10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Own Legacy
Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Own Legacy
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00:00But you don't have to have ascended to the top to fall from grace, anyone can do it.
00:05Fond memories can be tarnished by mistakes, and some things are enough to ruin your entire
00:09public perception.
00:10And if you are on the top when you fall, well, you're in for a long climb back into those
00:14good books.
00:15After all, the phrase, if you've done something right, then nobody will know you've done
00:18anything at all comes to mind.
00:20If you've done something wrong, people will be sure to let you know about it every chance
00:24they get.
00:25I'm Si for WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Own Legacy.
00:2910.
00:30John Bradshaw Layfield
00:32Despite popularity as a member of the Acolytes, John Layfield's true renaissance came in
00:362004 when his character unexpectedly shifted completely into an egocentric, money-obsessed
00:41American patriot.
00:43It worked so well that he climbed the card to the WWE Championship.
00:47Many people remember JBL more, though, for his presence on WWE commentary for the better
00:51part of ten years.
00:53Stories about Layfield working stiff have always been rumoured, but it was around 2017
00:57that the allegations of bullying became much more vocal.
01:00Fans called for the man to be fired from TV, and many got sick of hearing him commentate
01:04after reading the accounts of his victims.
01:06Justin Roberts, the former WWE announcer, said in his autobiography that JBL had stolen
01:11his passport, and many ex-WWE stars also described Layfield as a bully.
01:16In April 2017, NXT announcer Mauro Ranallo left the company, and whilst he claimed it
01:21wasn't the case, many viewers felt that comments JBL had made on-air about Mauro had
01:25affected the commentator's mental well-being.
01:28JBL was forced to make a statement claiming that he had pranked many stars, but that the
01:31WWE had addressed his actions years ago.
01:34In September of the same year, with the wrestling community sick of the sound of him, Layfield
01:38opted to leave the company to pursue other interests.
01:419.
01:42Perry Satton
01:43Many forget that during the late 90s, Perry Satton was a valuable commodity.
01:46Starting off as an important part of ECW's early tag division, Satton moved on to WCW
01:51and became a member of the severely underrated stable Raven's Flock.
01:55When the faction dissolved, he was the lead babyface of the story.
01:58In 2000, Satton and some of his WCW friends jumped over to the WWF as part of The Radicals
02:04in one of the most talked about moments of the Monday Night War.
02:07A match taped for WWF Jacked was where it all started to go wrong.
02:11After being dropped on his head following a botched arm drag by jobber Mike Bell, Satton
02:15flipped and legitimately started throwing punches at his opponent.
02:19The match became a fight, and Mike Bell was also dropped on his head during the ensuing
02:23scuffle.
02:24Fans generally believed that Satton's next gimmick change was punishment for these actions,
02:27and the star found himself playing a brain-damaged wrestler who fell in love with a mop.
02:31Satton's hard work and commitment got the gimmick over, and so, as WWE do with those
02:36who organically get over, they killed off Moppy and ended the character sooner than
02:40perhaps they should have.
02:41With nothing left for him creatively, WWE booted Satton in November 2002.
02:45If Satton had kept his cool with Mike Bell, one has to wonder what could have been.
02:508.
02:51Abdullah The Butcher
02:52Abdullah Shreve, better known as Abdullah The Butcher, made a name for himself being
02:56one of the most sadistic men in the pro wrestling industry.
02:59His extreme, no-holds-barred and obscenely bloody matches split opinion.
03:03Some were curious and some were disgusted, and this divide made Abdullah the stuff of
03:07legend.
03:08Abdullah had no issues blading himself into a bloody pulp, and more often than not did
03:11the same to his opponents, sometimes whether they wanted it or not.
03:15Always a controversial figure amongst both fans and peers, it was in 2012 that Shreve
03:19was brought before a court and sued for damages to one of his former opponents, Hannibal Devon
03:24Nicholson.
03:25Nicholson claimed that in 2007 he'd participated in a match with Abdullah where he had been
03:29repeatedly cut open without his consent with a blade hidden on The Butcher's finger.
03:34Most importantly, he claimed that the sharing of blood had caused him to contract Hepatitis
03:38C. The knock-on effect of this diagnosis had caused the WWE contract that he had worked
03:42so hard for and finally earned in 2009 to be rescinded, and Hannibal was forced to retire
03:48from wrestling because of it.
03:50The court found Shreve guilty of negligence, assault and battery, and he was sued for $2.3
03:55million.
03:567.
03:57Hannibal Devon Nicholson
03:58Oh, that's awkward.
04:01Having wrestled only on smaller stages such as Stampede Wrestling, it was the dream of
04:05Devon Nicholson, as with many, to be hired by the WWE, a dream that was shattered by
04:09his interactions with Abdullah the Butcher.
04:12The wrestling community rallied around Devon's pursuit of justice until he won his court
04:16case.
04:17After he was cured of Hepatitis, Hannibal returned to the ring in 2014, working for
04:20his own company, Great North Wrestling, as well as making appearances elsewhere.
04:25In December 2021, at a world-class pro wrestling event, a horrible incident occurred involving
04:30Nicholson and referee Lando Del Toro.
04:32Following his match with Carlito, Nicholson, as his character Blood Hunter, was booked
04:37to kayfabe attack the ref with a spike, who would then bleed, roll out of the ring and
04:41leave.
04:42What happened instead was Nicholson knelt on Del Toro's back and repeatedly stabbed
04:46him with the spike, severing an artery and causing Del Toro to nearly pass out.
04:50Reports are mixed on the true version of the events that led up to and followed this.
04:55Nicholson made a statement of about six different excuses as to what went wrong, but others
04:58claimed he was unhinged, smelling like booze before the match and even carried on his attack
05:03backstage.
05:04Either way, Nicholson shamefully retired from wrestling for a second time, and any good
05:08will he'd garnered with his previous struggles was tarnished forever.
05:126.
05:13Shawn Michaels The Heartbreak Kid finished off his perfect
05:15career with a spectacular performance at WrestleMania 26 against The Undertaker.
05:20Following this, and the first of two Hall of Fame inductions, at WrestleMania 28 Michaels
05:25and Taker assisted Triple H to the back to end the show, a beautiful moment that, to
05:30many, truly showed the end of an era.
05:32Michaels managed to resist ruining this moment for oh-so-long, so fans were shocked and largely
05:36dismayed in late 2018 when HBK unexpectedly jumped from promoting a match between Triple
05:42H and The Undertaker to being physically involved.
05:45That lucrative Saudi Arabia deal had come knocking, and it demanded a Brothers of Destruction
05:50vs D-Generation X nostalgia match.
05:53At Crown Jewel that November, Michaels put in an awful performance in what was a no-win
05:57situation.
05:58The match was largely agreed to be an unwatchable mess that demonstrated what past your prime
06:03truly means.
06:04Kane's mask fell off, Triple H got injured and Michaels looked understandably out of
06:08his depths.
06:09HBK has since said that he regrets coming out of retirement for, in his words, a glorified
06:14house show.
06:15At the time, Saudi Arabian WWE shows were largely inconsequential and considered non-canonical,
06:20but it doesn't change the fact that Michaels put the boots on, went to work and ruined
06:24the sanctity of his previous retirement.
06:275.
06:28Enzo Amore
06:29For a time, Enzo Amore and Big Cass were the most over thing on WWE TV.
06:34Quickly jumping from NXT to the main roster, Enzo's mic work instantly engaged the audience
06:39and absolutely everyone in every arena was chanting along that being 7 foot tall was
06:44not something that one could teach.
06:46After breaking the tag team up, as is WWE's want in this era, Enzo started a successful
06:51solo run that saw him get a hold of the Cruiserweight Championship.
06:54Three months into his second reign, however, he was suddenly fired from the company.
06:59Allegations appeared that Enzo had sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.
07:04Amore found himself under investigation, which was hot water for the company, and they immediately
07:08took action.
07:09Whilst Enzo swore that he had no idea that such a thing existed, the WWE terminated his
07:13contract on the grounds that they were not informed of the investigation.
07:17Even though said investigation went cold due to insufficient evidence, Enzo's public
07:21perception was further ruined by the man's actions when he tried to make a scene in the
07:25crowd at Survivor Series 2018 by standing on his seat.
07:28Instead of patiently waiting to be forgiven, he tried to grab the spotlight out of Vince
07:32McMahon's hands.
07:33This saw him banned from WWE events for the future, and since then, his independent bookings
07:38have been minimal at best.
07:404.
07:41Sonny
07:42Tammy Sitch is an example of someone who is more well-known for her struggles outside
07:45rather than her time within the wrestling industry.
07:48From 1992 to 2000, she bounced around various promotions, most noticeably the WWF for three
07:53years, positioned on screen as the beautiful blonde girl next door.
07:57Described by the company as the original diva, Sonny was meant to signify a change of roles
08:01for women within the company.
08:03Beautiful but also smart and deadly.
08:05Behind the scenes, however, she was gathering a reputation for causing issues everywhere
08:09she went.
08:10She left the WWF after no-showing events and apparently becoming addicted to painkillers,
08:14and a feud in ECW was interrupted by her being arrested for violating a restraining order.
08:19Her lone year in WCW ended with her leaving the company surrounding rumours of drug abuse.
08:24In 2012, Sonny's path of destruction intensified with being arrested five times over the course
08:29of four weeks.
08:30For the next decade, she would routinely be a footnote on wrestling news sites, and it
08:34was terrible that it became normal to hear that she had yet again received a DUI.
08:39It would be impossible to list every legal issue that Sitch has been embroiled in, but
08:42the most important thing is that in March 2022, her drunken conduct behind the wheel
08:47took the life of a 75-year-old man in a parked vehicle.
08:50Sonny, at the time of writing, faces up to 26 years in prison.
08:553.
08:56Ric Flair A lot of younger wrestling fans probably know
08:58Ric Flair as the man who assaults suit jackets, enthusiastically yells out a single syllable,
09:03and gets involved in awful pregnancy stories that thankfully never resolve.
09:07But for a time in the 1980s, Ric Flair represented the height of wrestling counterculture.
09:11Flair's 2008 retirement storyline, match with HBK, and subsequent farewell address
09:17were the stuff that any wrestler would dream of.
09:19Flair went out on his own terms, in a match of the year winning bout, and was lauded for
09:24it.
09:25A few months later, he ruined it all by wrestling at an ROH show against Hulk Hogan.
09:29Most noticeably, Flair's ensuing stint in TNA was a blemish on his previous swan song
09:34that ended in a second, far less impactful, pun unintended, retirement against long-time
09:39rival Sting.
09:40Despite him vowing to never return to the ring after Jerry Lawler's terrifying on-air
09:44heart attack in 2012, here we are a whole decade later with Flair at 73 years old, gearing
09:50up for one last match on the independent scene.
09:53His original retirement seems a world away now, tarnished either by Flair's boredom
09:57or an unresolved need to prove himself.
10:00There is no way, no matter who the opponent is, that a geriatric Flair will be able to
10:04put on a good match this summer.
10:07Since his perfect retirement is gone, the most we can hope for is something safe.
10:112.
10:12Hulk Hogan
10:13If you went back to the 1980s and told a wrestling fan that there would come a time that the
10:17immortal Hulk Hogan was so shamed that the WWE would ignore his existence, picture them
10:22trying to imagine what it was that he could do so wrong.
10:25Whatever you think of his twilight years in the ring, Hulk Hogan ruined his legacy via
10:29some pretty awful comments made in his personal life.
10:32A very personal part of his personal life.
10:35In 2015, a leaked sex tape hit the web recorded 8 years prior featuring the Hulkster and this
10:41would be cause for alarm regardless.
10:43But Hogan's choice of bedroom conversation was bizarre and horrid, expressing his dissatisfaction
10:48that his daughter Brooke was dating a black man and admitting that, in his words, he was
10:53racist to a point.
10:55In the fallout, WWE removed all references to him from their website, his position as
10:59judge on the upcoming series of Tough Enough was revoked and his merchandise and the WWE
11:042K15 DLC for the character was taken down from sale.
11:08Three years later, WWE began to rebuild the bridge for Hogan's return to the company
11:13and their history and he's since hosted WrestleMania and had his second Hall of Fame
11:17induction.
11:18The damage to his legacy, however, is still felt, garnering a feeling of unease whenever
11:22he's on WWE TV.
11:251.
11:26Chris Benoit
11:27There almost certainly isn't a worse way to ruin your own legacy than this, and I want
11:31to state now that that is not meant to be a light-hearted jab.
11:34Chris Benoit's mental health issues that led to two murders and his own suicide absolutely
11:39rocked the sports world and the effects of it are still felt to this day.
11:43Unlike Hogan, able to come back from his horrible displays of bigotry, Benoit remains the wrestling
11:47name that is the furthest from ever being mentioned again.
11:51In the 15 years since the incident, WWE has done their best to ignore the contributions
11:55of Chris Benoit.
11:57Not just cutting around him in video packages that look back on great moments, but whilst
12:01content that features him was on the original version of the WWE Network, it would often
12:05be preceded by a vague discretion message.
12:07With Peacock editing controversies out of WWE programming on their service, you have
12:12to imagine Benoit's name has come up in conversation.
12:15Your own personal opinion of it may vary.
12:18Some can separate the art from the artist and appreciate Chris' career highlights
12:21culminating in a WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 20.
12:25Others, however, cannot bear to look back and celebrate a man who did what he did.
12:29Whatever you personally think, the WWE will never acknowledge Chris Benoit and his ruined
12:34legacy ever again.
12:36And that's the list.
12:37Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below, and any other
12:41wrestlers that ruined their legacy.
12:43Sadly, there are plenty more that we couldn't fit into this list.
12:46Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification
12:51bell.
12:52I've been Si from WhatCulture, and have a good week.