Villainous Breakdown / Pro Wrestling

• Whenever one of his guys would lose a championship or fail to beat Hulk Hogan, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan would always suffer a meltdown and rant and rave about how he's been robbed and make up all sorts of excuses about what happened. A spectacular one came at WrestleMania VIII (1992) when "Macho Man" Randy Savage rallied back against Ric Flair; Heenan went from smug and confident to breaking down and panicking with each blow The Macho Man connected, and completely lost it when Savage used one of Flair's own tricks (hooking the trunks) to win the WWE Championship (then called the WWF Championship).
  • He would spend the following match trying to recompose himself despite Gorilla Monsoon egging him on. He ends up challenging Monsoon to a fight.
• After returning to the WWF in 1992, 43-year-old Bob Backlund wasn't getting over with the fans. His technical, amateur-based style of wrestling, his wholesome milk-and-cookies persona, and his habit of extending his hand to opponents before a match all failed to get over with the new generation of WWF fans, though there were already many who felt Backlund was too bland when he was WWF champ from 1979 to 1983. But a brilliant Face–Heel Turn in 1994 following a loss to "New Generation" icon Bret Hart caused Backlund to snap in storyline, locking Hart in his Cross-Face Chicken Wing submission and screaming like a madman. This set up a total reinvention for the once mild-mannered Mr. Backlund - and you HAD to call him MISTER Backlund. As a heel who misused big words and acted like a total lunatic, he had made a surprising and successful transformation from goody-two-shoes babyface to crazy old heel.
• Eddie Guerrero used this as part of a Face–Heel Turn in 2005. He claimed to be the biological father of Rey Mysterio's son, Dominik, among other things. It was truly a sight to behold since Eddie had been a face for so long that he had to nearly take Rey's head off to get fans to boo him.
• Vince McMahon infamously suffered a breakdown in 2007 after losing the WWECW Championship at One Night Stand 2007^note though one could argue it began after his hair was shaved at WrestleMania by Donald Trump, with Vince acting increasingly erratic in following weeks. This ultimately culminated with a Raw that was billed as "Vince McMahon Appreciation Night", where the complete opposite happened and anyone and everyone got their shots in on Vince. The night would end with his "death" after his limousine exploded.^note But then the untimely Chris Benoit incident put the kibosh on the angle before it could continue on.
• Eddie Kingston was pushed continuously closer to one in Chikara as a result of being in an increasingly long strong of matches with an increasingly more injured Lince Dorado, who just, would not quit.
• The feud Edge had with The Undertaker in 2008. He went from a rather calm and collected fellow to an Ax-Crazy raving lunatic. Edge performed the breakdown without any assistance from The Undertaker at all when some Laser-Guided Karma caught up to him when he cheated the recently drafted to RAW Batista out of the World Heavyweight Title. The next night on RAW he interrupted the farewell speech of the recently drafted Jim Ross to put himself in the spotlight, mocking the superstars of RAW by pointing out that the red brand no longer had a world title (WWE Champion Triple H had been drafted to SmackDown the previous week), then stating that they would never see him on RAW again. Just as he was leaving however, an understandably angry Batista appeared and proceeded to give Edge a well-deserved No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, ending with a Batista Bomb in the middle of the ring. Not long afterwards, recently drafted to RAW Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk (who would later on become the second man to cash in the MiTB briefcase twice after Edge himself) appeared, cashed in the case, and proceeded to win his first world title. Edge lost it and ended his engagement to Vickie Guerrero, though they eventually got back together. Then, towards the end of the wedding reception three weeks later, Triple H revealed that Edge had cheated on Vickie with their wedding planner, future WWE diva Alicia Fox. Vickie got mad, mad enough that she reinstated The Undertaker, even so far as pitting them against each other in a Hell in a Cell match at SummerSlam. Edge freaked, before driving himself into becoming completely unhinged, only to lose against 'Taker and be sent to hell, disappearing for three straight months before reappearing at Survivor Series later that year.
• Jimmy Jacobs after Lacey tells him that she "Gotta go." following a one-night stand with Austin Aries. Jacobs went so far as to stab himself with his own railroad spike.
• While Batista defies undergoing one after his first loss to John Cena at WrestleMania XXVI, his following two PPVs losses gradually increase his frustrations:
  • After Cena resorted to using duct tape to tie his ankles behind the ring post to defeat him in a Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules, he storms to the ring the following night on Raw before a #1 Contender match between Randy Orton and Sheamus, furiously ranting about the outcome being a joke and demanding another shot at Cena. Although he's irritated when Cena decides to enter him in the match against Orton and Sheamus, he nevertheless calms down when he prevails and earns another shot but he makes it clear the following week he's still aggravated over the loss, stating he should be WWE Champion again.
  • On the May 24, 2010 episode of Raw, after losing to Cena the previous night at Over the Limit in an "I Quit" match for the WWE Championship by being forced to say the words when Cena threatened to give him the Attitude Adjustment off the top of a car only to be given it anyway, an injured, wheelchair-ridden and, most of all, angry Batista ranted about having to surrender and Cena's actions. As he demands yet another shot at Cena, he gets interrupted by Justin Roberts announcing Bret Hart as the new General Manager. Bret offers Batista another opportunity if he can qualify for a fatal-four-way match for Cena's title at the PPV of the same name by facing Randy Orton in a qualifying match to be held immediately. Batista refused, twice citing his injuries, and threatened to quit the WWE if Bret continues to have him take the match. Unfazed by his threat, Bret names Orton the winner via forfeit and leaves, ignoring an outraged Batista's demand to return. Needless to say, having already suffered three consecutive pay-per-views losses to Cena, Bret's disregard for his injuries and denying him a future rematch against Cena prove to be the last straw for an already irate Batista as he proceeds to go on a ballistic rant towards the fans and the WWE and follows through with quitting the company.
• Vickie Guerrero gets one when Edge gets her fired after she abused her power to make his life a living nightmare. She breaks down in tears and starts begging everyone, even a cameraman to help get her job back. She finally ends up begging at Edge's feet for him to help her. He doesn't listen. On the July 8, 2013 episode of RAW, Guerrero does another one, throwing a fit after she was "fired" by Stephanie McMahon.
• Hulk Hogan has been showing signs of this since "the network" began interfering with his Immortal stable's domination of TNA. While he puts on a façade of a Smug Snake in the ring, a backstage scene had him in a paranoid rage over the networks interfering, claiming they "know too much" about how wrestling works and demanding Eric do something about it. It's been getting worse each week and Eric has also begun to head into a Villainous Breakdown of his own for the same reason.
• Michael Cole has one on the April 11th Raw. After Jerry Lawler defeats Jack Swagger, earning himself a match at Extreme Rules 2011 with Cole, with Jerry choosing the match, Cole, for the first time in weeks, is left completely speechless. After a few minutes of silence, he snaps and explodes on his Dragon Jack Swagger, blaming him for everything and slapping him. This instantly comes back to bite him when Jerry reveals their match will be a tag team match, and Cole's partner is the man he just ticked off.
  • Had another one on the July 27, 2011 episode when Triple H reveals he'd rehired Jim Ross. Michael goes on a major tangent, screaming his head off about how he refused to work with Ross at all. Too bad for him, Triple H was already about nine steps ahead of him and knew he'd probably do that.
• On the May 23, 2011 episode of Raw, Kharma, a monster heel Diva who had been tormenting and bullying the Divas for weeks, comes out to the ring as per usual. But this time, she finds the entire Divas locker room surrounding her, having been fed up with her attacks, showing no fear. While confident at first, she breaks down in tears and has an emotional breakdown when she realizes they no longer fear her and she can't beat all of them at once. The announcers even refer to it as a breakdown afterwards. Nope, that wasn't the reason why she had that breakdown. In the next week, she reveals that she's pregnant and will be out of action for about a year. She gains sympathy from the audience as she talks about how she made it here in WWE.
• CM Punk has one on the July 11, 2011 episode of Raw. After showing his Magnificent Bastard self the whole night, John Cena comes out and gives Punk a perfect Kirk Summation, calling Punk out on his chronic Hypocrite status and asking him an Armor-Piercing Question: if you care so much about the WWE Universe, why are you walking out on them? Punk's response is to get furious and try to find something to one-up Cena's argument, but his comeback ultimately devolves into trying to pin his leaving on John Cena, which due to the contract he had written up, no longer makes any sense because he'd been offered everything he'd wanted that Cena had on a silver platter and kept Moving The Goal Posts (something Cena had already called him out on), supporting Cena's point of him being a Hypocrite instead of countering it. He ultimately tears up the contract in anger, doing exactly what Cena was calling him out on.
  • He has another one in January 2013 after his loss of the WWE Championship to The Rock. He went absolutely ballistic the next night on Raw, outright screaming at the fans in attendance and attacking everyone at ringside. Far as he's concerned, he's still the champion.
• R-Truth's Face–Heel Turn consists of this. He lost his title shot and then...well his mind. He's been getting steadily more and more insane since then.
• Mark Henry has one after being beaten by Sheamus. He snaps and goes even more berserk than he already was.
• CM Punk, himself an earlier victim of a breakdown in 2011 (see above), causes Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis to suffer one hell of a breakdown, as he unleashed the mother of all "The Reason You Suck" Speeches to the guy on the January 16, 2012 edition of Raw.
• On account of failing to win the WWE Championship on several occasions, as well as being left at the altar by (eventual Raw General Manager) A.J. Lee, Daniel Bryan had spiraled into a breakdown of unimagined proportions in 2012, snapping at fans for "stealing" his signature Big "YES!" chants, and instead embracing "NO! NO! NO!" as his catchphrase.
• After messing with Zack Ryder to get what she wants, Manipulative Bitch Eve Torres tells the Bella Twins to record her sucking up to John Cena and use him as she did with Ryder. But the Bella Twins look a bit nervous about what she said and refuse the offer. So she turns around...and there's Cena, who had heard the entire thing. Later that night, she comes out to him and pretends to be upset about him rejecting her, but Cena sees through this act and calls her out, roaring "I lost a broski to a hoeski!" And when she starts to throw herself at him, he gets her away by saying this:
  John Cena: For your information, I'm disease-free. I'd like to keep it that way!
• On the July 26, 2013 episode of WWE SmackDown!, Damien Sandow threw a temper tantrum after his former BFF Cody Rhodes threw his Money in the Bank briefcase for a future World Heavyweight Championship match into the Gulf of Mexico.
• Both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon went through one during the 3/10/14 broadcast of RAW when Daniel Bryan staged an Occupy Raw protest in the ring with his fans in order to get HHH to accept a match with him at WrestleMania 30. Stephanie goes ballistic and orders Bryan and the fans to leave the ring to no avail. After repeated attempts to keep the show going, Triple H then finally agrees to the match, only for Bryan to reveal his second demand: If he beats Hunter at WrestleMania, he'll be added to the title match with Randy Orton and Batista. Cue Triple H completely losing his shit as he has to be held back by security to keep him from tearing Bryan's head off in rage.
  • They went through another one during the 2014 Survivor Series main event between Team Cena and Team Authority, with the stipulation that if Team Cena won, the Authority would be stripped of its power. With the final two men for Team Cena and Authority being Dolph Ziggler (who had eliminated Kane and Luke Harper after being at a 3-1 disadvantage) and Seth Rollins respectively, a desperate Triple H frantically tries to keep Ziggler from winning by knocking out any referee that tries to get a three count for Ziggler, planting Ziggler with a Pedigree and calling out corrupt referee Scott Armstrong to hit a fast count for Rollins. Just when it seems the Authority will triumph, out comes Sting, making his WWE debut before a shocked Triple H. Sting knocks out Armstrong and plants Hunter with the Scorpion Deathdrop before putting Ziggler over Rollins for the three-count and the victory for Team Cena. As the crowd celebrates The Authority's disbanding, Stephanie loses whatever was left of her composure and is reduced to a sobbing wreck in the middle of the ring while a despondent Triple H can only hang his head in humiliation.
• The jovial, playful, Latin-speaking seductress for The House Of Truth Taeler Hendrix gave way to a ranting, screeching Card-Carrying Villain campaigning against all things related to Mandy Leon after one loss to her.
• Following his loss to Kyle O'Reilly at Supercard Of Honor X, Adam Cole spent the next eight months avoiding him, the breakdown starting in December as he was running out of ways to put off the inevitable rematch, which would be all the worse because Cole had become World Champion and O'Reilly the number one contender.
• Bayley started gradually after her Face–Heel Turn as more and more people began calling her status as a face and a self-proclaimed role model into question, then intensified as she and Sasha Banks began losing to Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair (who had joined forces against them), finally culminating in a major meltdown at Hell in a Cell 2019 as losing the SmackDown Women's Championship to Charlotte reduced her to a weepy, emotional mess. The very next SmackDown, she capped it off by pulling a literal hatchet job on her inflatable tube buddies — the last remnant of her old face persona — to the astonishment of Michael Cole and Corey Graves. And after she won the title back from Charlotte, she put to rest any remaining doubts that she had well and truly snapped by swearing at the fans, contradicting her long-standing rhetoric that nothing had changed since her heel turn.

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