10 Times Ego Cost Wrestlers Everything
WWE and WCW stars who believed their own hype to the point that it ruined them.
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00:00 We have all got an ego, and in fact you need a solid one if you do want to make it in wrestling.
00:04 You've gotta believe you're the hot shib if you want to get to the top, and many a performer
00:08 has said exactly this.
00:10 There is also a limit to this though, and if you lose sight of where your brain is at,
00:14 well you're gonna screw yourself.
00:16 So I am sorry for what culture, remember to always treat others how you want to be treated,
00:20 and hit the subscribe button.
00:21 And as it is 10 times egos, cost wrestlers everything.
00:25 10.
00:26 Buff Bagwell Throws His Weight Around
00:27 We shall start off by saying there's always two sides to every story, but these have all
00:32 been backed up by multiple sources.
00:34 Doesn't mean they're true, but sometimes there's no smoke without fire.
00:38 So when the WWF bought out WCW in 2001, the big question was who was going to be brought
00:44 into the company.
00:45 One such star was Buff Bagwell, who lasted about two months.
00:49 After a match so poorly received against Booker T on Raw it scrapped all of Vince McMahon's
00:53 World Championship Wrestling plans, Jim Ross of all people started getting phone calls
00:57 from an upset Judy Bagwell, or Buff's mum.
01:00 She had made her way down from a forklift and decided to tell the powers that be that
01:04 she didn't like how her son was being treated, and this was a really really stupid idea.
01:09 You'd have to imagine this came from Buff as he assumed he would be brought in as the
01:12 man from day one, so when he wasn't, he wasn't happy.
01:16 Apparently JR received a bunch of these too, and unsurprisingly got so fed up with it,
01:20 just decided to let Bagwell go.
01:22 And you can't blame him.
01:23 What kind of way is this to conduct business when you've just started at a company?
01:27 Whoops.
01:28 9.
01:29 Jean-Pierre Lafitte Says No
01:30 Sometimes you've just got to accept your lot.
01:33 You may not have been selected to be the World Champion, but that doesn't mean you can't
01:36 make a difference.
01:37 You still made it to the big time and you're on TV wrestling, that counts for something.
01:41 I don't think Jean-Pierre Lafitte saw it that way in 1995.
01:45 For you see, when he arrived for a house show in Canada and was told he'd been losing
01:49 to Diesel, he said he wasn't going to do it.
01:51 Jean felt like his hometown crowd would riot if this happened, and when Shawn Michaels
01:56 found out, he told his friend not to go easy on this guy.
02:00 And although the first match did end in a double countout, 24 hours later Lafitte was
02:04 told he was getting pinned whether he liked it or not.
02:06 Pierre still wasn't happy, so he was let go in November 1995, mostly because by then
02:11 he had made an enemy of the click.
02:13 And man, you did not want to do that in the mid-90s.
02:16 No one won that war.
02:18 Quite literally no one.
02:19 8.
02:20 Steve Austin Believes In Dr. Death
02:21 Ego may be a little strong with this one, but Dr. Death and WWE still dropped the ball
02:25 with this.
02:26 I mean, what were they thinking?
02:28 Because when Steve Williams joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1998, he was likely
02:32 on the back end of his run.
02:34 That's fine, because he could still go, and as he had a big fan in Jim Ross, a sizeable
02:38 push made sense.
02:39 If it worked, he could go one-on-one with Steve Austin before moving on to something
02:42 else.
02:43 That's fine, yeah, cool.
02:44 Instead, somebody decided that Dr. Death could definitely beat up everybody for real, so
02:49 they threw him in the very legit Brawl for All tournament.
02:51 I mean, they were just asking for it.
02:54 It started badly, because he took on our new favourite Jean Pierre and scraped by, and
02:58 then got absolutely wrecked by Bart Gunn.
03:01 Now fair play to Bart, but he was being presented as nothing at the time, so when he KO'd Williams,
03:06 that was that.
03:07 Nobody was ever going to buy this guy against the Rattlesnake.
03:09 So you'd have to assume the Doctor brought into his own hype, which he should have done,
03:13 but not in a real fight.
03:15 And if you are better, it only ever takes one lucky punch, and this stopped his WWF
03:20 run dead.
03:21 So, so dumb.
03:22 7.
03:23 The Dynamite Kid Won't Relent
03:25 It has been well documented that the Dynamite Kid wasn't hugely liked backstage during
03:28 his 1980s WWF run.
03:31 He would perform a lot of pranks and seemingly straight up bully some people, as he would
03:34 often do in the ring.
03:36 There is no denying, however, that he was a pioneer when it came to wrestling, but his
03:39 decision to continue his hard-hitting and flying ways, even after Doctors told him wasn't
03:43 the best plan, was ultimately his undoing.
03:47 Years on he was wheelchair bound as he had given so much of himself to the sport, and
03:50 you can kind of understand why he didn't want to slow down.
03:53 He was getting rave reviews all over the place, and as a smaller guy in the land of the giants,
03:57 had to do something in order to stand out.
03:59 It really did do a number on him though, which was horrible to see, and you'd have to imagine
04:04 while ego was pushing him forward, so was fear.
04:07 What could he offer if it wasn't for this lightning quick style?
04:10 A very tragic story, Dynamite would pass away in 2018 at only 60 years old.
04:16 6.
04:17 Vince Russo Runs Wild
04:18 Vince Russo had some good ideas.
04:20 You do not become Vince McMahon's right hand man by accident, and he deserved his
04:24 Attitude Era praise.
04:25 The real problem was when he went to WCW and was allowed to go nuts in 2000.
04:31 You can see this for yourself right now by watching it on the WWE Network, and seriously,
04:35 he is out of control.
04:37 Every episode of Nitro and Thunder was like a car wreck, with stories making no sense,
04:41 wrestlers jumping from heel to face on a whim, and no DQ matches that ended in a DQ, I'm
04:47 not kidding.
04:48 It was a major reason TV ratings sank, and rather than realise what he was doing wasn't
04:52 working, he just did it more, especially that nonsense at Bash at the Beach.
04:56 I mean we've already made a "Judy Bagwell on a forklift" joke in this video, and that
05:00 was down to Russo, as was "Viagra on a pole", and I still cannot believe any of this went
05:05 down.
05:06 He just allowed somebody else to steer him in a different direction, all of this could
05:09 have been fine, but I tell ya, it most definitely was not.
05:13 5.
05:14 Ted DiBiase Lives the Gimmick
05:15 In Ted DiBiase's 2009 book, he goes in when it comes to his career.
05:20 He talks about his womanising, drinking and general behaviour as the high rolling million
05:24 dollar man, that almost cost him his marriage.
05:27 In short, Ted actually started to think he was an untouchable rich top heel, and when
05:31 his wife presented him with some not so nice facts, it hit him like a ton of bricks.
05:35 He would be the first to admit he had lost touch with reality, and in 1993 this came
05:39 to a head.
05:40 Desperate to sort it, DiBiase walked away from the industry and basically quit full
05:44 time as he tried to rectify what he'd done.
05:47 You can see how this would happen though.
05:49 Vince McMahon wanted the audience to believe he was a millionaire, so would fly him with
05:53 cash and make sure he was always seen living the life of luxury.
05:56 That got in his head and poof, you are away with the fairies and you have no idea what
06:00 reality is anymore.
06:01 It is a genuine risk of being a wrestler, that line gets blurred.
06:06 4.
06:07 CHINA WANTS STONE COLD MONEY
06:08 I throw this one into the shades of grey category too, cos I think you can argue it.
06:13 But after China had been through the personal ringer following the revelations that her
06:16 beau Triple H had been seeing Stephanie McMahon behind her back, she was not happy because
06:20 of course she wasn't, who would be, she was but human.
06:24 As her contract was coming due, as well as the fact she was a huge star, the real life
06:27 Joni Lawler asked Jim Ross for a bump of pay rise, one that Ross compared to stone cold
06:32 money.
06:33 There was no way Jim could sort that as Austin at the time was breaking box office records,
06:36 but did agree to try and increase her pay.
06:39 Sadly that wasn't good enough.
06:41 China felt like she was a pivotal part of the company, which she was, and if she didn't
06:44 get what she felt she deserved, she would be done.
06:46 It never happened, and the two walked away from each other.
06:50 It's only fair to say there are plenty of stories that the 9th Wonder of the World was
06:52 also pitching to leave women's wrestling behind altogether and exclusively take on
06:56 guys, which is also not an option.
06:58 It's just such a shame given her contributions to the industry that the pair never worked
07:02 together again.
07:03 It really should have happened.
07:04 3.
07:05 Bret Hart – Canadian Hero
07:07 We all know the deal with the Montreal Screwjob and that Bret Hart got dealt a horrible hand.
07:11 For the sake of balance though, some do take the side of Vince McMahon and friends because
07:15 they believe no matter what, the Hitman should have done what the boss was asking for.
07:19 He definitely didn't.
07:20 The reason for the Hitman's decision are plentiful, and the major one seems to be the
07:24 fact that Shawn Michaels looked Hart in the eye and said he would never lose to him, so
07:28 why would Bret return the favour?
07:30 So you have to say the ego was involved here, because how could it not be?
07:33 If somebody is taking shots at you, you're gonna take some back.
07:36 It's also fair to say Bret got in his own head a little bit about this, which is the
07:40 old ego again, but I think with the power of hindsight, anybody could have understood
07:44 his predicament.
07:45 It'd have been a WWF rollercoaster for a solid year where he didn't know whether
07:48 he was coming or going.
07:50 It just would have been for the best if none of this had ever taken place.
07:54 2.
07:55 The Ultimate Warrior Is Business
07:56 The amount of fallings out between The Ultimate Warrior and Vince McMahon is legendary.
08:00 They could never get on for more than a few months when The Warrior would want more money,
08:03 or there'd be a disagreement about dates.
08:05 It just did not work.
08:07 When it was time to shake hands again in 1996, this got even more weird, because the former
08:12 Jim Helwig wanted a comic book he created to be included in the deal.
08:16 Who has ever said that in a sentence, plus he wanted the WWF to sell them for him?
08:21 The Ultimate Warrior also felt like he was being screwed on merch payouts, and after
08:25 he no-showed a bunch of events, he was out the door once more.
08:28 As JR put it on his podcast, "The man would just not meet anybody in the middle."
08:33 It's why The Warrior's time in the promotion is relatively short all things considered,
08:37 they just fell out constantly.
08:39 1.
08:40 Shane McMahon Rebooks The Raw Rumble
08:41 So as ever, let's take this one with a pinch of salt, but look.
08:44 Whatever happened, it did cancel Shane McMahon's WrestleMania plans, so something went down,
08:48 and it was not good.
08:50 The word was that during the 2022 Raw Rumble, Shane McMahon tried to rebook the whole thing
08:55 to benefit his own agenda.
08:56 Okay then.
08:57 He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way as he shunned other stories for his own benefit,
09:01 and even him entering at number 28 was an error.
09:04 This was meant to be Randy Orton's spot, who was reportedly in hysterics about this
09:08 as he yelled at Shane to get out there because there was no way he was going to go to the
09:11 ring to here comes the money.
09:13 Fans were also confused when McMahon outboxed former MMA fighter Matt Riddle, and he threw
09:17 Kevin Owens out the match.
09:19 There were even stories that said he wasn't overly cool about being eliminated by Brock
09:23 Lesnar.
09:24 What is going on?
09:25 It certainly sounded like Shane wanted to win the thing, even though that would have
09:28 ruined the man.
09:29 The internet would have been after him, but I suppose if you are this far lost, you wouldn't
09:33 care anyway.
09:34 Soon after this he was told to go home, and given that Vince McMahon on the Pat McAfee
09:37 show said he was disappointed with some family members, none of this sounds very good at
09:42 all.
09:43 Know of any other times that egos cost wrestlers everything?
09:45 Make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
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09:57 say hello?
09:58 My name is Simon for What Culture, thank you for joining me as always, and my ego is so
10:01 big I can't get it in a hood, I don't even know what that means.