Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Own Legacy
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00:00 You don't have to have ascended to the top to fall from grace.
00:03 Anyone can do it.
00:05 Fond memories can be tarnished by mistakes, and some things are enough to ruin your entire
00:09 public perception.
00:10 And if you are on the top when you fall, you're in for a long climb back into those good books.
00:15 After all, the phrase "if you've done something right, then nobody will know you've
00:18 done anything at all" comes to mind.
00:20 If you've done something wrong, people will be sure to let you know about it every chance
00:24 they get.
00:25 I'm ScytheForWhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Own Legacy.
00:29 10.
00:30 John Bradshaw Layfield
00:32 Despite popularity as a member of the Acolytes, John Layfield's true renaissance came in
00:36 2004 when his character unexpectedly shifted completely into an egocentric, money-obsessed
00:41 American patriot.
00:43 It worked so well that he climbed the card to the WWE Championship.
00:47 Many people remember JBL more, though, for his presence on WWE commentary for the better
00:51 part of ten years.
00:53 Stories about Layfield working stiff have always been rumoured, but it was around 2017
00:57 that the allegations of bullying became much more vocal.
01:00 Fans called for the man to be fired from TV, and many got sick of hearing him commentate
01:04 after reading the accounts of his victims.
01:06 Justin Roberts, the former WWE announcer, said in his autobiography that JBL had stolen
01:11 his passport, and many ex-WWE stars also described Layfield as a bully.
01:16 In April 2017, NXT announcer Mauro Ranallo left the company, and whilst he claimed it
01:21 wasn't the case, many viewers felt the comments JBL had made on-air about Mauro had affected
01:26 the commentator's mental well-being.
01:27 JBL was forced to make a statement claiming that he had pranked many stars, but that the
01:31 WWE had addressed his actions years ago.
01:34 In September of the same year, with the wrestling community sick of the sound of him, Layfield
01:38 opted to leave the company to pursue other interests.
01:41 9.
01:42 Perry Satton
01:43 Many forget that during the late 90s, Perry Satton was a valuable commodity.
01:46 Starting off as an important part of ECW's early tag division, Satton moved on to WCW
01:51 and became a member of the severely underrated stable Raven's Flock.
01:55 When the faction dissolved, he was the lead babyface of the story.
01:58 In 2000, Satton and some of his WCW friends jumped over to the WWF as part of The Radicals
02:04 in one of the most talked about moments of the Monday Night War.
02:07 A match taped for WWF Jacked was where it all started to go wrong.
02:11 After being dropped on his head following a botched arm drag by jobber Mike Bell, Satton
02:15 flipped and legitimately started throwing punches at his opponent.
02:19 The match became a fight, and Mike Bell was also dropped on his head during the ensuing
02:23 scuffle.
02:24 It's widely believed that Satton's next gimmick change was punishment for these actions,
02:27 and the star found himself playing a brain-damaged wrestler who fell in love with a mop.
02:31 Satton's hard work and commitment got the gimmick over, and so, as WWE do with those
02:36 who organically get over, they killed off Moppy and ended the character sooner than
02:40 perhaps they should have.
02:41 With nothing left for him creatively, WWE booted Satton in November 2002.
02:45 If Satton had kept his cool with Mike Bell, one has to wonder what could have been.
02:50 8.
02:51 Abdullah The Butcher
02:52 Mr Shrieve, better known as Abdullah The Butcher, made a name for himself being one
02:56 of the most sadistic men in the pro wrestling industry.
02:59 His extreme, no-holds-barred and obscenely bloody matches split opinion.
03:03 Some were curious, some were disgusted, and this divide made Abdullah the stuff of legend.
03:07 Abdullah had no issues blading himself into a bloody pulp, and more often than not did
03:11 the same to his opponents, sometimes whether they wanted it or not.
03:15 Always a controversial figure amongst both fans and peers, it was in 2012 though that
03:19 Shrieve was brought before a court and sued for damages to one of his former opponents,
03:23 Hannibal Devon Nicholson.
03:25 Nicholson claimed that in 2007 he'd participated in a match with Abdullah where he had been
03:29 repeatedly cut open without his consent with a blade hidden on the Butcher's finger.
03:34 Most importantly, he claimed that the sharing of blood had caused him to contract Hepatitis
03:38 C. The knock-on effect of this diagnosis had caused the WWE contract that he had worked
03:42 so hard for and finally earned in 2009 to be rescinded, and Hannibal was forced to retire
03:48 from wrestling because of it.
03:50 The court found Shrieve guilty of negligence, assault and battery, and he was sued for $2.3
03:55 million.
03:56 7.
03:57 Hannibal Devon Nicholson
03:58 Oh, that's awkward.
04:01 Having wrestled only on smaller stages such as Stampede Wrestling, it was the dream of
04:05 Devon Nicholson, as with many, to be hired by the WWE.
04:08 A dream that was shattered by his interactions with Abdullah the Butcher.
04:12 The wrestling community rallied around Devon's pursuit of justice until he won his court
04:16 case.
04:17 Recured of Hepatitis, Hannibal returned to the ring in 2014, working for his own company,
04:21 Great North Wrestling, as well as making appearances elsewhere.
04:25 In December 2021, at a world-class pro wrestling event, a horrible incident occurred involving
04:30 Nicholson and referee Lando Del Toro.
04:32 Following his match with Carlito, Nicholson, as his character Blood Hunter, was booked
04:37 to kayfabe attack the ref with a spike, who would then bleed, roll out of the ring and
04:41 leave.
04:42 What happened instead was Nicholson knelt on Del Toro's back and repeatedly stabbed
04:46 him with the spike, severing an artery and causing Del Toro to nearly pass out.
04:50 Reports are mixed on the true version of the events that led up to and followed this.
04:55 Nicholson made a statement of about six different excuses as to what went wrong, but others
04:58 claimed he was unhinged, smelling like booze before the match and even carried on his attack
05:03 backstage.
05:04 Either way, Nicholson shamefully retired from wrestling for a second time, and any goodwill
05:08 he'd garnered with his previous struggles was tarnished forever.
05:12 6.
05:13 Shawn Michaels The Heartbreak Kid finished off his perfect
05:15 career with a spectacular performance at WrestleMania 26 against The Undertaker.
05:20 Following this, and the first of two Hall of Fame inductions, at WrestleMania 28 Michaels
05:25 and Taker assisted Triple H to the back to end the show, a beautiful moment that, to
05:30 many, truly showed the end of an era.
05:32 Michaels managed to resist, ruining this moment for oh-so-long, so fans were shocked and largely
05:36 dismayed in late 2018 when HBK unexpectedly jumped from promoting a match between Triple
05:42 H and The Undertaker to being physically involved.
05:45 That lucrative Saudi Arabia deal had come knocking and it demanded a Brothers of Destruction
05:50 vs D-Generation X nostalgia match.
05:53 At Crown Jewel that November, Michaels put in an awful performance in what was a no-win
05:57 situation.
05:58 The match was largely agreed to be an unwatchable mess that demonstrated what "pass your prime"
06:03 truly means.
06:04 Kane's mask fell off, Triple H got injured and Michaels looked understandably out of his
06:09 depths.
06:10 Michaels has since said that he regrets coming out of retirement for, in his words, a "glorified
06:14 house show".
06:15 At the time, Saudi Arabian WWE shows were largely inconsequential and considered non-canonical,
06:20 but it doesn't change the fact that Michaels put the boots on, went to work and ruined
06:24 the sanctity of his previous retirement.
06:27 5.
06:28 Enzo Amore
06:29 For a time, Enzo Amore and Big Cass were the most over thing on WWE TV.
06:34 Quickly jumping from NXT to the main roster, Enzo's mic work instantly engaged the audience
06:39 and absolutely everyone in every arena was chanting along that being 7 foot tall was
06:44 not something that one could teach.
06:46 After breaking the tag team up, as is WWE's want in this era, Enzo started a successful
06:51 solo run that saw him get a hold of the Cruiserweight Championship.
06:55 Three months into his second reign, however, he was suddenly fired from the company.
06:59 Allegations appeared that Enzo had sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.
07:04 Amore found himself under investigation, which was hot water for the company, and they immediately
07:08 took action.
07:09 Whilst Enzo swore that he had no idea that such a thing existed, the WWE terminated his
07:13 contract on the grounds that they were not informed of the investigation.
07:17 Even though said investigation went cold due to insufficient evidence, Enzo's public
07:21 perception was further ruined by the man's actions when he tried to make a scene in the
07:25 crowd at Survivor Series 2018 by standing on his seat.
07:28 Instead of patiently waiting to be forgiven, he tried to grab the spotlight out of Vince
07:32 McMahon's hands.
07:33 This saw him banned from WWE events for the future, and since then, his independent bookings
07:38 have been minimal at best.
07:40 4.
07:41 Sonny
07:42 Tammy Sitch is an example of someone who is more well-known for her struggles outside
07:45 rather than her time within the wrestling industry.
07:48 From 1992 to 2000, she bounced around various promotions, most noticeably the WWF for three
07:53 years, positioned on screen as the beautiful blonde girl next door.
07:57 Described by the company as the original diva, Sonny was meant to signify a change of roles
08:01 for women within the company.
08:03 Beautiful but also smart and deadly.
08:05 Behind the scenes, however, she was gathering a reputation for causing issues everywhere
08:09 she went.
08:10 She left the WWF after no-showing events and apparently becoming addicted to painkillers,
08:14 and a feud in ECW was interrupted by her being arrested for violating a restraining order.
08:19 Her lone year in WCW ended with her leaving the company surrounding rumours of drug abuse.
08:24 In 2012, Sonny's path of destruction intensified with being arrested five times over the course
08:29 of four weeks.
08:30 For the next decade, she would routinely be a footnote on wrestling news sites, and it
08:34 was terrible that it became normal to hear that she had yet again received a DUI.
08:39 It would be impossible to list every legal issue that Sitch has been embroiled in, but
08:42 the most important thing is that in March 2022, her drunken conduct behind the wheel
08:47 took the life of a 75-year-old man in a parked vehicle.
08:50 Sonny, at the time of writing, faces up to 26 years in prison.
08:55 3.
08:56 Ric Flair A lot of younger wrestling fans probably know
08:58 Ric Flair as the man who assaults suit jackets, enthusiastically yells out a single syllable,
09:03 and gets involved in awful pregnancy stories that thankfully never resolve.
09:07 But for a time in the 1980s, Ric Flair represented the height of wrestling counterculture.
09:11 Flair's 2008 retirement storyline matched with HBK and subsequent farewell address with
09:17 the stuff that any wrestler would dream of.
09:19 Flair went out on his own terms in a match of the year winning bout, and was lauded for
09:24 it.
09:25 A few months later, he ruined it all by wrestling at an ROH show against Hulk Hogan.
09:29 Most noticeably, Flair's ensuing stint in TNA was a blemish on his previous swan song
09:34 that ended in a second, far less impactful, pun unintended, retirement against long-time
09:39 rival Sting.
09:40 Despite him vowing to never return to the ring after Jerry Lawler's terrifying on-air
09:44 heart attack in 2012, here we are a whole decade later with Flair at 73 years old, gearing
09:50 up for one last match on the independent scene.
09:53 His original retirement seems a world away now, tarnished either by Flair's boredom
09:57 or an unresolved need to prove himself.
10:00 There is no way, no matter who the opponent is, that a geriatric Flair will be able to
10:04 put on a good match this summer.
10:07 Since his perfect retirement is gone, the most we can hope for is something safe.
10:11 2.
10:12 Hulk Hogan
10:13 If you went back to the 1980s and told a wrestling fan that there would come a time that the
10:17 immortal Hulk Hogan was so shamed that the WWE would ignore his existence, picture them
10:22 trying to imagine what it was that he could do so wrong.
10:26 Whatever you think of his twilight years in the ring, Hulk Hogan ruined his legacy via
10:29 some pretty awful comments made in his personal life.
10:32 A very personal part of his personal life.
10:35 In 2015, a leaked sex tape hit the web recorded 8 years prior featuring the Hulkster and this
10:41 would be cause for alarm regardless.
10:43 But Hogan's choice of bedroom conversation was bizarre and horrid, expressing his dissatisfaction
10:48 that his daughter Brooke was dating a black man and admitting that, in his words, he was
10:53 "racist to a point".
10:55 In the fallout, WWE removed all references to him from their website, his position as
10:59 judge on the upcoming series of Tough Enough was revoked and his merchandise and the WWE
11:04 2K15 DLC for the character was taken down from sale.
11:08 Three years later, WWE began to rebuild the bridge for Hogan's return to the company
11:13 and their history and he's since hosted Wrestlemania and had his second Hall of Fame
11:17 induction.
11:18 The damage to his legacy, however, is still felt, garnering a feeling of unease whenever
11:22 he's on WWE TV.
11:25 1.
11:26 Chris Benoit
11:27 There almost certainly isn't a worse way to ruin your own legacy than this, and I want
11:31 to state now that that is not meant to be a light-hearted jab.
11:34 Chris Benoit's mental health issues that led to two murders and his own suicide absolutely
11:39 rocked the sports world and the effects of it are still felt to this day.
11:43 Unlike Hogan, able to come back from his horrible displays of bigotry, Benoit remains the wrestling
11:47 name that is the furthest from ever being mentioned again.
11:51 In the 15 years since the incident, WWE has done their best to ignore the contributions
11:55 of Chris Benoit.
11:57 Not just cutting around him in video packages that look back on great moments, but whilst
12:01 content that features him was on the original version of the WWE Network, it would often
12:05 be preceded by a vague discretion message.
12:07 With Peacock editing controversies out of WWE programming on their service, you have
12:12 to imagine Benoit's name has come up in conversation.
12:15 Your own personal opinion of it may vary.
12:18 Some can separate the art from the artist and appreciate Chris' career highlights
12:21 culminating in a WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 20.
12:25 Others, however, cannot bear to look back and celebrate a man who did what he did.
12:29 Whatever you personally think, the WWE will never acknowledge Chris Benoit and his ruined
12:34 legacy ever again.
12:36 And that's the list.
12:37 Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below, and any other
12:41 wrestlers that ruined their legacy.
12:43 Sadly, there are plenty more that we couldn't fit into this list.
12:46 Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification
12:51 bell.
12:52 I've been Si from WhatCulture, and have a good week.