8 Unfairly Maligned Wrestlers From The Monday Night Wars

Marc Mero is best remembered as playing second fiddle to his then-wife Sable’s remarkable surge in popularity throughout 1998. For that brief period, her entrance at WWE events would yield a jubilant crowd reaction eclipsing all but perhaps that of Stone Cold Steve Austin. She was what people wanted to see, particularly teenage boys and young adults, and Mero was the antagonist attempting to ensure they saw as little of her as possible.

In the era of the ‘cool heel,’ where the boundaries between babyface and heel were being irreparably blurred, Mero was one of the few wrestlers that actively sought to garner genuine heel heat. As a result, his sleazy, often annoying presentation can sometimes be misunderstood as poor character work.

His forgotten WCW run as Johnny B. Badd is a revelation. He had impressive matches with the likes of Steve Austin and Steven Regal in 1994, and put on a near 30-minute clinic with Brian Pillman at Fall Brawl 1995. Despite working with a high calibre of opponents, Badd more than upheld his end of the equation.

It was no surprise then that, following creative differences with Eric Bischoff, he became one of the first recipients of a WWE guaranteed contract in 1996, a point of contention among his peers.

Coupled by his questionable personality and the disparaging comments he would make following the Chris Benoit tragedy in 2007, Mero did little to endear himself to the industry he had left behind.