10 Times WWE Loved Making Your Favourite Wrestlers Cry

Here come the waterworkers! What got everybody from Charlotte Flair to CM Punk bawling like babies?

Big Show CM Punk
WWE

What is it exactly about crying that feels more legitimate than other emotions when expressed on screen?

Is it due to our own rudimentary understanding of an actor's process, and the knowledge that they've had to dig deep into an unpleasant reality to conjure up a show of fiction? Are there still archaic connotations of weakness attached to teardrops that linger longer in the psyche? Or, conversely, could it be because the emotion itself is so uncomfortable relatable?

It's a phenomenon that extends way beyond wrestling's tendrils, but warrants particular praise considering the generally quite low standards of acting in the industry. There's a dumb joke in an episode of Friends where Joey explains to the group about pinching leg hairs with tweezers in his pocket if he needs to cry. All well and good for the Hollywood elite, but not so useful if you're out there in front of 10,000 people and there's no pockets on your skin-tight tight trunks. Not hairs on your legs, for that matter.

There's an art to performing it, an art to justifying the reason for it in the first place, and an art to making it not feel totally stupid. Most of these achieve at least two out of three, and according to a singer that would cry all night, that ain't bad...

10. Kurt Angle

Big Show CM Punk
WWE

These tears were earned.

Not at No Mercy 2000 when, thanks to lashings of interference by Rikishi and Triple H, Kurt Angle was able to upset The Rock for the WWE Championship merely 11 months into his main roster career. But at the Olympic Games four years earlier when - and you may have heard this one before - he won a gold medal with a broken freakin' neck.

On that Atlanta evening in 1996, Angle fell to his knees in tears in celebration not just of the victory but of the perseverance and personal punishment it took to reach the pinnacle.

The WWE equivalent subverted that beautifully. Able to gently mock that the company and its top prize wasn't quite as prestigious as the medal, and fold in that Angle's latest accomplishment was another ill-gotten one in a year full of them, this found the sweet spot between sickening and stupidly sentimental.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett