10 Awesome Ways Wrestlers Got Back At Critics
Return Fire
Sami Zayn's inspired recent character shift has presented a brand new assault on audiences apparently all too willing to pile on performers for perceived failings, but the gimmick ironically only works because it's so brilliantly portrayed.
If Zayn wasn't so fantastic in the role (and thus destined to be showered with praise for his efforts), the entire idea's premise would be all-too-transparent. In reframing the 'Underdog From The Underground' as 'The Critic's Critic', WWE have created a potential heel monster that can't be slayed by babyfaces but by fans getting behind a hero to do the job for them. He's not railing on Braun Strowman for chucking him in a bin - he's abusing the audience for having the gall to throw jibes and him or others he deems unfair and undeserved. Braun, theoretically at least, is doing a service for hoying him in a skip.
Thankfully, not all moments of vindication have to end with somebody left laying in trash. Proving those in and out of the industry wrong is just another joyous element of success within a notoriously tough business, particularly if your own road to redemption results in a new career high...
10. Triple H's 2000
The next time WWE give up on a push with seemingly the slimmest of rationales, consider how much they stuck with ensuring Triple H made it to the top of the mountain in spite of huge internal and external pushback.
Advantaged by having Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels as his biggest fans, Hunter's 1999 was tale of two 'Games'. One being played by Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bruce Prichard and several other higher ups, and the other by the future heir himself as he navigated through valid criticisms on his ability to truly supplant either 'The Rattlesnake' or The Rock as the industry's top performer during a fertile time for megastars.
Ultimately, determination won out before talent justified it. Only upon leveling up against Mick Foley in January 2000 did Triple H's in-ring work match the man he'd become on the microphone at the very end of a challenging year, but it soon surpassed wildest expectations. By the end of the year, he was simply untouchable.
Ratifying the doubts of his many critics and vindicating Vince before he was "nnnnDaddduh", Hunter knocked out banger after banger atop the organisation during its creative and commercial peak.