10 Wrestlers Who Destroyed Their Careers On Live TV

10. Paul London - Monday Night Raw, June 11th 2007

“We put smiles on faces” is the old WWE adage whenever a wrestler needs a rapid-fire platitude to defend the latest PR nightmare or escape an interview without accidentally harpooning their push.

It’s catch-all brilliance from the same machine that gifted the world “Sports Entertainment” and “WWE Universe” and “Attempted Vehicular Homicide” and that. It lets the world know that, regardless of whatever ill the brand may be being accused of.

Got issues with how they’re lionising known sh*thouses in their Hall Of Fame? C’mon, think of the young fans, we put smiles on faces. Disgusted with their complicity in Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing programme? Hey now, think of the wrestling lifers still watching every week, we put smiles on faces. Concerned that young talent aren’t allowed to remotely show personality themselves without taking explicit and autocratic instruction on every single aspect of their act? That’s just not true, we put smiles on fa...but they don’t, do they?

If they did, Paul London’s cards wouldn’t have been marked forever for this hilariously odd 2007 transgression. Vince McMahon was en route to killing his character for the first of several times and arranged for his subservient talent to stand ashen-faced as he strolled to his demise. London captured the absurdity better than most, even if it saw him taking Pedigrees ad nauseum for the remainder of his run.