10 Wrestlers Who Stopped Trying (But WWE Pushed Anyway)

This will rile the commentariat, since BikerTaker is a beloved figure to many, but really, if you put his body of work in that period against what followed and what came before, there is no comparison.

Prior to the Attitude Era, ‘Taker evolved into or perhaps always was a pro wrestler every bit as physically talented as he was a living myth. His performance in the first-ever Hell In A Cell match was legitimately terrifying. It was as if Michael Myers went missing at the end of the first Halloween and up and decided to become a pro wrestler. Post-Attitude Era, ‘Taker was as good as anybody on the planet on his day: equipped with an otherworldly aura on the Grandest Stage, the Dead Man fused the attraction with the work like a modern-day André The Giant.

The rank slut-shaming; the charmless drag acts; the incest; the fake miscarriages orchestrated by manipulative women; the American Badass was almost as offensive as the Attitude Era's dumpster. He was in abysmal shape, couldn’t level up to the incendiary wit of those that had passed him by (but tragically tried to) and, worst of all, did all this as a defensive elder statesman.

’Taker was never daft; acutely aware of the new brawling-heavy in-ring norm, he ripped it off like a fading ’60s rock n’ roller cynically playing the synth in the ’80s.