10 Huge Pops WWE Fans Gave To Outsiders

WWE doesn't play well with outsiders, but these invaders managed to get the Universe onside.

by John Bills
Wade Barrett, Wayne Rooney
WWE.com

WWE doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to playing nice with outsiders. The world’s biggest wrestling (sorry, sports entertainment) company is an insular place, where achievements outside of WWE are ignored and the wacky rules of a fictional ‘universe’ are slavishly adhered to. With WWE, you’re either in or you’re out.

WWE is wrestling’s version of Masada, an impenetrable fortress that remains intensely skeptical of outsiders, but its history isn’t short of invaders of all shapes and sizes. Wrestlers, entertainers, athletes and more have made it onto the hallowed ground that is the WWE stage and lived to tell the tale (not all are alive, but come on, that should be assumed). The WWE fanbase has rejected many, but it has also come alive at the arrival of some.

WWE may have bodged the invasion, but these outsiders certainly garnered a response. In the WWE Universe, Japanese wrestling icons are as worthy of excitement as championship boxers, late-night comedians, and whatever Rob Gronkowski is supposed to be.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.