8 Exact Moments WWE Fans Turned On Popular Wrestlers
If you look closely, you can pinpoint the exact moment their hearts break.
At Fastlane 2019, WWE didn't exactly throw (the then-Mustafa) Ali under the bus, but they did give him a huge shove in the general direction of the road as a double-decker was approaching. There was, after all, a faint chance the metaphorical mass transit motor would miss him.
It didn't. It smacked him right in his figurative forehead.
At the tail end of 2018, Ali's unexpected push as an underdog adversary for Daniel Bryan had marked him as one of the breakout babyfaces of the year. A bolt from the blue, fans were completely behind a man who had been mired on 205 Live just months earlier as he unbelievably prepared for a WWE Championship tilt at Elimination Chamber.
And then fate intervened. An injury eliminated Ali from the chamber, and he was replaced by Kofi Kingston. The New Day veteran's performance was such on the night that Ali wasn't just replaced, he was displaced.
So when WWE bait-and-switched Ali as the third participant of Fastlane's triple dance, he was not welcomed warmly. During the closing stages of the title match, a man with universal support just weeks prior was booed.
And there was absolutely nothing Ali could have done about it. At least he can take solace that he's in good company...
8. Lita (Raw, 18 April 2005)
Hobbling out on a crutch, one leg decommissioned thanks to a nasty ACL tear, the erstwhile lovable Lita probably would have expected a show of sympathy from the Madison Square Garden crowd on any other night. Not this one.
The Extreme Diva had reason to believe her one-time adoring fans would turn sour in New York. Limping to the ring to confront the nefarious Trish Stratus, a wry smirk was written across her face as she soaked up the sudden boos which had replaced the usual cheers.
Just a week prior, boyfriend Matt Hardy had posted a withering tirade on the internet detailing his partner's real-life infidelity with colleague Edge. Baring his soul cost Hardy his job; WWE fired him (and, as rather unfortunate collateral damage, Rhyno) for airing his episode in public. Fans of Version 2.0 were furious with the apparent injustice.
Lita's appearance on the 11 April edition of Raw alongside fictional beau Kane - who, despite menacingly stalking Trish through the locker room, was the nominal hero - was met with a small smattering of "You screwed Matt!" chants, but it wasn't until she faced the audience a week on that things really turned ugly. So vociferous was MSG's vocal disapproval of Lita's affair that Trish, trying to get across the pre-planned dynamic, had to ask the crowd's pardon before outright lambasting their sabotage.
Clearly, the situation was untenable, and Lita was soon aligned with her paramour Edge, turning to the dark side for the first time in her career.