Even some of WWE's biggest names couldn't stomach negativity from fans.
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00:00 Some say being heel is just more fun. Playing the baddie and annoying people with your antics
00:06 is appealing. Modern day villains like MJF must really get a kick out of it when they legitimately
00:12 boil audiences' piss. Other workers don't feel the same way though. Some just don't get that same buzz
00:18 from being hated, or at least didn't at specific points in their careers. With that in mind,
00:23 I'm Adam Wilborn from WhatCulture, and these are 10 Wrestlers Who Couldn't Stand Being Hated.
00:29 10. Batista A 2014 Royal Rumble win should have been bliss
00:35 for Batista. The former fan favourite was returning home for one last run, or so he thought at the
00:41 time, and everyone figured he'd be some huge babyface showing the build towards WrestleMania 30.
00:47 WWE didn't account for one man's popularity. Daniel Bryan caught fire, not literally,
00:54 and the hardcore fans viewed Big Dave's return as a threat. That did not sit well with Batista. He
01:01 was visibly ticked off that people were rallying around Bryan's unlikely push instead of enjoying
01:07 his comeback story. WWE, left with no other option, began turning the animal heel. How big
01:14 was Batista's disappointment? Well, Bryan's underdog story had ruined his returning hero
01:21 routine, and it was all too much for him. He just couldn't stomach the thought of playing
01:26 second fiddle to someone WWE barely wanted to focus on in the first place.
01:31 9. The Rock A young Rocky Maivia, having been scorched
01:36 by hateful chants like "Die, Rocky, die", agreed to turn heel in 1997. He didn't really have a
01:43 choice. Vince McMahon laid it all out and said the Federation planned to capitalise on the heat
01:48 by trying him on as a bad guy. It worked, of course, and eventually led to a blockbuster babyface run.
01:56 Other than a brief heel run in 2003, The Rock was a babyface forever more. So it must have come as
02:03 a huge shocker when Dwayne Johnson was greeted with boos at the 2015 Royal Rumble. People weren't
02:10 booing him, to be fair. They were jeering McMahon pet Project Roman Reigns, but Rock's face
02:18 said it all. The filly masses weren't happy with WWE's decision, and he had been asked to endorse
02:25 it. The Rock was guilty by association, and that definitely affected him. He clearly
02:31 just didn't see the hatred coming. 8. Roman Reigns
02:35 You have to feel for Roman Reigns. Sure, he's bossing it now as the Teflon Tribal Chief,
02:40 but things weren't always so grand for the ex-Shield brute. Between 2015 and 2018,
02:47 Roman was roundly despised by approximately 90% of fans who attended WWE events. Boos rained down
02:55 on him whenever he stepped out for a match or a segment. Critics pointed the finger of flame at
03:00 McMahon's doorstep more than Reigns himself. The wrestler was being shoved down everyone's throat,
03:06 and that just wouldn't do. Reigns was tasked with carrying the torch for Vince's bollocks
03:11 babyface hero trope. That can work, but not when it's so forced. It was surely agony for Roman to
03:19 go out there every night and know nothing he did was ever going to be good enough for a crowd that
03:24 had long since judged him. He must be loving this current heel run. That is being hated for the
03:30 right reasons. 7. Seth Rollins
03:34 Poor Seth Rollins went from workhorse hero to Roman Reigns 2.0 in 2019, and few could have
03:41 claimed to see it coming. Duff feuds against Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman set the scene
03:47 for a run opposite Bray Wyatt's Fiend that accidentally killed babyface Seth off. Fans
03:53 rightly booed the crap out of a stoppage at "Hell in a bloody cell", and then WWE had Rollins
03:59 scamper to get them back on side by doubling down on a defiant "I'm out here every single week
04:04 putting the whole company on my back" war cry. It didn't work, and neither did describing Wyatt's
04:10 alter ego as a "new flavour of ice cream". The bloom was very much off Seth's babyface rose.
04:18 He'd earned big cheers for standing up to Brock Lesnar earlier in the year,
04:22 but it was clear to everyone watching WWE TV that they just couldn't follow up on that.
04:27 Meanwhile, Rollins was also having a hard time adjusting,
04:30 and randomly turned into a knobhead on social media as well.
04:33 6. X-Pac
04:36 Sean Waltman doesn't like that his character's name is tied to "go away heat". In 2001,
04:42 the term "X-Pac heat" was coined to explain negative reactions being volleyed at the former
04:47 DX star. Everyone from magazine writers to online critics said that people just weren't
04:53 digging Waltman's work anymore, and he doesn't think that's entirely fair. X-Pac hated the fact
04:59 that people were happy to group every wrestling fan's reaction under the same umbrella.
05:04 Last summer, he told friend of the channel Chris Van Vliet that boos in the arena were
05:08 different to the scathing heat he was receiving online. Folks on the internet
05:13 might have been sick of him, but that wasn't why he was being booed live.
05:18 This is something Waltman has put a lot of thought into over the years. He's unhappy with the idea
05:22 that everyone just thought he sucked and should disappear. X-Pac didn't mind being booed in the
05:28 right context, but he couldn't stand that online criticism was lumped in with that.
05:34 And you know what? I agree with him. I love you, Sean Waltman.
05:38 5. John Cena
05:40 There's a reason why John Cena refused to turn heel during his peak run. Well,
05:44 there are multiple reasons. WWE raked in truckloads of cash on merch sales. They
05:50 launched a t-shirt in practically every colour imaginable, and Cena himself would have enjoyed
05:55 the spoils of that success too. Also, the idea of turning his back on young children
06:00 became something he loathed. John, who deserves all the praise in the world for his make-a-wish
06:06 contributions, recognised the value of being a hero to youngsters. He wanted to give them
06:12 someone to look up to, and that's why he wouldn't return to his bad-boy-rapper guise despite intense
06:18 pressure from all corners of the wrestling world. Instead, Cena gritted his teeth and
06:23 WWE explained away booing as him being "the most polarising figure in history".
06:29 The truth is that he neither wanted to play heel, be hated, or turn his back on young fans
06:35 who idolised his never-give-up mantra. 4. Bret Hart
06:40 Bret did turn heel in 1997, but it was never something he was 100% comfortable with. The
06:47 Hitman certainly couldn't fathom the thought of being hated in his home nation. Canada meant too
06:53 much to him, so he agreed to turn rogue in the United States and nowhere else. That makes him
07:00 one of the most unique people on this list. Unlike John Cena, Hart dipped a toe into the villain
07:05 thing after years of being heroic. That was a brave move, and one which happened to fit nicely
07:11 with the WWF's "Attitude" - or what about the Attitude Era - change that was happening around
07:17 the same time. Looking back, though, it's easy to spot some hesitancy written all over Bret's face.
07:23 His stony expressions gave way to pained ones during his entrances, as fans told him to piss
07:29 off back to Canada if he didn't like the US. And it's obvious that this wasn't the Bret Hart
07:35 he wanted to be. 3. Becky Lynch
07:39 WWE wanted Becky Lynch to riff hard on the fans during her post-SummerSlam 2018
07:46 heel turn explanation on Smackdown, as Becks explained to Steve Austin on his Broken Skull
07:52 sessions. That was just never going to work. It was stupid of creative to think they could
07:58 force everyone's hand that way. Did you hear that, WWE creative? It was dumb. Still is dumb.
08:04 Admittedly, this is a very specific incident, but Lynch ad-libbed her promo so that it wouldn't
08:10 hammer the fans too much. She knew deep down that nobody would buy Charlotte Flair as the babyface
08:17 of the piece anyway - it's Charlotte Flair - and Becks didn't fancy being hated when she'd worked
08:23 so hard to be loved. No wonder, this is the same woman who'd been constantly overlooked. John Cena
08:31 even questioned her purpose backstage and wondered what her "Last Kicker" nickname even meant. By
08:37 2018, there was no way Lynch was going to let WWE's writers squash her potential by turning
08:43 her into a hollow villain. 2. Goldberg
08:48 Goldberg hated being, well, hated, on two occasions. Big Bill is kind of similar to
08:54 John Cena and Bret Hart in the respect that he loves being a hero. That's why when Vince Russo
09:00 booked him to turn rogue back in the year 2000, the WCW wrecking ball looked anything but content.
09:08 Aligning with Russo and Eric Bischoff's New Blood faction did nothing for Goldberg. Wait a second,
09:15 a bad idea from Vince Russo? Surely not. He didn't want it, his fans didn't want it,
09:20 and everybody other than WCW creative could see it was a mistake. Years later,
09:26 Bill would experience disdain of a different kind in WWE. People caught wind that Goldberg
09:32 was leaving the company before WrestleMania 20 even happened. MSG's crowd, one that also knew
09:39 Brock Lesnar was off-ski himself, booed both guys heavily. Lesnar probably didn't care as much as
09:45 Bill did, as evidenced by everything he did in the match, but Goldberg looked steaming mad
09:51 that this was how things ended up. Both occasions were miles away from Goldberg's heroic vision for
09:58 himself. 1. Ronda Rousey
10:02 Royal Rumble winner Ronda Rousey is still hung up on boos she heard all the way back at Survivor
10:08 Series 2018. There, following a match vs Charlotte Flair, the ex-MMA fighter looked broken-hearted as
10:15 fans in LA heckled her exit from the ring. Ronda just didn't see it coming. In interviews since,
10:22 she's described WWE fans as "fucking ungrateful" and admitted that she still finds it hard to
10:28 tolerate verbal abuse from crowds on shows. This sort of smacks of somebody who doesn't
10:34 truly understand how the pro wrestling bios-mios works. Being honest, fans boo and people change
10:40 their minds about performers suddenly. That's just how it is. But Rousey is clearly uncomfortable
10:46 with that. She apparently figured she'd be heralded as a babyface for good and just hasn't
10:51 been able to cope with the thought that some wrestling fans feel differently towards her.
10:56 Clearly, she does give a damn about her reputation.
11:00 And that's our list. Did we miss any out? Let us know in the comments section below. Don't forget
11:05 to like, share and subscribe. And subscribe to What Culture Wrestling on either iTunes, Spotify
11:09 or wherever you get your podcasts from for daily wrestling podcasts. You can let us know your
11:13 thoughts on Twitter @WhatCultureWWE and you can find me @AdamWilborn. Thanks for watching,
11:20 I've been Adam from What Culture and I'll see you soon.