History TakeThat / ProfessionalWrestling

--> '''Christian''': I've seen a guy who said he was "the next big thing." I've seen guys who dressed up like male cheerleaders. And I've seen a guy, who honestly thought he was the boogeyman. And I've outlasted them all.

* Since Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter (known as Dutch Mantel outside of WWE) are a rather scathing Take That against the US Tea Party Movement, an ultra-conservative political movement, it's not impossible to assume that Colter name might be a take that against Ann Coulter, a writer and public speaker known for her very conservative and very controversial political commentary. The "Zeb" may have been a CallBack to when Mantel was calling himself Uncle Zebakiah while managing the Harris Twins (then known as the Jakob and Eli Blu) all the way [[Wrestling/NewGenerationEra back in 1995]], but this has never been confirmed.

* Since Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter (known as Dutch Mantel outside of WWE) are a rather scathing Take That against the US Tea Party Movement, an ultra-conservative political movement, it's not impossible to assume that Colter name might be a take that against Ann Coulter, a writer and public speaker known for her very conservative and very controversial political commentary. The "Zeb" may have been a CallBack to when Mantel was calling himself Uncle Zebakiah while managing the Harris Twins (then known as the Jakob and Eli Blu) all the way back in 1995, but this has never been confirmed.

* Since Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter are a rather scathing Take That against the US Tea Party Movement, an ultra-conservative political movement, it's not impossible to assume that Colter name might be a take that against Ann Coulter, a writer and public speaker known for her very conservative and very controversial political commentary.

** A lot of people would say Wrestling/EricBischoff and Wrestling/HulkHogan rather than Nash and Jarrett.[[note]]While Nash's booking was indeed awful it wasn't quite the business killing run people make it out to be, and regardless Nash just booked the TV, he didn't have any control over the checkbook or who the company hired. Jarrett meanwhile was more of a symptom of [=WCW's=] problems rather than one of the causes of them and gets blamed just because of the massive amount of XPacHeat he gets everywhere he goes (and being close friends with Russo doesn't help). Ratings and attendance were just as bad while Wrestling/ScottSteiner was champ during the promotion's last few months, but no one ever blames ''him''.[[/note]] They worked there too. In fact all five men on the cover of ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'' (Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Wrestling/ScottHall) all worked for TNA. '''''At the same time'''''.

* There's a very obscure take that in ''WCW/nWo Thunder'' for UsefulNotes/PlayStation. Wrestling/EricBischoff, who was in the game, was given the Figure Four Leglock as a finisher, which is widely used by Wrestling/RicFlair. Bischoff and Flair absolutely hated each other. As an added bonus, Flair was in the game as well, but with no special moves of his own.[[note]]Flair wasn't supposed to be in the game at all, he was pulled from both ''Thunder'' and the massively popular Nintendo 64 game ''WCW/nWo Revenge'' due to Flair and WCW suing each other over Flair missing shows (Short version: Flair asked for time off to watch his son compete in an amateur wrestling tournament, was given the okay, and later was told by Bischoff that he had to be at TV that day. Flair refused, no showed, and out come the lawyers). The game programmers decided to throw Flair in the game anyway for whatever reason, though the only way to use him is to enter the "unlock everything" code and he's buried towards the bottom of the wrestler select screen with all the programmers and other joke characters (such as a clown, a horse, and a 7 foot tall green ant. Seriously.), all of whom have identical generic movesets.[[/note]] It couldn't have been a coincidence.

* In Missouri was the rated G superstar [[Wrestling/KellyKlein Mary Elizabeth Monroe]], riffing on Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} after WWE went PG. And there were many more, including at least one [=YouTube=] series that started referring to Edge as "The Rated G [[UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Nintendo Wii]]" in response to the rating switch.

** A lot of people would say Wrestling/EricBischoff and Wrestling/HulkHogan rather than Nash and Jarrett. They worked there too. In fact all five men on the cover of ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'' (Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Wrestling/ScottHall) all worked for TNA. '''''At the same time'''''.

* Speaking of Flair, he and Wrestling/RoddyPiper cut a WorkedShoot promo on the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder on ''WCW Monday Nitro''. Syxx (aka Wrestling/SeanWaltman) fired right back a week later with one that might have been more [[HostilityOnTheSet shoot than work]]:
--> '''Syxx:''' [Flair] was talking about this new generation of guys not having any respect. Well Ric Flair, I little bit about the history of this sport, and I wanna ask you something right now: ''What kind of respect is it'', ripping one of the legends in this sport off, '''The Nature Boy Wrestling/BuddyRogers?''' You rip his name off! You rip his look off! And you ripped the figure 4 off him! [[Main/SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute You're a biter, Ric Flair!]] And I got no respect for you, and very little for you either, Piper. And if you got (gestures to crotch) any '''sack''' whatsoever you'll do something about it! Because I don't sweat either one of you! (Hands the Mic to Wrestling/KevinNash and makes a "Come on!" motion to the camera)

* Wrestling/JimCornette did a series of Main/WorkedShoot promos in late 1997 that were full of these, the nastiest being one he delivered to the immortal Hulkster.

* For some reason Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/EricBischoff thought it would be a good idea to waste PPV time with Hogan cutting a rambling (and for the most part factually incorrect) [[https://youtu.be/Jl_UxFUUjpU?si=tYIPmc2nD8xAdfIM&t=98 promo]] on ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', concluding with Hogan throwing a copy of the ''Observer'' into a burning barrel.

* For some reason Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/EricBischoff thought it would be a good idea waste PPV time with Hogan cutting a rambling (and for the most part factually incorrect) [[https://youtu.be/Jl_UxFUUjpU?si=tYIPmc2nD8xAdfIM&t=98 promo]] on ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', concluding with Hogan throwing a copy of the ''Observer'' into a burning barrel.

* A somewhat obscure one, possibly due to the fact that the intended target was a flop and to the awesomeness of the match taking place at the time. During the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Championship]] match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''WCW The Great American Bash 92'', July 12, 1992, commentator Wrestling/JesseVentura said that there's no money in bodybuilding. This would have been a shot at WWF's failed [=WBF=] (World Bodybuilding Federation), which closed three days after this [=PPV=] aired.

* The prime objective of ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro Nitro]]'' was "take that, ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw WWF Raw]]''" since its very inception. Hell, even the name ''Monday Nitro'' is a play on ''Monday Night Raw''. For starters, Nitro was always broadcasted live save for a few exceptions, while Raw back then was largely taped in advance (they added more live events some time later to counterattack, but still maintained a live/taped schedule, because it's cheaper). Wrestling/EricBischoff made note of it by giving away spoilers to Raw main events during Nitro broadcasts to minimize channel drift (for those who don't know, both Nitro and Raw broadcasts [[Wrestling/MondayNightWars always overlapped each other minimum by one hour]]). Some of the reveals, especially in hindsight, really made no sense, like during second Nitro broadcast Bischoff spoiled the result of Wrestling/ShawnMichaels vs. Wrestling/SidEudy match over on Raw, while on Nitro {{Wrestling/Sting}} vs. Michael Wallstreet was about to start.

** It all came to an end in a moment that will live in wrestling folklore forever - the quote at the top of the page is an example of this [[HoistByHisOwnPetard backfiring]] ''[[EpicFail terribly]]''. It came just a few minutes prior to the notorious "[[FingerpokeOfDoom Fingerpoke of Doom]]". Ratings ''plummeted'' seconds after it was said, as a massive chunk of the audience changed channels to watch ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw WWF Raw]]''. The thing is, it wasn't even about title win itself (Raw was taped that day, and results were already spoiled by WWF themselves on their website), it was about Wrestling/MickFoley, one of the most respected, hard-working and well-meaning guys in the industry, finally realizing his dream and winning his first world title, while Wrestling/TonySchiavone (by no fault of his own, he was forced to say the line by Bischoff), ended up sounding like a total prick. With his reputation already on shaky grounds, Schiavone had trouble finding any job in wrestling post-WCW for quite some time[[note]]Though seeing as how he started off as a baseball commentator (which is how he got into WCW to begin with, UsefulNotes/TedTurner owned the Atlanta Braves) and was able to go right back to that, he wasn't hurting for work[[/note]]. For months after the incident, [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] fans would bring signs to shows that read, "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat!" thus launching their own take thats at Wrestling/{{WCW}}.

** A lot of people would say Wrestling/EricBischoff and Wrestling/HulkHogan rather than Nash and Jarrett. They worked there too. In fact all five men on the cover of Literature/TheDeathOfWCW (Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Wrestling/ScottHall) all worked for TNA. '''''At the same time'''''.