Pet. Only the most obvious examples should be listed below.
- Pick any wrestler who is on the booking team, or better yet, a relative of someone on the booking team. Some American examples: June Byers (daughter-in-law of Billy Wolfe), Dustin Rhodes (son of Dusty Rhodes), Triple H (son-in-law of WWE's Vince McMahon), Shawn Michaels (suspected closet-lover of WWE's Vince McMahon), Jeff Jarrett (co-owner and son of Jerry Jarrett) in TNA, Erik Watts (son of Bill Watts), David Sammartino (son of Bruno Sammartino, not part of the booking team but pushed in an attempt by them to please his father), David Flair (son of Ric Flair, see Sammartino), Kevin Nash (booker in 1998-1999) in WCW, Greg Gagne and Larry Zbyszko (son and son-in-law of Verne Gagne, respectivelynote ) in the AWA. Such wrestlers are usually pushed far beyond their ability levels or to the point where fans become sick of seeing them. Other countries' promotions are not immune to this either.
- David Sammartino was an interesting case as he didn't really want to become a wrestler but was badgered into it by his more famous father and Vince McMahon. He was fully aware that he lacked promo skills and wrestling ability and the crowd hated him for it, culminating in him intentionally going off script at a house show in 1986 and tapping out to a Jobber, then immediately quitting afterwards.
- In Byers' case, she was popular, just not as popular as forerunner Mildred Burke, who was banned from the National Wrestling Alliance after she divorced Billy Wolfe.
- Back in the territory days of wrestling, Nick Gulas was the promoter in Memphis. Then his son, George, decided to become a wrestler in 1970s. Nick pushed him hard, but the fans knew George was a mediocre wrestler at best and was only pushed because he was the promoter's son. This ultimately led to Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler leaving and starting their own promotion in Memphis - and driving Gulas out of business. Of course, they would push their OWN sons (Jeff Jarrett and Brian Christopher, respectively) to the moon once they got the chance as well. Even after the USWA (United States Wrestling Association in Memphis) closed in 1997, Jerry Jarrett went so far as to create TNA as a vehicle to push Jeff.
- Erik Watts, the son of veteran wrestler "Cowboy" Bill Watts had a very poorly received run in WCW during the early 90's, which miraculously occurred during the period his father was on the booking commitee.
- Dustin Rhodes, aka Goldust managed to grow out of it. While Dusty pushed him to the moon in his initial WCW run, after Dustin left for WWE he and his father weren't on speaking terms for five years, which coincided with his greatest success as Goldust in WWE while Dusty Rhodes was in WCW.
- Triple H is arguably the prime example in this genre. Even when he was out for a year with a quad injury, it seemed like J.R. or Jerry Lawler would mention him during every match (even a women's or cruiserweight match). And that's when they weren't showing heroic montages of HHH's rehab. If he wasn't a Creator's Pet already, that time period made him one.
- Triple H managed to become an even bigger Creator's Pet than he was before with his on camera COO position, to the point where the entire roster save for a few face main eventers pulled a Face–Heel Turn (a temporary one in the case of face wrestlers) and voted "No Confidence" on him, to which he responded by saying a broom could do a better job than all of them, and the remaining face wrestlers who stayed behind kissed his ass, including CM Punk, the guy he had been feuding with for months. Even Vince McMahon himself came back to shill his son-in-law/future heir as COO, even as he is stripping him of his duties of running RAW. The entire purpose was just to put over how amazing HHH is as kayfabe COO and will be as Vince's successor in Real Life when Vince steps down/dies... which indeed did happen when Vince was ousted in 2022 thanks to a sex scandal and Triple H was named "Content Director", or in wrestling-speak, the bookernote . The creator's pet is now the creator.
- Not so with Randy Orton. Despite both his father and his grandfather being famous wrestlers, Randy has long since outstripped either of them in worldwide popularity, and rightly so. In fact, when "Cowboy" Bob Orton returned to WWE in 2005, it looked like he was trying to ride his son's coattails rather than the other way around. He's also the only one in his family (also including uncle Barry, aka Barry O or the Zodiac in the Hart family's Stampede Wrestling promotion) to ever win a title in WWE. Of course, Orton has never been without his detractors, claiming that the only reason he still even has a job, let alone his eternal push, is because of both his lineage and his status as HHH's pet project.
- Angelo Mosca Jr, the son of wrestler and Canadian football player Mosca Sr had a run like this in the old Mid-Atlantic territory, which eventually grew into WCW. He even won the prestigious Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight title three times.
- Lex Luger's "Made in the USA" gimmick in the WWF was pretty much the definition of the Creator's Pet in wrestling. He was over well enough in WCW as a main event heel, and was getting good reactions from his "Narcissist" gimmick he was playing in the midcard, before he was quickly given a Heel–Face Turn and pushed to the top after Hulk Hogan finally "left for good" (well, for 8+ years, anyway), plugged directly into Hulk Hogan's feud with Yokozuna, and given a hugely over-the-top All-American Face gimmick, in hopes to get him massively over. It completely failed on every level possible; the casual fans saw Luger as a poor imitation of the departed Hogan, and the smarks detested Luger's lack of mobility and failure to grasp even basic Wrestling Psychology, to the extent that body slamming the 640 pound Yokozuna still didn't get him over. Tellingly, after he got a title match with Yokozuna, with the stipulation that it would be Luger's only shot at the championship, then won the match by count-out (meaning the title didn't change hands), the fan reaction was less "clamoring for a rematch" and more "the idiot blew his one shot". Luger would return to WCW shortly after.
- Steve "Mongo" McMichael, a member of the mid-late 90's version of The Four Horsemen, could qualify as this. Mongo wasn't so much talentless as incredibly green in the ring, but he was still far, far below what a hardcore fan would expect from one of the Horsemen. Still, he was given a fairly long reign as the WCW United States Champion
and a never-ending series of angles involving his then-wife now ex-wife Debra. Keep in mind that while all this was happening, Mongo still needed to be carried through matches. - Hulk Hogan himself was and is beloved in WWE, but in WCW he was, for the most part, a Creator's Pet. When he first arrived, fans hated his Invincible Hero schtick. Hogan's solution was that he wasn't invincible enough, and so he set about burying all the other top drawing wrestlers in the booking. Things got so bad that WCW had to take anti-Hogan signs from fans before letting them into the arenas, and free Hogan merchandise given to the fans in the front row was thrown back. Of course, Hogan was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap when the New World Order formed. A few years later the nWo had run its course and Hogan turned face again, and went right back into Pet-ness, where he remained until a falling out with booker Vince Russo had him removed from television until WCW's demise.
- The Rock, for much of his first year or so. Green as grass, pushed to the moon, won the IC title, all over TV and the fans loathed him. "Die Rocky, Die" chants were not uncommon. He was only rescued by his Face–Heel Turn, making the most of fan hatred while letting him grow as a performer. It also helped that he was allowed to drop the squeaky clean face gimmick and become "Dwayne Johnson, cranked up to eleven".
- Beaver Cleavage. This gimmick was Chaz Warrington (formerly Headbanger Mosh) and his kayfabe girlfriend, the late Marianna Komlos, as a hypersexual parody of Leave It to Beaver. It was Vince Russo's pet gimmick. Russo fought and fought with the rest of the WWF creative team to get Beaver Cleavage on the air, and when he finally did, the fan reaction was as negative as everyone not named Vince Russo expected. Vince McMahon himself vetoed the gimmick a couple of weeks in, nipping his Pet-ness in the bud. Russo was so infuriated by Beaver Cleavage getting the axe that it was one of the main reasons behind his decision to jump from WWF to WCW.
- The Japanese loved Pride Fighting Championships, that concept of "Inokism" created to cash in on it, not so much, with much of the ire settling on Naoya Ogawa after he was given the NWA World Heavyweight Title and told to beat Shinya Hashimoto into retirement. Ogawa retained his respect from his judo victories but was viewed as a horrible pro wrestler until he ironically left New Japan to join Hashimoto's Zero 1 and become Hashimoto's tag team partner.
- As bad as Trips was, Jeff Jarrett in TNA was a lot worse, especially in 2005, when fans were pleading with him to "DROP THE TITLE!" Not to mention the fact that he was also the head booker (and minority owner and co-founder), as well as a wrestler. However, this all started in 1999 when Jarrett was pushed big time in WCW because of his friendship with Vince Russo, the then-current "writer" for WCW. While Triple H does have a lot of pull in WWE thanks to his marriage to Stephanie McMahon, it is Vince McMahon who gets the final word on everything. Not to mention, Jarrett is inferior in both wrestling psychology and cutting promos to Trips,note making his over-the-top prominence that much more obnoxious.
- Towards the end of ECW's run, Justin Credible was made the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Now, Credible had been quite good in his previous upper midcard role, as one half of the Impact Players tag team with Lance Storm. But when Storm left for WCW, Credible was promoted to the main event. As any wrestling fan knows, singles wrestling and tag teams are completely different and a great tag wrestler can be completely boring without his partner. Also, Storm's excellent wrestling ability covered up the flaws in Credible's work. But in an un-ECW like decision, Credible kept the belt, and retained it time and again, mostly against wrestlers who would work the title defense, maybe 2 or 3 other matches, and then leave the company. By the time the belt switched hands half a year later, fans were SICK of Justin Credible. This is actually an invoked example in Credible's case. Around this time, ECW's talent well was being sucked dry by WWE (who got such stars as Tazz and The Dudley Boys) and WCW (who got Lance Storm and others). Paul Heyman wanted a long term ECW champion, and so, in his own words, put the title on the one guy neither promotion would even try to sign (which is ironic as anything because WWE eventually did sign Justin Credible, albeit after ECW had died).
- This may also explain Shane Douglas' perpetual push in ECW, despite never showing an ability to do anything but say "fuck" a lot in promos and get heat on himself in the locker room. The latter is why he left WCW and the WWF on bad terms and why neither Vince McMahon nor Eric Bischoff would touch him with a ten foot pole, though he'd later return to WCW under the Russo regime.
- The Carnage Crew were suppose to appeal to the blue collar Ring of Honor crowds against the rich druggies Special K. All that happened was Ring Of Honor giving its crowds two groups it disliked, but while Special K were beaten, mocked, broken up and retooled, the Crew endured with minimal changes. They were so bad laughter from ROHbots in attendance was picked up by the mics when Allison Danger stated they were superior to BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff at Testing The Limit. Masada is the only member who sometimes gets a pass and even then only for his unaffiliated appearances.
- John Cena over the course of his WWE title feuds with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle in 2005, where he came to be booed so often he had to acknowledge (while on air) that the fans didn't like him on several occasions. Like Beaver Cleavage, most of the hate is aimed at the creator more than the pet; a lot of people would tolerate John Cena, half the crowd likes him, but WWE doesn't understand they'd rather see less of him and more of someone else, if only for a little while.
- Ashley Massaro started her wrestling career right on television with a good deal of popularity among fans. After a year or so, though, she had been exposed as wrestler who was all show and no go, greatly surpassed in popularity by Mickie James and Melina Perez. So she was moved to a different "brand" than they were and was pushed as its top female baby face over Jillian Hall, a wrestler of comparable talent to James and Perez who continually proved she could do everything Massaro did, be it dance, valet for London and Kendrick, cut promos, show off her body or most importantly wrestle just as well or much better than Massaro. Massaro continued to be booked on pay per view and for promotional music videos, acting spots, magazines shoots and reality show contests outside of pro wrestling as she continued to stink up the ring and her fan base slowly dwindled away. Once she was no longer on television, Massaro gained a reputation for no showing events on the independent circuit and gradually faded away. However, at the few independent shows she did manage to make it to, she managed to win a few fans back over. Just enough to spark debates on what her career would have been like had she been properly trained, which also intensified after her tragic suicide in 2019.
- Michelle McCool was thought of this starting with her initial 2008 push. She was steadily promoted as the top babyface Diva on Smackdown, despite crowds being indifferent. She even became the first WWE Divas' Champion, going over the critical favourite Natalya. After crowds were still indifferent, she turned heel and was pushed as a monster. Hardcore fans still despised her - and claimed she was only getting pushed because of her marriage to The Undertaker -save a section of "Diva fans" warming to her. Matches with Melina and Mickie James got rave reviews but she got a lot of X-Pac Heat for repeatedly beating them and for her participation in a feud where she and Layla made fun of Mickie's weight. But she managed to shake this off when she and Layla formed LayCool, showing she was better as a comedic Alpha Bitch rather than The Stoic she'd been previously. She also lost more frequently and received more Take That, Scrappy! moments.
- The unfortunate story of Pro Wrestling NOAH. It was a breakaway from All Japan and fans came to see the familiar wrestlers. Newer wrestlers like Namoichi Marifuji, Takeshi Morishima and KENTA were tolerated on the under card but when the Kobashis, Akiyamas, Takayamas, Taues and the like started to fall to injury, sickness or age, attempts to move the newer wrestlers up the card did not succeed, with the fans outright turning on many they regarded promising but highly flawed. Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the few 90s AJPW stars still going strong even though he really should have taken a break, literally worked himself to death in 2009 trying to get Go Shiozaki over.
- Drew McIntyre is a good modern example; he was started picking up random wins in 2007 when he moved up to WWE proper from their developmental leagues, and when he "officially" became part of Smackdown in 2009, Vince McMahon personally claimed McIntyre would be a future World Champion. He proceeded to build a fairly long winning streak, and became WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion by beating John Morrison. Despite this, he wasn't very entertaining to watch, and it seems he was unable to win a match without blind luck or gouging someone in the eyes. When Kane finally ended his winning streak, he threw a hissy fit, and the next week, by order of Vince McMahon, said loss was expunged. This was being played horrifically straight, or WWE's creative team was overdoing it purposely for laughs.
- In 2011, Drew's push tapered off completely, to the point where he barely got on Superstars, much less either of the televised shows.
- The Bus Came Back: McIntyre became 1/3 of 3MB with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal, who were essentially Butt-Monkey Jobbers, proving that this part of McIntyre's gimmick is now dead. He's also now been released from WWE.
- It should be noted, almost immediately after his push was aborted, the IWC's opinion of him dramatically improved. He's also had a good run so far in TNA, wrestling under his real name Drew Galloway.
- This was completely averted when he returned to WWE, becoming the NXT champion and having great matches, before being called up to the main roster as Dolph Ziggler's bodyguard and teaming with Braun Strowman against The Shield. When he finally split from Ziggler, he was one of the most over wrestlers on the roster and considered a worthy replacement to fill the hole that Roman Reigns left.
- CHIKARA had Lince Dorado. He was pushed way, way too hard right after his debut in 2007, and then went through a period where he would alternately be booked too strongly and be booked as a wrestler of his stature normally would be. End result, Lince's popularity plummeted to the point where it wrecked that of his stablemates in The Future Is Now, Jimmy "Equinox II" Olsen and Helios. Eventually the bookers got the message and Lince was booked in the undercards, but the fans still considered The Future Is Now to be the least interesting group on the roster. When uber-heel group F.I.S.T beat TFiN, the fans chanted "Thank you FIST". Later, during Cibernetico Incredible, the crowd began booing after Lince scored two eliminations in the Torneo Cibernetico. A Face–Heel Turn was working to rescue him when Lince was abruptly fired from Chikara for either no-showing an event, appearing in a video without his mask, or both.
- WWECW had a semi decent roster, believe it or not, but less attention was paid to "extremists" like CW Anderson or Psicosis or even any of the "vixens" like Jazz and Trinity as was paid to Kelly Kelly, an exhibitionist whose first televised appearance was a Ratings Stunt where she promised to take off all her clothing before a cut to a commercial break and then failed to follow through. Still, Kelly didn't truly reach this status until she was given her own dancing trio known as "The Extreme Expose", who were so heavily booed the house mics were silenced during their segments. WWE kept trying with Kelly, putting her in various roles before settling on wrestler, which she failed to grasp some basic fundamentals of but was still decent at, getting some audible pops after two years and getting over after five...only to then campaign for her own release and disappear from the industry.
- It's one thing to keep using a man when your fans say they don't want anymore of him. It's another when the news media portrays your company as a laughing-stock due to you associating with him, his own NFL franchise puts a restraining order against your use of him and you respond by not only continuing to use him, but having your babyfaces talk about how great he is and give him one half of the tag team titles, as TNA did with Adam "Pacman" Jones. Despite his first "run" doing nothing for the company they actually brought him in a second time.
- Vickie Guerrero once she became the Smackdown GM on June 29th 2007. She was hated due to her poor acting and mic ability, getting X-Pac Heat instead of good heel heat as a result. WWE's response? They pushed her angle with Edge even harder, going as far as to "banish" The Undertaker of all people, temporarily, and when Undertaker came back (only because SHE decided to punish Edge), it was Edge who was "sent to Hell" while Vickie cheered Undertaker. When Undertaker decided he was going to punish her too, she formed an alliance with Big Show, who Undertaker feuded with and won against, but by that time Vickie had realigned with Edge and Taker seemed to forget about her, allowing Edge and Vickie to resume their awful kayfabe relationship angle as if the last few months didn't happen. Vickie was then promoted to GM of both RAW and Smackdown heading into Wrestlemania, and the WWE World Heavyweight Title match (a triple threat featuring John Cena, Edge, and Big Show) was centered around a Romantic Plot Tumor with Edge and Show fighting over Vickie, with Cena just there to play the face and make Vickie jokes. Following Wrestlemania, she chose to just be on RAW, WWE's primary television show, but continued her relationship with Edge, a Smackdown wrestler, who won the WHC back at Backlash, meaning that after over a year since their "storyline" began there was no sign that they would meet their downfall. Vickie only barely avoided being a Karma Houdini because she decided to leave in Real Life, which angered Vince McMahon. As a result, Guerrero got comeuppance on the show for the wrong reasons. Vickie suffered a Humiliation Conga and was dumped by Edge. She came back months later, primarily as a manager with a smaller role, and became the most popular heel in the company. Or perhaps not.
- Gail Kim eventually evolved into this in TNA. She was initially the top face of the Knockouts division and became their first Women's Champion. After her program with Awesome Kong ended, she continued to get pushed as the top face and dominated angles. A May 2008 match furthering a feud between The Beautiful People and Roxxi Laveaux had Gail inserted into it and the feud then switched to between her and the Beautiful People. Rather than getting TBP over as heels, Gail prevailed rather easily. It wasn't until she left TNA that another was pushed as the top baby face. When she returned in 2011, she was now pushed as the top heel. Within two weeks she won the TNA Knockouts Tag Team titles without any reasoning behind, hook or angle to it and within another two weeks, she was the Knockouts Champion as well. Even after she lost the title, she still dominated angles. One involving the title was turned into a subplot while Gail's rivalry with the referee took centre stage. And she rarely loses cleanly too, despite TNA having no problem getting other tenured Knockouts to put over their opponents when the occasion calls for it. This did get reversed with Gail's Heel–Face Turn as she ended up putting over new Knockout Jessicka Havok and losing a lot of her Invincible Hero schtick.
- During Ring of Honor's HD Netnote era, Dave Prazak was joined on commentary by Mike Hogewood, who they later learned would be hard to replace after they found better people for the job due to Hogewood being friends of HD Net staff members.
- Bubba the Love Sponge became this in TNA the very moment he showed up on television, mainly due to the fact that the only reason he was there is because he was one of Hulk Hogan's friends. He certainly didn't do any favors for his popularity with his reported bullying of TNA talents off camera, which was only (sort of) tolerated because of said friendship with Hogan. Then it got worse when he made disparaging comments about the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. He was then involved in an incident (Read: He got beat up) that lead to Awesome Kong leaving the company. Bubba lasted a few months after Kong's departure, but he didn't let that grudge against her go. She was invited on a radio show, which turned out to be a setup by Bubba and the host, one of his friends. Abusive, racist language was hurled. Once word got out, Bubba was immediately fired from TNA. The news was met with near-total approval and joy from the Internet wrestling community. His very last appearance for the company saw Mick Foley, normally one of the kindest and most respectful grapplers in the industry, punch him right in the face for real so hard busted Bubba's face open.
- The Bella Twins have been constant Base Breaking Characters with regards to this since their 2010 feud with Jillian Hall. In 2011 Brie randomly won the Divas' Championship, despite a much more interesting angle featuring the debuting Kharma on the way - and Kelly Kelly being seemingly built up as the next top face to challenge her. Likewise the next year Nikki won the title for no reason and only held it for a week (as their contracts expired). When they returned to WWE in 2013, their appearances on Total Divas played this up - attempting to portray them as real-life Alpha Bitches. After a Heel–Face Turn, they remained supporting players in the division - until mid-2014 when they feuded with each other. Fans are split down the middle on this - as Brie had gotten incredibly over during her feud with Stephanie McMahon and Nikki's heel turn was very well received. However the initial segments proved disastrous and Narm-worthy (to the degree that even Nikki herself complained about them on a radio interview). When the feud moved away from longer segments, consensus seems to be that it's a form of this or So Okay, It's Average.
- David Otunga zig-zags on this trope.
- First he was pushed to the moon on NXT despite being sub par on the mic and being very green and downright dangerous in the ring, Otunga got second place in the first season of NXT and arguably more focus on him in the closing minutes than there was the winner; virtually all because of his engagement to Jennifer Hudson. It did not help that WWE bent over backwards to have him win contests along the way, in one case with them outright coming up with a lame excuse to disqualify someone who did beat him in a contest to sell programs for no reason but to ensure an Otunga victory. This was lampshaded on the finale, as it was mentioned that the reason why he lasted this long was because of said engagement.
- After The Nexus formed, Wade Barrett has flourished in the role as the Nexus' leader, and many of the other NXT rookies have benefited considerably from the angle, with Otunga sliding into the role of The Starscream whose sole characterization seems to be a slimy opportunist looking to usurp Barrett as Nexus' leader. A year later, Creative did seem to at least realize that Otunga has the wrestling ability of a graham cracker and don't let him do it that often. He did join CM Punk's New Nexus, but he didn't really talk much during this period. The few times he did wrestle, it was usually either with a partner who did a fair share of the work or against somebody who could barely fight back, or in some cases, they'd find excuses to not have him in the match (such as him being scheduled to wrestle Sheamus, but Sheamus was destroyed before their match by Mark Henry).
- After the disbandment of The Nexus, he took the role of John Laurinaitis' stooge lawyer (and bow tie aficionado). Unfortunately, Otunga still got a bit of a push in 2012 by beating Ezekiel Jackson with a spine buster. Twice. Fortunately, Otunga being used in a non-wrestling role seems to have redeemed him in the eyes of many fans.
- Then he fell again as a color commentator for the Smackdown brand in 2016 following the recently-revived Brand Split. Fans immediately noticed that his commentary was even more excruciating than his wrestling, and he didn't even make it a year in his new position before he was removed from commentary and went back to being off television.
- Sheamus began as this in 2009 on the In Name Only ECW, where his back-and-forth feud with Goldust (yes that Goldust) where he actually lost at least one match and wrestled to a draw in another was instantly turned into a winning streak as well as being seen as a monster heel just for retiring good ol' boy Jamie Noble and curbstomping Jerry Lawler. Fast forward to being on Raw where, despite his size and power, he is a Dirty Coward heel that got lucky in his two championship wins rather than brutalizing fellow pets John Cena and Randy Orton, who always had bigger fish to fry. He managed to avoid this after his Heel–Face Turn where he started to get good reactions from fans, save for about four weeks after WrestleMania where the crowd turned on him for the way he won the title off Daniel Bryan.
- Jack Swagger. A decent wrestler who's in good shape but rather boring to watch and with a lisp that severely affects his promos. He got two absolutely random main event pushes, the first of which being his Money In The Bank win in 2010. After roughly about three months as World Champion, he dropped it and was never in the title picture again. Then in 2013 he returned after a long absence and got another push for the title, this one he didn't win.note Most fans find him boring to watch, especially when he is frequently overshadowed by his more talented partner Antonio Cesaro. Both Swagger and Cesaro have moved on to AEW, though they've yet to interact with each other there.
- Curtis Axel. Again, semi-decent wrestler but completely void of any charisma. Not helping was that he stuck around while his more popular, talented and charismatic former tag team partner Kaval was buried, "asked for his release" and was later revealed to have been fired in December despite winning a fan voted contest in which Axel was a loser of in 2010. He was randomly put into Paul Heyman's stable and quickly won the Intercontinental title. Again most fans find him boring and wonder why he was chosen to get a push. Then again, he is Mr Perfect's son (unfortunately, him not living up to his father's legacy only hurts him more).
- Michael Cole, more specifically a heel persona he took on during WWE's first season of NXT (before he was just The Scrappy). He was given a match at WrestleMania, which many thought this was so they could capitalise on the universal hate for the guy by him getting humiliated on the grandest stage of them all. Due to in-universe Executive Meddling, he won his match and they dragged out his feud with Jerry Lawler for an extra two months. He finally got his comeuppance and suffered a Humiliation Conga, resulting in him toning it down for a while. This didn't last, however, as he quickly went back to being obnoxious and making everything about him, and he's still doing this as of this writing. Download him in the latest SmackDown vs. Raw game and he will be placed in constant title main events; change the match and the game will just place him in another one.
- While Michael Cole is bad, Jerry Lawler as a Face is on a whole other level. It's blatant that they're keeping the poor man on the commentary table for personal reasons, as he himself has stated in interviews that he would rather be a trainer for upcoming talent, as he's tired of commentating. Yet, he still tries to be funny, he makes very awkward remarks about female talent (especially Kelly Kelly), his insults are incredibly juvenile, and it's very obvious that he's Vince McMahon's mouthpiece. This was made clear when a crowd was very audibly chanting "Let's go, Ziggler" and Jerry Lawler said "Listen to this crowd, 'Let's go, Sheamus!'".
- This, however, all changed when Lawler had his real heart attack on September 10th, 2012. Nobody actually wanted Lawler to die and everyone was thankful for his recovery, making people tolerate him much more because his jokes, as lame as they might be, is proof that he's doing well and that the medical staff did what they were supposed to do. For Cole, however, it gave his heel persona the complete boot, as he seems to not only be a complete face commentator again, but he has gotten a ton of respect following the heart attack. Even though he's still a pet, he's proven his worth, it looks like. Took a real life incident for that to happen.
- While Michael Cole is bad, Jerry Lawler as a Face is on a whole other level. It's blatant that they're keeping the poor man on the commentary table for personal reasons, as he himself has stated in interviews that he would rather be a trainer for upcoming talent, as he's tired of commentating. Yet, he still tries to be funny, he makes very awkward remarks about female talent (especially Kelly Kelly), his insults are incredibly juvenile, and it's very obvious that he's Vince McMahon's mouthpiece. This was made clear when a crowd was very audibly chanting "Let's go, Ziggler" and Jerry Lawler said "Listen to this crowd, 'Let's go, Sheamus!'".
- Alberto Del Rio is yet another example. Despite not able to connect with the audience, Del Rio has been pushed to the moon since his August 2010 debut and won the Royal Rumble match in 2011. He has constantly had title shot after title shot. Originally, he was one of the most hated heels on the roster, but after two terrible WWE title reigns and a heatless feud with Sheamus, all of his heat evaporated. When he turned face in the end of 2012, his push was relaxed, but once he went back to being a heel six months later, WWE went back to pushing him full-force. The reason behind Del Rio's huge push is because WWE sees him as a guy who can help carry WWE to a Hispanic fanbase, not to mention he is one of Triple H's favorites.
- He was a Pet in TNA for a little while after being released from WWE, until he got arrested and was taken off television permanently. Fan reaction was even worse than in WWE, because apart from not adapting his gimmick to the new show, he had proven himself to be quite the unlikable person outside of Kayfabe as well.
- Mike Bennett and Matt Taven, the first and second winners of Ring of Honor's recurring "Top Prospect" Tournament, who both continued to be pushed by the promotion after fans made it clear they strongly disagreed with the notion either was a top anything, even greeting Bennett with chants of "You Can't Wrestle". Then the two were given their own Power Stable in The Kingdom. Even pairing them with Ensemble Dark Horse Adam Cole and Bennett's Real Life spouse Maria Kanellis could not stop them from getting hate. Oddly, New Japan Pro-Wrestling fans seem to like them well enough.
- Bennett managed to get over in TNA and became a prime example of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character in WWE. Taven, however, continued to do the Kingdom shtick long after it had ceased to be relevant, bringing in two wrestlers who were widely considered inferior as poor replacements for Cole and Bennett. His case of X-Pac Heat became so bad that an ironic meme popped up on /wooo/ declaring him a Memetic Badass who is getting unfairly held down by the company.
- Taven and Bennett have since brought this act to AEW and have been met with apathy more than anything else, and reuniting with Cole hasn't really helped. Though whether this is because of how they've been presented or because people just don't care (or both) is up for debate.
- Dixie Carter of TNA became outright hated by most in the Professional Wrestling fandom in 2011(and already was by peers in the business itself, including longtime fan favorite Jim Cornette), but TNA continues to shill her even if she's not on an episode, attempting to entice fans to follow her on Twitter and Facebook at LEAST once a week. Dixie is the president of TNA and the majority shareholder in the company. Ironically, many fans rejoiced when Hulk Hogan briefly took over the company in an angle that ran nearly a year and a half. Sadly, she was backed by Sting, and is once again in control of the company in the angles as well as in real life, though the day to day operations of TNA in-universe were handled by Sting, then by MVP, then by Kurt Angle. Still she managed to get ever worse as she's inserted herself into making the show all about her. If she's not in a segment she's being mentioned or talked about. She opens nearly every show with a thirty minute long promo. It took a hostile takeover of the promotion itself by Anthem Sports to finally get her off of TV screens for good.
- With Cole and Vickie before him, it wasn't so hard to see that John Laurinaitis was going to become one. Already despised in Real Life due to being one of Vince's numerous stooges and his role as vice president of talent relations (he's the one who reportedly said he won't hire a female wrestler who isn't Playboy material) he quickly became The Scrappy due to having a forced catchphrase (constantly stating his job title) similar to Vickie's, and like Vickie having very little talent when it comes to acting and mic skills, though his lack of ability is of the Dull Surprise variety, yet got an increasingly bigger role on TV, eventually becoming the Interim General Manager of RAW. He didn't last too long in that role and was removed from television after about six months.
- Bo Dallas from WWE NXT, at least originally, when it replaced FCW in 2012. Pushed as the top guy on the developmental roster despite being average at best in the ring, having all the personality of a ketchup stain, and defeating the much more popular Big E. Langston for the NXT Title. The fans furiously hated his guts, to the point of actually turning their backs on the ring whenever he won matches. A source of possible improvement is his Face–Heel Turn over six months after the fact that has him feuding for the NXT Title with the extremely over Sami Zayn.
- Bo Dallas made his proper WWE main roster debut in May 2014, using a "wannabe hero" heel gimmick he adapted on NXT. The IWC had nothing but praise for him now. The mere fact that he went from Creator's Pet to Ensemble Dark Horse in less than a year to the point that fans are still unhappy at R-Truth for ending his undefeated streak just shows how much Dallas improved.
- WWE NXT, as the Ensemble Dark Horse of WWE programming, tends to avoid this problem most of the time, as the lack of forced pushes helps wrestlers who would be considered Creator's Pets on the main roster escape this. Most of NXT's powerhouses, like Bull Dempsey and Baron Corbin, are Base Breaking Characters at worst. But since his debut in 2013, there was almost no one in NXT rabidly loyal base who was a fan of Mojo Rawley.
- Batista has become this during his WWE career. Ever since he returned to the company in early 2014, he won the Royal Rumble and as a result, he earned the right to face Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. Batista's win outraged many fans, who preferred Daniel Bryan. The reason for Batista's push is because he's one of Triple H's good friends (along with Orton, of course).
- Paige is a curious case. While she remains popular with fans in arenas - and she was near-universally popular on NXT - she slipped into divisive status after coming to WWE's main roster in 2014. Paige essentially was at the top of the division and dominated angles. As this went on, many fans grew increasingly apathetic towards her Anti-Diva gimmick(accusing it of Real Women Never Wear Dresses) and many
Unfortunate Implications were noted - particularly in one promo where she claimed that she and her partner A.J. Lee were automatically better than the Bella Twins because they were Tomboys, and that since the Bellas were Girly Girls, they weren't "being themselves" and didn't count as "real women". Part of the problem is her popularity with the crowds; the girl herself has said that she's more suited as a heel but gets repeatedly pushed as a face, coming across as a Designated Hero. What's more is that the rest of the women (including the champion herself) went through the Face–Heel Revolving Door each week simply to accommodate Paige's presence. While she continues to get good reactions from crowds, she divides fans on the internet and sparks divisiveness. There seems to be very little middle ground involving her. - Roman Reigns might actually be one of the biggest examples in the industry's history. He started off popular, as the strong, silent, no-nonsense muscle guy in The Shield, mainly because their dynamic was all around great and it covered Reigns' weaknesses both in and out of the ring. Once the Shield broke up, Reigns was essentially exposed as being very limited in the ring and as a mediocre talker. The fact that Daniel Bryan became one of the best and most popular guys in recent memory at around the same time, and WWE insisted on pushing Reigns over him, ended up coming to a head at the 2015 Royal Rumble, where Bryan was eliminated less than halfway into the match and Reigns ended up winning over several other more talented and popular guys, which led to the audience booing Reigns out of the building, to the point that The Rock got booed when he came out to help him against a sneak attack. The fans were so displeased they rioted outside the arena, and so many cancelled their WWE Network subscriptions that the cancellation page crashed. Since that night, Reigns has gotten some of the worst reactions on the roster, but Vince McMahon has already decided that Reigns will be the next face of the company regardless. Things only got worse as WWE had an endless array of popular acts, including the fan-favorite Daniel Bryan, shill and promote Reigns as being a great hero and amazing talent, and Reigns' push would only keep getting stronger. He main evented Wrestlemanias 31, 32, 33, and 34, won the title at 32, and at 33, WWE even went so far as to have Reigns be the one to temporarily retire The Undertaker, one of the most legendary figures in the industry's history. The best thing that can be said in Roman Reigns' defense at this point is most fans, even many of his detractors, feel the problem isn't Reigns himself, since he actually has steadily improved in the ring, it's the awful booking and the constant shilling. It's widely considered among fans and other wrestlers alike that all Reigns really needs is a couple years in the upper midcard to polish his in-ring work and find his own voice and he'll be able to become the top draw that Vince is convinced he already is. However, some more-pessimistic people have argued that, after the nuclear levels of hatred he got for retiring Undertaker, Roman is past the point that his career can EVER fully recover.
- He eventually entered into a feud which involved several months of getting defeated by Brock Lesnar. WWE played up Lesnar's frequent absences from TV and seeming apathy toward wrestling as an attempt to get X-Pac Heat on Lesnar, and cause the fans to be more sympathetic toward Reigns—but instead what happened is that fans got a feud where both parties looked bad. Reigns came off looking like a whiny Sore Loser when he went around calling himself "the uncrowned Universal Champion" even though Lesnar beat him clean the first time they met, and it didn't help Reigns escape this status when he was granted an immediate rematch despite, as mentioned earlier, losing fair and square.
- In October 2018, Reigns finally got over in the worst way possible when he revealed he was suffering from Leukemia and would have to step away from the business. He went from being booed out of the building to "thank you, Roman" chants. Commentators note if he is able to come back from his disease, the pops will be through the roof. Wrestling commentators have noted the sheer ludicrousness that it took a life-threatening disease to finally get Reigns universally over, something that four years of being booked as Superman couldn't do.
- If it is anything to go by, the pop he got from announcing his return to wrestling in February 2019 indicates that he's well and truly shook off this status, but it remains to be seen if WWE can actually keep Reigns over or if he'll go right back to his old booking and become hated again—considering how they screwed up his booking when he first got over, it's a real possibility.
- In late 2020, likely due to a number of factors (included increased competition from AEW and NJPW making in-roads into America) WWE finally had Reigns turn heel after 6 years, essentially embracing his status as a pet, claiming to be the sole person responsible for WWE's success, saying he's better than every other wrestler on the roster, and generally acting like a self-entitled Jerkass. This change has been positively received by wrestling critics who claim that Reigns' "Head of the Table" heel gimmick has been handle more logically and seen him display more charisma than anything from his face run.
- Big Show is an example of a scrappy getting rescued from the heap and then becoming this. Even in his early 40s, he continued to be pushed into the main event simply because Vince McMahon likes big men.
- Eva Marie, a woman that WWE seemed desperate and determined to make a star. The only problem was that according to fans she had very little talent- she couldn't wrestle, she couldn't talk, she couldn't act, and she couldn't even sell, meaning she wouldn't even have made a good jobber. Even when WWE finally put her down in NXT to learn with the most talented women they have, Eva was, at best, a female version of Bo Dallas, and at worst, a talentless Hate Sink. The fact that WWE still used Eva Marie for promotional material for their main roster shows and PPVs when she was in NXT put her dangerously close to Wolverine Publicity as well. After returning to the main roster following the second Brand Extension, she seemed to have found something that suited her, being repackaged as a heel who comes up with excuses to avoid wrestling and while this had redeemed her in the eyes of some fans, this type of gimmick would become stale very quickly and she'd eventually have to either put up or shut up. (un)Fortunately, she got a Wellness suspension in 2016 and sat out the rest of her contract, which expired in August of 2017. However, at the end of 2020, WWE actually re-signed Eva (although she wouldn't debut until mid-2021) which was immediately greeted with considerable doubt. Unfortunately for her, things went nuclear when WWE (as part of their semi-regular mass releases of talent for "cost-cutting" purposes) fired a number of very talented but heavily underused female talents, including legend Mickie James, shortly before Eva was scheduled to redebut, leading to incredulity that WWE couldn't find a use for women like James, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, or Chelsea Green, but were willing to bring back a woman who'd been one of their biggest busts. The heat only got worse when it became quickly apparent that Eva had barely improved at all, although at least this time WWE didn't push her as hard the second time around, even releasing her a second time a few months later.
- John "Bradshaw" Layfield is a recent example. JBL has been getting some heat from fans due to the recent bullying accusations against him and are demanding that WWE take action. However, don't expect JBL to be fired anytime soon due to his extremely close friendship with Vince McMahon. He was, however, eventually removed from commentary and mostly does backstage work now.
- Jinder Mahal in mid-2017. After WrestleMania 33, Mahal was moved to SmackDown during the Superstar Shake-up between the brands, upon which he suddenly upset then-WWE Champion Randy Orton at Backlash in May to obtain the belt, which he held onto for nearly six months despite being average at best in the ring and shifting his gimmick to a tired foreign heel straight out of The '80s who couldn't even beat lowercard stars without interference from The Singh Brothers. His reign caused WWE's TV ratings and ticket sales to plummet even further than they already were. It didn't help that he regularly scored victories over beloved wrestlers such as Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura, almost halting their pushes in the process. The main reasons for Jinder's push were because WWE wanted to appeal to the Indian market (where the WWE Network had recently launched, and were stated to go on tour after Backlash) and likely because Jinder had buffed up considerably since his first run (which many suspect is due to steroid use due to his extreme leanness and vascularity, gynecomastia and back acne). The reveal that Vince McMahon was personally writing a lot of Mahal's promos and material received unfavorable comparison with Roman Reigns, making a lot of fans perceive Mahal as being an overpushed pet project of Vince's, once again being forced down the throats of fans.
- Charlotte Flair had been compared by fans as the Distaff Counterpart to Roman Reigns despite her talents. She rarely loses match and even in tag team matches she lost, she wasn't the one who was pinned/submitted. In fact, there are only 5 people who defeated Charlotte in single matches on non-live events (Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax and Carmella). Throughout her career, Charlotte was constantly given title opportunities and rarely needed to win a number one contender match first and in the last three months of 2018, she had four SmackDown Women's Championship matches. In fact, in almost all the pay-per-views Charlotte was in, she was either the defending champion or the challenger.
- Following her debut to the main roster in 2015 (coincidentally, the year Roman was heavily pushed), Charlotte was immediately pushed to be the top female superstar in the company, winning the Divas Championship 3 months after her debut and holding it for six months; when the title was dropped in favor of the new Women's Championship, she immediately claimed that title as well. Along with an undefeated streak on PPV, she spent all of 2016 as a champion, occasionally dropping the title to Sasha Banks before reclaiming it a few weeks later, killing any potential Banks had and becoming a four time Raw Women's Champion before the title was even a year old.
- After WrestleMania XXXIII, Charlotte was drafted to SmackDown and her momentum seemed to have died down, but by the end of the year, she won the SmackDown Women's Championship, making her the only woman to hold all titles exclusive to the women's division (except the original Women's Championship). Her presence, in fact, killed off any momentum for other women on the roster despite SmackDown being known as "the land of opportunity". She then went on to end Asuka's undefeated streak at WrestleMania XXXIV.
- After losing her title a few days later to Carmella, Charlotte took some time off for breast implant surgery before returning in July and reclaiming the title from Carmella at Summerslam 2018, tying with Trish Stratus for most WWE Women's Championships held on the main roster (Trish took 6 years to do so while Charlotte only took 3). This victory also had her breaking Trish's record for most PPV victories by a woman. Her instant return to the title picture was the moment when a majority of the fans turned against her, as it very nearly derailed Becky Lynch's (a long time fan favorite who was widely expected to win back the championship) momentum over the last 2 months. In fact, the fans were firmly behind Becky when she turned on Charlotte, so much so that WWE had to pull a hasty rework the program and portray it as Both Sides Have a Point instead of Becky being the pure heel and Charlotte being the face as they had originally intended. Despite dropping the title to Becky, she was still heavily focused to the point of replacing Becky Lynch to face Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series — a match that had been anticipated since Ronda's debut — after Becky suffered a legitimate nose injury, despite Asuka receiving louder cheers.
- Vince McMahon's favoritism towards Charlotte became more apparent in 2019, when he suspended Becky (who had won the Royal Rumble in January) for 60 days and replaced her with Charlotte as Ronda Rousey's opponent at WrestleMania. Even though Lynch got put back in the match (which nobody doubted she would, as she's one of WWE's biggest draws), Charlotte wasn't planned to be removed, which meant she wormed her way into a hotly-anticipated match that no one wanted to see her be a part of. And then it got worse again when she defeated Asuka for the SmackDown Women's Championship two weeks before WrestleMania 35, sacrificing her title reign for the sake of the "Winner Takes All" unification stipulation match as well as breaking the record for most women's championship won. Fortunately, she never actually won at WrestleMania 35, as Becky defeated both her and Ronda Rousey. That said, Charlotte still continues to be put into Championship matches, completely pushing other the other women aside and putting them into unmeaningful feuds or for the Women's Tag Team Championship.
- Already held the Women's Championship a record 10-times in 2019, entered the main event of WrestleMania 35 in controversial fashion and defeating Trish Stratus, all in the span of a year, WWE continued to extend Charlotte's already long list of accomplishments by making her winning the 2020 Women's Royal Rumble. Said match also had Charlotte breaking the record of most eliminations by a women and putting herself over another NXT Wrestling Monster in the form of Shayna Baszler. In addition to this, Charlotte's victory also means that WrestleMania 36 will be Charlotte's sixth WrestleMania in a row she is in a championship match, more than any other women. Her controversial victory has been compared to her DistaffCounterpart's own Royal Rumble victory five years prior. To the fury of many, Flair went on to defeat another hot prospect in Rhea Ripley, giving her yet ANOTHER title reign most don't believe she deserves or needs, rather than building with the younger much more fresh Ripley.
- Despite Nia Jax being unfavorably compared to some of the worse giants mentioned on this page from The '90s, she was fast-tracked to the main roster less than a year after her NXT debut thanks to her family ties to Dwayne Johnson. On the main roster, she showed exactly why she wasn't ready as she frequently botched maneuvers and failed to present a compelling persona. While she did eventually find her footing by early 2018, it quickly faded away once she won her first women's championship. The programs she was put in severely damaged her image, as she seemed to turn on a whim (going back and forth from a Wrestling Monster to a helpless bullying victim back to a Wrestling Monster within the months of March to May, for instance). Her X-Pac Heat came to a head in late 2018, where during a brawl to close an episode of Raw, she legitimately punched Becky Lynch in the face, causing Lynch to be sidelined with a concussion and depriving Survivor Series of the highly anticipated match between Lynch and Ronda Rousey. Despite fan outcry and growing evidence of Jax being a legitimately dangerous competitor, she didn't receive any punishment from the company and it was even used to further her push as a monster heel.
- Baron Corbin fell into this after being drafted to Monday Night RAW in 2018, when he decided to shave his hair and replaced his ring gear to a shirt and slacks as Stephanie McMahon's corporate accountant. He was placed in a meaningless feud with Finn Balor with repetitive matches and later usurped Kurt Angle as the RAW General Manager for the rest of late 2018; despite being removed as GM at the end of the year, he still had screentime on the midcard paired with Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley with no explanation (with some feeling it derailed McIntyre's push in the process.) When he was announced as the opponent of Kurt Angle's farewell match at WrestleMania 35 instead of the highly-requested John Cena, fans were livid — and even more so when he defeated him quickly.
- When Tyrus joined the NWA in 2021, he quickly won the Television Championship and dominated the scene, eventually racking up enough wins to challenge for and win the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship, where he continued to destroy all challengers in brief Squash Matches. Tyrus by this point was pushing fifty and visibly over the hill, to the point he couldn't even run the ropes let alone do wrestling moves, and it was blatantly obvious that NWA head honcho Billy Corgan was trying to leverage Tyrus' side gig on Fox News for mainstream attention. Despite significant fan backlash Corgan stubbornly refused to take the belt off Tyrus for the better part of a year, claiming that fans simply didn't like Tyrus' politics and mocking them as "not wrestling fans" for letting political considerations colour their enjoyment of wrestling, whilst liberal and conservative fans alike repeatedly made it clear that they didn't want Tyrus as champion because he couldn't wrestle. Tyrus finally lost the belt in February 2023 and retired for real, citing age and mounting injuries, demonstrating what a bad idea it was to have a man in his condition at the top of the promotion. Tyrus' reign alienated a significant number of fans at a time when the NWA was particularly vulnerable, only just returning from an enforced hiatus during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It also drove away the company's top star Nick Aldis, who was understandably upset at being unceremoniously cast aside in favour of a barely mobile former WWE comedy midcarder after spending years painstakingly bringing some kind of credibility back to the title and spearheading the NWA's Revival.
