10 Times WWE Embarrassed Their Own Stars

It's me, it's me, it's indignity.

DDP SARA
WWE Network

You'd think there'd be some law against systematically making your employees feel like absolute sh*t, whether through prolonged campaigns of professional gaslighting, patronising lectures, or malicious pranking. And guess what? There is! If a company forces someone through the door as a consequence of constant, iniquitous harassment, they have every right to turn around and slap them in the face with a Constructive Dismissal case.

That memo never arrived in Titan Towers' inbox, it seems. Any other organisation would be rightly raked over the coals were they to subject a staff member to repeated ridicule on account of their weight or a disability, and likewise, lawyers would have a field day if they learned employees were expected to wet their pants or pass wind on demand. But anything goes under WWE's horrendous working conditions, each humiliating spectacle justified by the outmoded tenet that "if Vince is prepared to do it, everyone should be prepared to do it".

And for some reason, everybody else. Rare has a WWE superstar quit the company in outright disgust after being asked to portray a pervy stalker, for example. In that case, the wrestler in question paid for the privilege.

10. Chad Gable

DDP SARA
WWE.com

The average height of American men of all ethnicities is 5'9". SmackDown's Chad Gable is 5'8" - for our less numeric readers, that's a difference of a solitary inch (and doesn't account for lifts in his boots).

The average wrestling ability of American men of all ethnicities is approximately that of a sack of spuds. Most, in a pinch, are most effective when collapsing awkwardly on top of their foe. SmackDown's Chad Gable - even discounting his Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling career - is one of the professional industry's most technically gifted competitors, and could comfortably slot in amongst the best in any promotion in the world.

And probably should, when you consider what WWE have done with these two facts. SmackDown's Chad Gable isn't a wonderful wrestler on SmackDown, whose regular stature makes him immediately empathetic with a mass audience. He's an inconsequential tag wrestler, shoved in a ridiculous basketball jersey and referred to as Shorty G.

Christ.

Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.