Creator Backlash / Professional Wrestling

• Chances are if you go up to Billy Gunn and mention the words "Rock-a-Billy", you're going to make him very angry. He has said that the gimmick had potential, but they used the wrong outfit and music. Mercifully it was ended after a few weeks and he quickly enjoyed more success as part of the New Age Outlaws.
• Stacy Carter (aka The Kat or Miss Kitty in WWE):
  • In the 2000s, she had her real name removed from various wrestling websites (although Wikipedia still had her real name). However, she has since embraced this and started making several indie appearances, selling her merchandise on eBay and sharing personal photos from her time there. She later clarified that it came from bad memories surrounding her divorce with Jerry Lawler, which happened only a few months after her release, and advice from her real estate colleagues.
  • In a Diva Diaries interview, she giggled the whole way through talking about her start in USWA. First she was given an interviewer role, where she bombed and addressed a commentator who had just left the company (and right as the camera cut away, she could be heard laughing at herself). Then she was given a color commentator role, despite having no idea what she was doing, and no notes.
  "Corey [Michael] is sitting next to me doing the play-by-play, while I'm just talking about how cute somebody's tights are..."
• Trish Stratus:
  • Subverted in regards to the segment where she had to crawl around the ring and bark like a dog, pointing out the fact that it was part of a storyline and that her character ultimately got revenge against Vince McMahon for humiliating her like that. WWE, however, is quite ashamed of said "Bark Like a Dog" moment along with the infamous Katie Vick angle and other tasteless bits of the Attitude Era; when Linda McMahon ran for the U.S. Senate, an attempt to scrub these clips from YouTube was launched to eliminate all traces of these moments so that they could not be used against her, which failed miserably when her opponents kept reminding the people about them, even without video footage of them.
  • Trish does have one case of Old Shame played straight: the infamous moment known simply as "THAT Jackie Gayda Match". A match between her and Bradshaw against Christopher Nowinski and Jackie Gayda, the latter two were members of Tough Enough and both were still very green in the ring. The match was a disaster from beginning to end, and when Trish finally pins Jackie for the victory (even Jim Ross called it a Mercy Kill by that point), she was visibly pissed off. JBL himself said that this was the worst match he had ever participated in.
  "The worst thing I've ever been associated with, I was so embarrassed, I wanted to quit the business." — JBL, WWE Magazine, 2006
  • Inverted with a singles match she had against Stephanie McMahon in 2001. On her DVD she was surprised that so many people compliment her on it even after having much better matches during her rise to the top.
• Gail Kim:
  • She debuted as 'La Felina' wrestling under a mask. She wasn't keen on the idea, saying the mask was difficult to wrestle in. She views it as her paying her dues, and was happy when she lost it in a Hair vs Mask match.
  • She has no love for her second run in WWE from 2008-2011 - due to the horrible way the women were treated with regards to match times, booking and storylines. Even when WWE's attitude to women's wrestling has improved in The New '10s, she has said point blank that she would never return.
  • Her first match in WWE (on a live event) was a Bra & Panties match, and she was told that she still had to strip off even though she was winning. She's called it one of the most traumatic memories of her life.
  • In her second run with WWE, there were a series of Fanservice themed matches - a Pyjama Pillow Fight, a battle royal while wearing evening gowns, tag team matches in bikinis - that she felt pressured into doing. They were equally traumatic.^note Kim can take some comfort in the fact that fans barely even remember this and more think of her as the only female wrestler in the company (in the late 00s) that could actually work a match that wasn't embarrassing. That's assuming they remember her WWE run at all, as she's best known for her work in TNA.
  "Now I have to live with these memories and pictures. I have to live with shame. Not them."
• Similarly, Hania the Howling Huntress isn't too fond of her days in CHIKARA as "The Intergalactic Luchadora" Saturyne. Like many others, she hated wearing the mask and had begged for a different gimmick.
• Terry Taylor does not fondly remember his time in the WWF, when he was known as "The Red Rooster".
• Do not mention Isaac Yankem to Kane. Seriously, don't. He actually cancelled a radio interview on-air because the host mentioned it.
• Do not mention Leviathan^note the gimmick he used in OVW or Deacon Bautista to Batista.
• Kamala regards his short WCW run as this. He was in the Dungeon of Doom and left before WCW Halloween Havoc 95 out of frustration with not getting paid.
• The entire Katie Vick angle left an incredibly bad taste in Triple H's mouth. This is understandable, as Triple H has said it was the only time he ever questioned Vince McMahon about a storyline.^note Though it seems not to the point where he absolutely forbids it in any way, as Daniel Bryan made an oblique reference to it in a February 2015 episode of Raw and even he and Shawn Michaels poked fun at it a couple times.
• Speaking of Vince McMahon, don't mention his "Stand Back" music video or the XFL. Although the last one has changed as he announced a reboot in 2018 planned for 2020^note Which ended up happening and was actually pretty well received... until it got shut down 5 weeks in for obvious reasons. McMahon decided to cut his losses and the new XFL declared bankruptcy a couple months later. The XFL (Ver. 2.0) was eventually purchased by former WWE champion Dwayne Johnson, the third iteration of the XFL began play in February 2023 and was completed as scheduled (with the Arlington Renegades winning the XFL Championship game), the season was largely considered a success and the league will return in 2024. That said, he is willing to let people bring the video up as a source of humiliation for the Heel Mr. McMahon character on occasion, as exemplified with the impersonation promo D-Generation X did in 2006.
• John Zandig of CZW is famous for a particularly angry promo to the point that it was immortalized in Botchamania, but according to a story from Maffew, DJ Hyde learned the hard way during a lunch with Zandig that he's none too proud of it. Fortunately for Maffew, he learned of this before going to a CZW show and trying to get an intro out of Zandig.
• In 1993, Mick Foley, under his Cactus Jack gimmick, did a storyline where after a particularly brutal match with Vader, he suffered amnesia and was living in the streets as a destitute bum who thought he was an ex-sailor. Foley urged fans to destroy any footage of the storyline in his first book, and it is never brought up in any DVDs devoted to Foley^note However, both the match where he was powerbombed on the concrete and most of the awful pre-tape segments that followed were shown on WCW Saturday Night, which is on the WWE Network.
• Michelle McCool:
  • She hated the Sexy Teacher gimmick she was repackaged with in 2006. She has said in interviews that she was terrified of her former co-workers seeing it in case she wanted her old job back.^note She was previously a middle school teacher.
  • She admitted in a podcast with Lilian Garcia that part of the reason she retired was to avoid hating her career as she was repeatedly met with accusations of her relationship and marriage to The Undertaker as the reason behind her being pushed to success as the top female star of SmackDown, with one of the writers going as far as to suggest renaming the brand "The Michelle McCool & Undertaker Show".
• Former World Class Championship Wrestling star Brian Adias feels this way about his former career; to this day, he refuses to talk about his time in wrestling.
• The Undertaker:
  • Never, ever bring up Mean Mark Callous to him.
  • Undertaker also has nothing but contempt for his match with Goldberg in Saudi Arabia and feels he never should have done it. Surprisingly he and his wife Michelle McCool were quite open about talking about the it in "Undertaker: The Last Ride" which was produced by WWE themselves, but given how it very nearly killed him maybe it isn't so shocking.
  • Speaking of Undertaker and Saudi Arabia, everyone involved hated the Undertaker and Kane vs. Triple H and Shawn Michaels match the moment it ended. This was supposed to be Michaels' comeback match^note Had this match not been a trash fire the plans were for Michaels to face AJ Styles at the following WrestleMania, and possibly a match with Daniel Bryan later on, he instead immediately went back into retirement and said he will never be returning to the ring.
• Don't ever ask Mark Henry about his days as "Sexual Chocolate."^note Though he did pull out the gimmick once for an 'Old School Raw', possibly because unlike most of what's on this page the Sexual Chocolate gimmick is pretty fondly remembered and was quite over at the time. Also, his "silver back" gimmick.
• The WWE New Generation Era, the period from 1993 to 1997, when Hulk Hogan left and Steve Austin rose to prominence, is generally considered this for WWE as a whole. Unlike many examples, it is actually mentioned fairly frequently, and on WWE television no less, but always in a mocking or derogatory tone (unless speaking of specific standout wrestlers from the period, like Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart). The Monday Night War documentary that airs on the WWE Network often chides the WWE during this period for presenting "Saturday Morning characters to a Prime Time audience".
• Bret Hart is ashamed of an old cowboy gimmick he did early in his career, and of the "I Quit" match he had against Bob Backlund, which he considers the worst match of his career. While he deeply respected Backlund's skills, not only did Bret feel the frequent submission holds "stunk the building out," Roddy Piper, as guest referee, kept sticking a live microphone in their faces and yelling "Whaddya say?" in an over-the-top voice that came off goofy, making the match impossible to take seriously. According to Bret, "nobody laughs during my matches unless I want them to!"
• The WOAD (formerly Dementia and later Double D'Rose) absolutely HATES her old "Aisha Sunshine" gimmick.
• Karlee Perez, who portrayed Maxine in the WWE, describes NXT (where she got her start, keep in mind that this was back when NXT is a competition series and not the developmental talent system that most WWE fans know today):
  "My thought of the original concept? Shit! Can I say that? They could have used us in so many other ways."
• Bella Twins:
  • The sisters poke fun at the outfits they wore when they first debuted. WWE had just gone PG and they were warned to preserve it, so they went overboard - "we were like the G girls". Diva Dirt columnists regularly tore them apart for their gear too.
  • Brie's lacklustre run as the Divas' Champion is this for her. Fit Finlay, who was a real fighter for getting the women more time, was released just as she won the title. She ended up missing TV for weeks, defended the title only once and didn't have a single win while she was champion.
  • Nikki was audibly complaining about the feud they had with each other in 2014 while it was still going on. She claims she pitched loads of ideas that didn't get used, and the resulting segments were embarrassing for her.
  "At the end of the day I don't write the show."
  • They also weren't subtle about their dislike of the early 2015 feud they had with Paige - which involved them acting like high school Alpha Bitches towards her and mocking her for her pale skin. They especially criticised the childish segment where they ambushed her in the ring to spray tanner on her.
• Kelly Kelly hated the Extreme Expose gimmick. She had no dance training and told Paul Heyman that repeatedly when he asked her to be part of it. Further exacerbating matters was that they never knew how much time they'd have for a segment or what music they'd be using. She describes Layla (the only trained dancer in the troupe) trying to haphazardly put together a routine four hours before the tapings.
• Stacy Keibler considers her entire time in the wrestling business to be this. When she left WWE in 2006 (she was a granted "a leave of absence" to appear on Dancing with the Stars, then got an offer from ABC and never went back), she erased all references to her time in WWE and WCW from her bio on her website and reportedly won't sign pictures from that time. She did at least make a surprise guest appearance on the 2011 WWE Tough Enough revival and appeared at the 2019 Hall of Fame to induct Torrie Wilson, and was inducted herself in 2023.
• Subverted with "The Fallen Flower" Kikyo-although she will be taken aback if you bring up her former gimmick as Kurai Hime (with more heavy Japanese attire and Kumadori face paint), it's more out of surprise that somebody actually remembers it. Basically, she willingly acknowledges that as part of her history, seeing it more as an Early-Installment Weirdness than an old shame, but is happy she's moved on from it now. Trademark issues with that former gimmick led her to retool it in early 2014 by dropping the face-paint, dying her hair blue and adopting that color as key to her gimmick (even dubbing her fanbase the "Buru Nation") and she has been rising up the independent women's wrestling ranks ever since.
• John Cena pokes fun at the bleach blond haircut he sported in developmental as The Protoype.
  "It was a transitional time. I was young and confused."
• Lita:
  • She hated the live sex celebration she had with Edge. She didn't want to do it but was forced into it. She later called it the worst thing she ever did in wrestling.
  • Subverted with her work as Miss Congeniality in ECW. She's surprised that fans compliment her on it, saying she had no clue what she was doing.
• Ivory:
  • She hated being a trainer on WWE Tough Enough and says there would always be bad luck for her backstage whenever she got back from it.
  • Was not a fan of the part of the Right to Censor storyline involving The Kat - because she didn't like to have to pretend to be afraid of her.
  • Played with when it comes to her match with Chyna at WrestleMania. It was a Squash Match - but she didn't mind that, feeling it was necessary for the character's comeuppance - but she was furious that Chyna covered her disrespectfully^note Draping herself over Ivory's back like she was in a photoshoot.. She regrets not kicking out of the pin and forcing Chyna to cover her properly.
  • Averted with GLOW - the campy wrestling show she got her start in. She's happy to have done it and participates in many reunions and documentaries about it.
• Alexa Bliss:
  • She pokes fun at the times she was a ring announcer on NXT - claiming she was so bad she needed sticky notes on the microphone to remember all the hometowns.
  • Her first gimmick on NXT was that of a fairy princess who loved glitter - something that came about because they needed to fill a tournament spot and that was what she had done in class the week before. While the gimmick was received better than most examples, she found her feet more as a heel. Years later, she did admit she was having fun with the gimmick and was actually unsure about the heel turn (which was brought on because the creative team hated writing for it).
• Torrie Wilson:
  • Generally she regrets some of the more sexual things she did during her time in wrestling.
    "I can't believe I was in a thong bikini out there in front of all those kids."
  • She did a puppy love storyline with Carlito in 2007 that she found incredibly awkward since they were good friends.
  • She doesn't look back too fondly on her time in WCW due to how horribly the Nitro Girls were treated. She has especially bad memories of a scaffold match against Madusa - where the latter threatened to throw her off the scaffold if she got anything wrong.
  • When shown a clip from her bikini contest against Sable in the 2003 Judgment Day event in an interview, she burst out laughing - cringing at the dancing she and Lilian Garcia did for their entrance.
• Velvet Sky says she tried out for the Diva Search and has been embarrassed about it for years.
• Chris Jericho:
  • He doesn't have fond memories of the feud he had with Chyna in late 1999/early 2000 - finding her very difficult to work with. Hardcore Holly wasn't a fan of his involvement in this angle either.
  • He mocks his terrible haircut from the 2004-2006 period. He wanted to cut it short but instead went for the "uncomfortable middle stage". He'd gone fully short by the time he returned in 2007.
• Terri Poch (best known as 'Tori') has this attitude towards her outfit at WrestleMania XV. She had envisioned a bodysuit that looked as if it were painted on - but she knew she had bombed when she caught The Rock gawking at her in gorilla position. Averted with the match itself however - as she still enjoyed having a Women's Championship bout at 'Mania.
• Ashley Massaro was in tears after her match at WrestleMania 23, knowing how awful it was. She had broken her foot the week before and spent the whole night not knowing if she'd have a match at all. According to Melina (her opponent) the girls were told at the last minute "yeah we can squeeze you guys in". She viewed her match at the next WrestleMania - a tag team with Maria Kanellis against Melina and Beth Phoenix - as a redemption effort.
• Naomi views her 2015 heel run as a mistake, Total Divas even showing how hard she found it to adjust to a heel role. She later said she only agreed to it because it involved a championship push.
• The Rock doesn't like to talk about his Rocky Maivia gimmick in any positive way. His WWE bio doesn't even mention the gimmick by name. One can't really blame him for not wanting to revisit a gimmick so hated by fans that they were chanting "Die Rocky Die!" at him.
• "Stone Cold" Steve Austin:
  • His days as "Stunning" Steve Austin, which he frequently pounded as a running joke during his time at ECW. However, his shame has more to do with the Executive Meddling he had to deal with from WCW head Eric Bischoff, and less to do with the gimmick itself.
  • His early "Ringmaster" gimmick at WWF is also a dark spot for his career, since it turned out to be just as bland as almost everything else in the New Generation era.
  • Austin has made it clear he wishes his heel turn at Wrestlemania X-Seven never happened, even more so because it took place at his home state of Texas.
• Ted DiBiase Jr. wasn't a fan of the 2010 period where he was essentially doing what his father did and carrying around the Million Dollar Championship. It was completely different from his own personality, and he later said it was a terrible idea.
• Katey Harvey:
  • She's ashamed of a 'Hairspray on a Pole' match she had for Celtic Championship Wrestling - where the pole used was literally the end of a vacuum cleaner that she was taller than. She's been teased about it for years and says "people just need to let it die."
  • She later disowned CCW completely, citing inappropriate behaviour towards other wrestlers, financial abuse and unsafe working conditions.
  • Amid the 2020 'Speaking Out' allegations, she mentioned one promotion where the promoter tried to withhold pay from her and make her wrestle in less clothing. She was uncomfortable about the latter, having had an eating disorder since her teen years, and refused. The promoter responded by replacing her with another female wrestler with similar features.
• Lisa Marie Varon is embarrassed by her 2004 face run where she did a cheesy dance routine in her entrance. She doesn't feel she's suited to the face role and naturally did not do any dancing when she played a face in TNA.
• Terri Runnels:
  • According to The Kat, Terri hated their 'Thong Stinkface Match' at the 2000 SummerSlam event. She was mortified at the effect it would have on her daughter.
  • She wasn't fond of an angle where she pretended to be pregnant with Val Venis's baby, calling it "cheap and not effective."
• Kazza makes fun of her first few years in the industry where she had no gimmick and just played 'Kazza G' - standing out by virtue of being the lone female in her promotion. In Over the Top Wrestling, she adopted her Hard-Drinking Party Girl 'Session Moth' gimmick, and didn't look back. She'll occasionally share photos from that time with the hashtag 'RIP Kazza G'.
• Kaitlyn:
  • She accidentally Tweeted what she'd intended as a direct message complaining about her first entrance music being generic. It was understandably changed later on.
  • Inverted in that she disliked the last storyline she was involved in - the Total Divas vs 'True Divas' feud. The latter was made up of heels, and she was the only face in there, so she found it hard to still portray that in matches. Usually she had to go against Eva Marie - who was the lone heel in the Total Divas stable.
• Perry Saturn hated the storyline in 2001 where he became a Cloud Cuckoo Lander who carried a mop around everywhere and calling it Moppy - saying it was punishment for attacking jobber Mike Bell after a botch led to him nearly getting a concussion.
• Raven Creed has admitted that she hated her time in CCW so much - due to the promoter trying to molest her as soon as she turned eighteen (twice!) - that she nearly left wrestling altogether.
• Darren Burns:
  • He referred to CCW as "a cancer to Irish wrestling" and affirms that he only wrestled there because it was closer to where he lived than the Dublin-based promotions.
  • One of his first matches as Xavier Burns - an 8-man tag match for Fight Factory Pro Wrestling - was an embarrassment because of last minute changes.^note The match was planned as a 6-man tag and the participants were all very green, so they were out of their depth when it was suddenly changed to an 8-man tag right before the show began and the opposite team was told to go over. He and the Cork based trainees had only been trained in chain wrestling, and had no idea how to work a tag match (he recalls being asked what his finisher was and not having an answer). The match was such a mess that he ended up pinned off a snap suplex. It was also the debut match for Marion Armstrong and LJ Cleary - who are likewise ashamed of it. Bobby Calloway (see below) was in the match too and hated everything about it as well.
• Speaking of Marion Armstrong, he referred to his debut match for CCW - where he tried to wrestle with a broken hand - as "one of the top three worst matches in CCW history".
• Jillian Hall was not a fan of her first gimmick in WWE; where she portrayed a publicist with a weird growth on her face.
• Randy Orton wishes you forget about the "[Eddie's] in Hell!" promo during his feud with Rey Mysterio. He even went to Vickie Guerrero asking how she felt about the promo before he cut it. Her response? That Eddie would've wanted it to happen, "if it was good for business."
• Tom Prichard doesn't mind if you're talking about his former partner, Chris Candido, or his former manager, Sunny, but he doesn't want to talk about his Bodydonna gimmick.
• Angelina Love is not fond of the gimmick in 2011 where she was put in a trance by Winter, citing it was difficult for her to be animated.
• Katarina Waters (who portrayed Winter above):
  • She was not a fan of the random program she had with Mickie James in 2011 - where she won the Knockouts title off her, lost it back to her two weeks later and then won it back again another two weeks - which she felt was pointless and ruined any possible momentum as a top Heel. She also disliked how she lost the title - in a Fatal 4 Way where she was treated like an afterthought. She would have much preferred dropping it to Velvet Sky in a singles match, properly playing off their history.
  • Averted with the infamous Brother–Sister Incest angle she debuted with on WWE television, portraying the sister of Paul Burchill. The angle was dropped after WWE made the switch to PG, and she says it didn't last too long for her to have an opinion on it - but thinks it could have been interesting, depending on what direction it went in.
• Bobby Calloway towards his entire time as a wrestler. While he at first claimed leaving the industry in 2015 was because of a bad ACL injury and joked that he just wasn't very good, he revealed in 2020 amid the 'Speaking Out' movement (exposing rampant abuse and corruption in pro wrestling) that the sheer amount of bullying and mistreatment led to four suicide attempts and an additional two years as a recluse after he left - along with shame over his own behaviour, getting caught up in the backstage politics and toxic culture.
  "I didn't give pro wrestling four years of my life. It took four years of my life."
• Maria Kanellis hated being moved to Smackdown in 2008, later calling it "where careers go to die". The storyline she especially disliked was where she became Dolph Ziggler's girlfriend and had a childish angle with Melina. The storyline ended up going nowhere when Maria was Put on a Bus to do The Celebrity Apprentice.
• Becky Lynch:
  • She debuted on NXT doing an Oireland gimmick up to eleven that got such a negative reception (though more towards the creative team than herself) that it was phased out quickly. When shown a clip from it in a reaction video, she joked that she "would like to forget" about it.
  • She really didn't like the 2015 Divas' Revolution storyline that was little more than a series of interchangeable tag matches happening with no rhyme or reason.
• Layla:
  • She was mortified over a segment she did with Kelly Kelly where they had to have a Thanksgiving food fight on ECW. Neither of them had a clue what they were supposed to be doing, and Layla was embarrassed at how long she stood there waiting for Kelly to hit her with the first pie.
  • When shown a clip of her 2013 Face–Heel Turn on Kaitlyn - where she threw her hands up and shouted a Big "NO!" (that Diva Dirt compared to a traffic warden) - she burst out laughing at the corniness.
  "I can't believe I said 'no!' like that. Why did I say 'no' instead of 'stop'?"
• Charlotte Flair didn't like the 2015-2016 period when she had her father Ric Flair as her manager. He would regularly forget the spots and play to the crowd with his own taunts - taking attention away from her. She preferred wrestling on her own.
• Eve Torres came to dislike playing a Face, feeling she was terrible in the role. She enjoyed her 2012 Face–Heel Turn much more.
• Al Madril, best known for his work in the NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling territory in Portland, apparently considers his entire career to be this and refuses to even acknowledge that he ever even was a pro wrestler at all.
• Hulk Hogan came to resent his leg drop finishing move, largely due to the extensive damage it did to his hips and spine over the years. He also realized that it made no sense for him to use a leg-based finishing move when he would brag about the size of his arms and that he should have used an arm-based move like the sleeper hold.
• In a similar vein, Harley Race regretted inventing the diving headbutt due to the damage it does to the head and spine. Especially in the case of Chris Benoit, as his constant use of the move is believed to have been a major cause of his extensive CTE, and thus one of the driving forces behind his double murder suicide.
• Dustin Rhodes does not like thinking about his time in TNA or the character Black Reign, mostly because he was very overweight and he was still struggling with substance abuse. Mention either to him, even positively, and he will block you on Twitter.
  • While Booker T doesn't quite go to those lengths he likewise flatly refuses to even acknowledge he worked there.

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