10 Wrestlers The Fans Did A Complete 180 On
A look at ten wrestlers who span fans' emotions right round baby right round.
In 2023, AEW's Wardlow gave an interview where he lamented his lack of appreciation for how over he was during his heyday. During his ascent, he had yet to realize one of the cruel realities of the wrestling business - there's a big difference between getting over and staying over. After all, us wrestling fans are - as Daniel Bryan used to remind us - a fickle bunch, quick to turn the flavour of the month into another passed over dish on the great smorgasbord of professional wrestling.
Sometimes, however, fan emotions go to further extremes. Once-loved WWE wrestlers can become figures of seething contempt, despised wherever they go. And on the flip side, talents that used to be booed out of arenas have gone on to be cheered as conquering heroes wherever they tread.
It's these contrasting figures who this list will focus on - wrestlers who, by virtue of their actions in and out of the ring, went from loved to loathed, or vice-versa. And who better to demonstrate an example of the former sentiment than our first entrant...
10. Hulk Hogan
The scale of Hulk Hogan's fall from grace is staggering when you consider the career he had.
Here was a man who managed to become the most popular wrestler in the world across three separate decades (Hulkamania in the eighties; NWO leader in the nineties; and the immediate aftermath of his legendary WrestleMania encounter with The Rock in 2002). Now, he can't even show up in his home state without getting mercilessly booed out of the arena.
Really, you could almost feel sorry for him. But then you remember he:
- Snitched on an attempt to form a wrestlers' union.
- Deliberately screwed up the end of Starrcade '97, starting the "That doesn't work for me, brother" meme.
- Stole Bret Hart's thunder at WrestleMania IX, then refused to drop the belt to him.
- Tried to gaslight a rookie Undertaker
- And, most importantly of all, his vitrolic, racist tirade - for which he has still shown no genuine remorse.
Given all that, it's no wonder fans have chosen to echo the sentiments of the late Iron Shiek and (metaphorically) declared, "F**K THE HULK HOGAN!"