History CreatorsPet / ProfessionalWrestling

** ItGotWorse. Laurinatis, just like Vickie before him, is currently the GM of BOTH RAW and Smackdown, and already the focus of them is Laurinatis abusing his power. To make matters worse, while Vickie's stint was cut short due to her leaving the company in RealLife before returning as a manager, Laurinatis's status as one of Vince's top longtime stooges behind-the-scenes, it's unlikely he'll get fired or leave the company anytime soon, meaning that his stint will likely go on for a long time.

* With Cole and Vickie before him, it wasn't so hard to see that [[YesMan John Laurinatis]] was going to become one. Already despised in RealLife 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, and then made good on it by allegedly picking Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox out of a magazine, while tearing apart a female lucha libre champion, ''named Sexy Star no less,'' for being too unattractive under her mask to be in WWE, something that quickly made the IWC's blood boil. Kelly and Alicia improved greatly, but that's beside the point) he quickly became TheScrappy due to having a forced catchphrase(constantly stating his job title) similar to Vickie's "Excuse Me", and like Vickie having very little talent when it comes to acting and mic skills, though his lack of ability is of the DullSurprise variety(recently he didn't even react to receiving a finisher), yet got an increasingly bigger role on TV, eventually becoming the Interim General Manager of RAW. Recently WWE has been trying to recreate the [[StoneColdSteveAustin Austin]] vs [[VinceMcMahon McMahon]] feud with CMPunk and Laurinatis, but it has been a flop, especially since Punk had already been involved in a highly praised feud with Vince himself at the very start of the angle [[TooGoodToLast that was oddly cut short]] in favor of HHH becoming COO and Punk's feuds with him and Laurinatis, which were outright panned.

* As bad as Trips was, JeffJarrett in TNA was (is?) a lot worse, especially in 2005, when fans were pleading with him to "DROP THE TITLE!" Not to mention the fact that he is also the head booker, as well as the wrestler. And before that, Jarrett was pushed big time in WCW because of his friendship with VinceRusso, the then-current writer for WCW in 1999-2000. While TripleH does have a lot of pull in the WWE thanks to his marriage to StephanieMcMahon, it is Vince who gets the final word on everything.

* With Cole and Vickie before him, it wasn't so hard to see that [[YesMan John Laurinatis]] was going to become one. Already despised in RealLife due to being one of Vince's numerous stooges and his role as vice president of talent relations, he quickly became TheScrappy due to having a forced catchphrase(constantly stating his job title) similar to Vickie's "Excuse Me", and like Vickie having very little talent when it comes to acting and mic skills, though his lack of ability is of the DullSurprise variety(recently he didn't even react to receiving a finisher), yet got an increasingly bigger role on TV, eventually becoming the Interim General Manager of RAW. Recently WWE has been trying to recreate the [[StoneColdSteveAustin Austin]] vs [[VinceMcMahon McMahon]] feud with CMPunk and Laurinatis, but it has been a flop, especially since Punk had already been involved in a highly praised feud with Vince himself at the very start of the angle [[TooGoodToLast that was oddly cut short]] in favor of HHH becoming COO and Punk's feuds with him and Laurinatis, which were outright panned.

* [[DwayneJohnson 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 FaceHeelTurn, making the most of fan hatred while letting him grow as a performer. It also helped that they retooled the character from a squeaky clean face into "DwayneJohnnson, cranked UpToEleven".

*** Unfortunately, Otunga seems to be getting a bit of a push in 2012. He's already beaten Ezekiel "Put-The-Great-Khali-In-The-Torture-Rack-And-Made-Him-Tap" Jackson with a spine buster.

* Pick any wrestler who is on the booking team, or better yet, a relative of someone on the booking team. Some American examples: Dustin Rhodes (AKA Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes), Triple H (son-in-law of {{WWE}}'s Vince [=McMahon=]), Jeff Jarrett (co-owner and son of Jerry Jarrett) in {{TNA}}, Eric Watts (son of Bill Watts), David Sammartino (son of Bruno Sammartino), David Flair (son of Ric Flair), and Kevin Nash (booker in 1998-1999) in {{WCW}}, Greg Gagne and Larry Zbyszko (son and son-in-law of Verne Gagne, respectively) in [[AmericanWrestlingAssociation 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.
** TripleH 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.
*** And now TripleH has managed to become an even bigger Creator's Pet [[BeyondtheImpossible than he was before]] with the recent COO storyline, to the point where the entire roster save for a few face main eventers pulled a FaceHeelTurn(a temporary one in the case of face wrestlers) voted "No Confidence" on him, in 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 VinceMcMahon himself came back to [[CharacterShilling 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 RealLife when Vince steps down/dies.

* As bad as Trips was, Jeff Jarrett in TNA was (is?) a lot worse, especially in 2005, when fans were pleading with him to "DROP THE TITLE!" Not to mention the fact that he is also the head booker, as well as the wrestler. And before that, Jarrett was pushed big time in WCW because of his friendship with VinceRusso, the then-current writer for WCW in 1999-2000. While Triple H does have a lot of pull in the WWE thanks to his marriage to StephanieMcMahon, it is Vince who gets the final word on everything.
** Dixie Carter of TNA has become outright hated by most in the Professional Wrestling fandom, and by many others in the business herself whom she has worked with, 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 [[AndTheFandomRejoiced rejoiced]] When Hulk Hogan briefly took over the company in a storyline 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 storylines as well as in real life, though the day to day operations of TNA in-universe are handled by Sting.
* HulkHogan himself was and is beloved in WWE/F, but in WCW he was, for the most part, a Creator's Pet. When he first arrived, fans hated his InvincibleHero schtick. Hogan's solution was that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint 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 RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when the NewWorldOrder 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.
* [[DwayneJohnson 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 FaceHeelTurn, making the most of fan hatred while letting him grow as a performer. It also helped that they retooled the character from a squeaky clean face into "Dwayne Johnnson, cranked UpToEleven".
* Lex Luger's "Made in the USA" gimmick in [[{{WWE}} WWF]] was pretty much the definition of the Creator's Pet in wrestling. He was pushed to the top after HulkHogan finally "left for good" (well, for 10+ years, anyway), plugged directly into Hulk Hogan's feud with Yokozuna, and given a hugely over-the-top AllAmericanFace 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 [[SmartMark smarks]] detested Luger's lack of mobility and failure to grasp even basic WrestlingPsychology, 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". To make matters worse, most fans liked (well, in a "love to hate" kind of way) the [[TedBaxter Narcissist]] gimmick he was using before the HeelFaceTurn.
* Towards the end of {{ECW}}'s run, Justin Credible was made their World 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.

* Beaver Cleavage. This gimmick was Chaz Warrington (formerly Headbanger Mosh) and his {{kayfabe}} girlfriend, the late Marianna Komlos, as a hypersexual parody of ''LeaveItToBeaver''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABktaBh8chQ This]] was his fist hype vignette. 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 character a couple of weeks in, nipping his Pet-ness in the bud. The incident, however, was one of Russo's main reasons for leaving WWF for WCW. As for Chaz and Marianna, after being allowed to work under their real names without gimmicks for about 2 weeks, they got stuck in a domestic abuse angle.
* Drew [=McIntyre=] is a good modern example of this trope; he was moved up to the WWE to from their developmental leagues, and when he "officially" became part of the Smackdown, Vince [=McMahon=] personally claimed [=McIntyre=] would be a future World Champion. He proceeded to build a fairly long winning streak, and became IC champion by beating John Morrison. Despite this, he's not very entertaining to watch, and it seems he is 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 work, by order of Vince [=McMahon=], said loss was expunged. This is either the trope being played horrifically straight, or the WWE's creative team is overdoing it purposely for laughs.

*** Thankfully, as of a year later, they 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). As of now, he's largely not wrestling and has taken on the role of John Laurinitis' lawyer (and [[BowtiesAreCool bow tie aficionado]]).
* Michelle [=McCool=] should be the Trope Namer for a female character. She often got no reaction whatsoever, and WWE still insisted on pushing her as the Alpha Diva on the roster. Interestingly she was the cause of a lot more anger than any of her less talented contemporaries.
* John Cena epitomizes this trope. He was booed so often that even he had to acknowledge (while on air) that the fans didn't like him on several occasions.
** Hatred toward John Cena did eventually die down, he mostly gets cheers now, the booing from older male fans has become part of his character and appeal. His never ending push has remained is still resented and WWE creative is still reviled for it, John Cena's still a pet but more heat is on the creator than the pet in this case.
* Maryse got this during her return push of 2009/2010. She was pushed in a feud for the Divas' title despite the fact being she was actually the least talented diva on the Raw roster. Her typical matches involved two or three moves if you were lucky and she'd sneak a win with her DDT. They had a tournament to crown a new champion and Maryse was the only diva to get proper build up and mic time. [[CaptainObvious Then she won the title]]. Thankfully creative team put the belt on Eve Torres and pushed Alicia Fox as the top heel and they stuck Maryse in a role she was actually good at - valeting.

* MichaelCole, more specifically his new heel persona. He was given a match at WrestleMania and 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 ExecutiveMeddling, 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 HumiliationConga, 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.
* Vickie Guerrero once she became the Smackdown GM. She was hated due to her poor acting and mic ability, not because of her character, and got XPacHeat as a result. WWE's response? They pushed her storyline with Edge even harder, going as far as to "banish" TheUndertaker 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 TheBigShow, 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 World title match(a triple threat featuring JohnCena, Edge, and Big Show) was centered around a RomanticPlotTumor with Edge and Show fighting over Vickie, with Cena just there to play the {{face}} and make Vickie jokes. Following Wrestlemania she simply chose to 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 KarmaHoudini because she decided to leave in RealLife, which angered VinceMcMahon. As a result her character got comeuppance for the wrong reasons. Vickie suffered a HumiliationConga and was dumped by Edge. She came back months later, primarily as a manager with not as big of a role and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap became the most popular heel in the company]], [[BaseBreaker or not]].

* Dixie Carter of TNA has become outright hated by most in the Professional Wrestling fandom, 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 [[AndTheFandomRejoiced rejoiced]] When Hulk Hogan briefly took over the company in a storyline 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 storylines as well as in real life, though the day to day operations of TNA in-universe are handled by Sting.

** Since he lost the Intercontinental title to Kofi Kingston after 2010 WWE Draft, Drew has been push a little less, but still decently. He's still refered to as a future champion, but he doesn't cheat to win matches and showing a lot more promise. Still his matches aren't that entertaining and we haven't seen too many different moves out of him.

** [=McIntyre=] is indeed this trope [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] clear to the top of the universe. You're ''supposed'' to hate the character, but not so much because he's a mediocre wrestler as because he's a {{Jerkass}} who does whatever the hell he feels like (and we do mean ''anything'') yet [[KarmaHoudini never seems to get punished]] because he's literally "TheChosenOne." (And incidentally, since when does "cheating to win" somehow make a heel worthy of contempt? [[LoveToHate I thought that was the whole point!]])

** John Cena's something of a special case that seems to have come full circle by now, with him receiving mostly cheers. A lot of fans respect him as a person, don't mind his character and even think he can wrestle fairly well, but just think he's overexposed and the WWE tries too hard to make people cheer.
*** The thing is, people love John Cena in person and character, but too much of a good thing is bad, so they boo him out of spite toward the writers because of how overexposed he is.
**** Nothing will ever come of all the hatred, in all likelihood. The writers themselves seem to have begun acknowledging Cena's overexposure in subtle ways. He ''has'' been turning into something of a JerkSue of late, protesting that he deserves rematches even when he loses the title clean and there is no rematch clause involved (for which CMPunk [[WhatTheHellHero famously called him on the carpet]]).
*** Another take is that fans love Cena, love the character, love the person behind the gimmick and the boos are meant as a sign of affection because the idea that grown men hate Cena had become part of his character. Thus, it is fun to boo him.

* It would not be surprising if Barbara Blank - better known to all the world as KellyKelly - didn't replace Michelle [=McCool=] or Maryse as WWE's female pet at some point, at least in the eyes of the fans - and not just because she's not up to par with, say, Mickie James. It's actually worse than that. When hired in 2006 for the then-burgeoning (WW)ECW promotion, she had attained only modest fame as a ''bikini model'' and knew next to nothing about wrestling. In fact, for over a year ECW hardly had her wrestle at all (her one pay-per-view match during this period, at ''December to Dismember'', saw her getting pinned with little trouble by Shelly Martinez, a.k.a. "Ariel"). Come 2008, Kelly was drafted to ''Monday Night Raw'' and almost immediately [[TookALevelInBadass took about a zillion jillion levels in Badass]]. It's not that Kelly is the worst female wrestler ever, mind you, because she's not. It's just that, from 2008 on, she's been little more than a InvincibleHero who simply oozes IncorruptiblePurePureness. (Do the bookers believe that [[ViewersAreMorons we've all completely forgotten her "stripper" past on ECW]]?) These past three years she's regularly trounced wrestlers you'd think she couldn't possibly beat, appeared in too many pay-per-view events to mention, and gotten title shots she didn't really deserve. Through it all she's ''always'' been a face, with any character flaws quickly rationalized away or simply [[HandWave Hand Waved]]. And then came the absolute nadir: in June of 2011, Kelly was chosen in a fan poll to challenge Brie Bella for the Divas' Championship....and ''won''! But it wasn't until she pinned beloved women's wrestling icon BethPhoenix clean during a title defense that an anti-Kelly backlash truly started up amongst Internet fans.

* Vickie Guerrero became one once she became the Smackdown GM. She was hated due to her poor acting and mic ability, not because of her character, and got X-PacHeat as a result. WWE's response? They pushed her storyline with Edge even harder, going as far as to "banish" TheUndertaker of all people temporarily, and when Undertaker came back(only because SHE decided to do so to punish Edge), it was Edge who was punished and "sent to Hell" while Vickie cheered Undertaker. When Undertaker decided he was going to punish her as well, she formed an alliance with TheBigShow, 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 and act as if the last few months didn't happen. Vickie was then promoted to GM of both RAW and Smackdown heading into WWE's biggest show Wrestlemania, and the World title match(a triple threat featuring JohnCena, Edge, and Big Show) was centered around a RomanticPlotTumor with Edge and Show fighting over Vickie, with Cena just there to play the face and make Vickie jokes. Following Wrestlemania she simply chose to 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 still no sign that they would finally meet their downfall. Vickie only barely avoided being a KarmaHoudini because she decided to leave the company in RealLife, which angered VinceMcMahon. As a result Vickie's character finally got her comeuppance, but for the wrong reasons. Vickie suffered a HumiliationConga and was dumped by Edge. Of course she came back months later, but primarily as a manager with not nearly as big of a role, though she still ventures into this from time to time.
* With Cole and Vickie before him, it wasn't so hard to see that [[YesMan John Laurinatis]] was going to become one. Already despised in RealLife due to being one of Vince's numerous [[YesMan stooges]] and his role as vice president of talent relations, he quickly became a [[TheScrappy scrappy]] due to having a forced catchphrase(constantly stating his job title) similar to Vickie's "Excuse Me", and like Vickie having very little talent when it comes to acting and mic skills, though his lack of ability is of the DullSurprise variety(recently he didn't even react to recieving a finisher), yet getting an increasingly bigger role on TV, eventually becoming the Interim General Manager of RAW. His rise was one of the most predictable things in recent WWE history. Recently WWE has been trying to recreate the [[StoneColdSteveAustin Austin]] vs [[VinceMcMahon McMahon]] feud with CMPunk and Laurinatis, but it has been a flop, especially since Punk had already been involved in a highly praised feud with Vince himself at the very start of the angle [[TooGoodToLast that was oddly cut short]] in favor of HHH becoming COO and Punk's feuds with him and Laurinatis, which were outright panned.

* MichaelCole, more specifically his new heel persona. He was given a match at WrestleMania and 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 ExecutiveMeddling, he won his match and they dragged out his feud with Jerry Lawler for an extra two months.

**** Nothing will ever come of all the hatred, in all likelihood. For every Cena-hater, there have to be at least two Cena-lovers. In any case, the writers themselves seem to have begun acknowledging Cena's overexposure in subtle ways. He ''has'' been turning into something of a JerkSue of late, protesting that he deserves rematches even when he loses the title clean and there is no rematch clause involved (for which CMPunk [[WhatTheHellHero famously called him on the carpet]]). But Cena is just so entertaining and basically a nice guy that by this point anyone complaining about him just sounds petty or redundant.

* MichaelCole, more specifically his new heel persona. He was given a match at WrestleMania and 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 ExecutiveMeddling, he won his match and they dragged out his feud with Jerry Lawler for an extra two months.
** It just wasn't a good idea in the first place. Cole had a long and respected career as a legitimate journalist prior to entering WWE and was regularly a ButtMonkey at the hands of Tazz and John "Bradshaw" Layfield on ''Friday Night [=SmackDown=]'' for many years, so having him turn heel was just grossly out of character for him. Not only that, but the HumiliationConga he eventually received (getting his pants ripped off, body-splashed by ''Eve Torres'', and finally [[CoveredInGunge slathered with Jim Ross's trademark barbeque sauce]]) was so brutal that it looked less like a {{Jerkass}} getting his due and more like [[UnintentionallySympathetic a gang of bullies beating down one pathetic little man]] (and, of course, this just renders WWE's anti-bullying public service announcements not a little hypocritical).

* HulkHogan himself was and is beloved in WWE/F, but in WCW he was, for the most part, a Creator's Pet. When he first arrived, fans hated his BoringInvincibleHero schtick. Hogan's solution was that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint 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 RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when the NewWorldOrder 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.

* It would not be surprising if Barbara Blank - better known to all the world as KellyKelly - didn't replace Michelle [=McCool=] or Maryse as WWE's female pet at some point, at least in the eyes of the fans - and not just because she's not up to par with, say, Mickie James. It's actually worse than that. When hired in 2006 for the then-burgeoning (WW)ECW promotion, she had attained only modest fame as a ''bikini model'' and knew next to nothing about wrestling. In fact, for over a year ECW hardly had her wrestle at all (her one pay-per-view match during this period, at ''December to Dismember'', saw her getting pinned with little trouble by Shelly Martinez, a.k.a. "Ariel"). Come 2008, Kelly was drafted to ''Monday Night Raw'' and almost immediately [[TookALevelInBadass took about a zillion jillion levels in Badass]]. It's not that Kelly is the worst female wrestler ever, mind you, because she's not. It's just that, from 2008 on, she's been little more than a BoringInvincibleHero who simply oozes IncorruptiblePurePureness. (Do the bookers believe that [[ViewersAreMorons we've all completely forgotten her "stripper" past on ECW]]?) These past three years she's regularly trounced wrestlers you'd think she couldn't possibly beat, appeared in too many pay-per-view events to mention, and gotten title shots she didn't really deserve. Through it all she's ''always'' been a face, with any character flaws quickly rationalized away or simply [[HandWave Hand Waved]]. And then came the absolute nadir: in June of 2011, Kelly was chosen in a fan poll to challenge Brie Bella for the Divas' Championship....and ''won''! But it wasn't until she pinned beloved women's wrestling icon BethPhoenix clean during a title defense that an anti-Kelly backlash truly started up amongst Internet fans.

*** Thankfully, as of a year later, they 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). As of now, he's largely not wrestling and has taken on the role of John Laurinitis' lawyer (and bowtie aficionado).

* MichaelCole, more specifically his new heel persona. He was given a match at WrestleMania and 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 ExecutiveMeddling, he won his match and they dragged out his feud with Jerry Lawler for an extra two months.

** People on the internet were the haters. The live crowds had previously turned against divas who didn't have good ring work or promos but gave Maryse a pass [[FanMyopia because a lot of guys]] [[DracoInLeatherPants thought she was hot.]] She really didn't get booed until she feuded with a bigger case of leather pants named Mickie James and allied with the maligned [[TheMiz Miz]].

* John Cena epitomizes this trope. He was booed so often that even he had to acknowledge(while on air) that the fans didn't like him on several occasions.

** 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. [[AndTheFandomRejoiced The news was met with near-total approval and joy from the Internet wrestling community.]]

* Bubba the Love Sponge became this in TNA arguably the MOMENT he showed up on television. Mainly due to the fact that the only reason he is there is because he is HulkHogan's friend. He certainly didn't do any favors for his popularity when he made his Haiti comments, which ultimately resulted in an incident that got Awesome Kong fired from the company (the incident in question was Kong pounding Bubba for his offensive comments. Didn't help that Kong was one of the most talented [[strike:female]] workers in the promotion).

* As bad as Trips was, Jeff Jarrett in TNA was (is?) a lot worse, especially in 2005, when fans were pleading with him to "DROP THE TITLE!" Not to mention the fact that he is also the head booker, as well as the wrestler. And before that, Jarrett was pushed big time in WCW because of his friendship with VinceRusso, the then-current writer for WCW in 1999-2000. While Triple H does have a lot of pull in the WWE thanks to his marriage to Stephanie [=McMahon=], it is Vince who gets the final word on everything.

** WWE seems to have gotten the message after the Nexus angle began. Wade Barrett has flourished in the role as the Nexus' leader, and many of the other NXT rookies have benefited considerably from the angle, including Justin Gabriel, Skip Sheffield, and even Michael Tarver (widely considered the worst of the original eight). David Otunga, however, has seemed lost in the shuffle, and hasn't really been given much to say or do.

** People on the internet were the haters. The live crowds had previously turned against divas who didn't have good ring work or promos but gave Maryse a pass [[FanMyopia because a lot of guys]] [[DracoInLeatherPants thought she was hot.]] She really didn't get booed until she feuded with a bigger case of leather pants named Mickie James and allied with the maligned Mizz.
* Michael Cole, more specifically his new heel persona. He was given a match at WrestleMania and 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 ExecutiveMeddling, he won his match and they dragged out his feud with Jerry Lawler for an extra two months.

* 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 Wesley. Only the most obvious examples should be listed below, and as with all SubjectiveTropes, [[YourMileageMayVary take them with a grain of salt]].

** TripleH 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 The Wesley already, that time period made him one.

* HulkHogan himself was and is beloved in WWE/F, but in WCW he was, for the most part, a Wesley. When he first arrived, fans hated his BoringInvincibleHero schtick. Hogan's solution was that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint 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 RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when the NewWorldOrder formed. A few years later the [=nWo=] had run its course and Hogan turned face again, and went right back into Wesleyhood, where he remained until a falling out with booker Vince Russo had him removed from television until WCW's demise.

* Lex Luger's "Made in the USA" gimmick in [[{{WWE}} WWF]] was pretty much the definition of The Wesley in wrestling. He was pushed to the top after HulkHogan finally "left for good" (well, for 10+ years, anyway), plugged directly into Hulk Hogan's feud with Yokozuna, and given a hugely over-the-top AllAmericanFace 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 [[SmartMark smarks]] detested Luger's lack of mobility and failure to grasp even basic WrestlingPsychology, 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". To make matters worse, most fans liked (well, in a "love to hate" kind of way) the [[TedBaxter Narcissist]] gimmick he was using before the HeelFaceTurn.

* Beaver Cleavage. This gimmick was Chaz Warrington (formerly Headbanger Mosh) and his {{kayfabe}} girlfriend, the late Marianna Komlos, as a hypersexual parody of ''LeaveItToBeaver''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABktaBh8chQ This]] was his fist hype vignette. 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 character a couple of weeks in, nipping his Wesleyhood in the bud. The incident, however, was one of Russo's main reasons for leaving WWF for WCW. As for Chaz and Marianna, after being allowed to work under their real names without gimmicks for about 2 weeks, they got stuck in a domestic abuse angle.