WWE and WCW stars who believed their own hype to the point that it ruined them.
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00:00We have all got an ego, and in fact you need a solid one if you do want to make it in wrestling.
00:04You've got to believe you're the hot shib if you want to get to the top,
00:07and many a performer has said exactly this. There is also a limit to this though,
00:12and if you lose sight of where your brain is at, well you're gonna screw yourself.
00:16So I am sorry for what culture, remember to always treat others how you want to be treated,
00:20and hit the subscribe button. And as it is 10 times egos, cost wrestlers everything.
00:2510. Buff Bagwell Throws His Weight Around
00:28We shall start off by saying there's always two sides to every story, but these have all been
00:32backed up by multiple sources. Doesn't mean they're true, but sometimes there's no smoke
00:37without fire. So when the WWF bought out WCW in 2001, the big question was who was going to be
00:44brought into the company. One such star was Buff Bagwell, who lasted about two months. Yep.
00:49After a match so poorly received against Booker T on Raw it scrapped all of Vince McMahon's
00:53World Championship Wrestling plans, Jim Ross of all people started getting phone calls from
00:57an upset Judy Bagwell, or Buff's mum. She had made her way down from a forklift and decided to
01:03tell the powers that be that she didn't like how her son was being treated, and this was a really
01:08really stupid idea. You'd have to imagine this came from Buff as he assumed he would be brought
01:12in as the man from day one, so when he wasn't, he wasn't happy. Apparently JR received a bunch of
01:17these too, and unsurprisingly got so fed up with it, just decided to let Bagwell go. And you can't
01:23blame him. What kind of way is this to conduct business when you've just started at a company?
01:28Jean-Pierre Lafitte Says No
01:30Sometimes you've just got to accept your lot. You may not have been selected to be the World
01:35Champion, but that doesn't mean you can't make a difference. You still made it to the big time
01:39and you're on TV wrestling, that counts for something. I don't think Jean-Pierre Lafitte
01:43saw it that way in 1995. For you see, when he arrived for a house show in Canada and was told
01:48he'd been losing to Diesel, he said he wasn't going to do it. Jean felt like his hometown crowd
01:53would riot if this happened, and when Shawn Michaels found out, he told his friend not to go
01:59easy on this guy. And although the first match did end in a double countout, 24 hours later Lafitte
02:04was told he was getting pinned whether he liked it or not. Pierre still wasn't happy, so he was
02:08let go in November 1995, mostly because by then, he had made an enemy of The Click. And man,
02:14you did not want to do that in the mid-90s. No one won that war, quite literally no one.
02:20Dr. Death Believes in Dr. Death
02:21Ego may be a little strong with this one, but Dr. Death and WWE still dropped the ball with this.
02:26I mean, what were they thinking? Because when Steve Williams joined the World Wrestling
02:30Federation in 1998, he was likely on the back end of his run. That's fine, because he could still go,
02:36and as he had a big fan in Jim Ross, a sizeable push made sense. If it worked,
02:40he could go one-on-one with Steve Austin before moving on to something else, that's fine, yeah,
02:44cool. Instead, somebody decided that Dr. Death could definitely beat up everybody for real,
02:49so they threw him in the Very Legit Brawl For All tournament. I mean, they were just asking for
02:54it. It started badly, because he took on our new favourite Jean-Pierre and scraped by, and then got
02:59absolutely wrecked by Bart Gunn. Now fair play to Bart, but he was being presented as nothing at the
03:04time, so when he KO'd Williams, that was that, nobody was ever going to buy this guy against
03:09the Rattlesnake. So you'd have to assume the Doctor brought into his own hype, which he should
03:13have done, but not in a real fight. Even if you are better, it only ever takes one lucky punch,
03:18and this stopped his WWF run dead. So, so dumb.
03:227. The Dynamite Kid Won't Relent
03:25It has been well-documented that the Dynamite Kid wasn't hugely liked backstage during his
03:291980s WWF run. He would perform a lot of pranks and seemingly straight-up bully some people,
03:34as he would often do in the ring. There is no denying, however, that he was a pioneer when
03:38it came to wrestling, but his decision to continue his hard-hitting and flying ways,
03:42even after Doctors told him wasn't the best plan, was ultimately his undoing. Years on,
03:47he was wheelchair-bound as he had given so much of himself to the sport,
03:50and you can kind of understand why he didn't want to slow down. He was getting rave reviews all over
03:55the place, and as a smaller guy in the land of the giants, had to do something in order to stand out.
03:59It really did do a number on him though, which was horrible to see, and you'd have to imagine,
04:04while ego was pushing him forward, so was fear. What could he offer if it wasn't for
04:09this lightning quick style? A very tragic story, Dynamite would pass away in 2018,
04:14at only 60 years old.
04:166. Vince Russo Runs Wild
04:18Vince Russo had some good ideas. You do not become Vince McMahon's right-hand man by accident,
04:23and he deserved his Attitude Era praise. The real problem was when he went to WCW,
04:28and was allowed to go nuts in 2000. You can see this for yourself right now,
04:32by watching it on the WWE Network, and seriously, he is out of control.
04:37Every episode of Nitro and Thunder was like a car wreck, with stories making no sense,
04:41wrestlers jumping from hill to face on a whim, and no DQ matches that ended in a DQ,
04:46I am not kidding. It was a major reason TV ratings sank, and rather than realise what
04:51he was doing wasn't working, he just did it more, especially that nonsense at Bash at the Beach.
04:56I mean, we've already made a Judy Bagwell on a forklift joke in this video,
05:00and that was down to Russo, as was Viagra on a pole, and I still cannot believe any of this
05:05went down. If he had just allowed somebody else to steer him in a different direction,
05:09all of this could have been fine, but I tell ya, it most definitely was not.
05:135. Ted DiBiase Lives the Gimmick
05:15In Ted DiBiase's 2009 book, he goes in when it comes to his career. He talks about his womanising,
05:21drinking, and general behaviour as the high rolling million dollar man, that almost cost
05:26him his marriage. In short, Ted actually started to think he was an untouchable rich top heel,
05:31and when his wife presented him with some not so nice facts, it hit him like a ton of bricks.
05:35He would be the first to admit that he had lost touch with reality, and in 1993 this came to a
05:40head. Desperate to sort it, DiBiase walked away from the industry and basically quit full time,
05:45as he tried to rectify what he'd done. You can see how this would happen though,
05:49Vince McMahon wanted the audience to believe he was a millionaire, so would ply him with cash,
05:53and make sure he was always seen living the life of luxury. That got in his head, and poof,
05:58you are away with the fairies, and you have no idea what reality is anymore.
06:02It is a genuine risk of being a wrestler, that line gets blurred.
06:064. CHINA WANTS STONE COLD MONEY
06:08I throw this one into the shades of grey category too, because I think you can argue it. But after
06:13China had been through the personal ringer, following the revelations that her beau Triple
06:17H had been seeing Stephanie McMahon behind her back, she was not happy, because of course she
06:21wasn't, who would be, she was but human. As her contract was coming due, as well as the fact she
06:26was a huge star, the real life Joni Lawler asked Jim Ross for a bump of pay rise, one that Ross
06:31compared to Stone Cold money. There was no way Jim could sort that as Austin at the time was
06:35breaking box office records, but did agree to try and increase her pay, sadly that wasn't good
06:40enough. China felt like she was a pivotal part of the company, which she was, and if she didn't get
06:45what she felt she deserved, she would be done. It never happened, and the two walked away from each
06:50other. It's only fair to say there are plenty of stories that the 9th Wonder of the World was also
06:53pitching to leave women's wrestling behind altogether, and exclusively take on guys,
06:57which is also not an option. It's just such a shame given her contributions to the industry
07:01that the pair never worked together again, it really should have happened.
07:043. Bret Hart, Canadian Hero
07:07We all know the deal with the Montreal Screwjob, and that Bret Hart got dealt a horrible hand.
07:11For the sake of balance though, some do take the side of Vince McMahon and friends,
07:15because they believe no matter what, the Hitman should have done what the boss was asking for.
07:19He definitely didn't. The reason for the Hitman's decision are plentiful,
07:23and the major one seems to be the fact that Shawn Michaels looked Hart in the eye,
07:26and said he would never lose to him, so why would Bret return the favour?
07:30So you have to say the ego was involved here, because how could it not be? If somebody is
07:34taking shots at you, you're gonna take some back. It's also fair to say Bret got in his own head a
07:39little bit about this, which is the old ego again, but I think with the power of hindsight,
07:43anybody could have understood his predicament. It'd have been a WWF rollercoaster for a solid
07:48year where he didn't know whether he was coming or going. Really, it just would have been for
07:52the best if none of this had ever taken place. 2. The Ultimate Warrior Is Business
07:57The amount of fallings out between The Ultimate Warrior and Vince McMahon is legendary. They
08:00could never get on for more than a few months when The Warrior would want more money,
08:03or there'd be a disagreement about dates. It just did not work.
08:07When it was time to shake hands again in 1996, this got even more weird,
08:11because the former Jim Helwig wanted a comic book he created to be included in the deal.
08:16I mean, who has ever said that in a sentence? Plus he wanted the WWF to sell them for him.
08:21The Ultimate Warrior also felt like he was being screwed on merch payouts,
08:24and after he no-showed a bunch of events, he was out the door once more.
08:28As JR put it on his podcast, the man would just not meet anybody in the middle.
08:33It's why The Warrior's time in the promotion is relatively short all things considered,
08:37they just fell out constantly. 1. Shane McMahon Rebooks The Raw Rumble
08:41So as ever, let's take this one with a pinch of salt, but look, whatever happened,
08:45it did cancel Shane McMahon's WrestleMania plans, so something went down, and it was not good.
08:50The word was that during the 2022 Raw Rumble,
08:53Shane McMahon tried to rebook the whole thing to benefit his own agenda. Okay then.
08:58He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way as he shunned other stories for his own benefit,
09:01and even him entering at number 28 was an error. This was meant to be Randy Orton's spot,
09:06who was reportedly in hysterics about this as he yelled at Shane to get out there,
09:09because there was no way he was going to go to the ring to Here Comes The Money.
09:13Fans were also confused when McMahon outboxed former MMA fighter Matt Riddle,
09:17and he threw Kevin Owens out the match. There were even stories that said he wasn't overly cool
09:21about being eliminated by Brock Lesnar. What is going on? It certainly sounded like Shane
09:26O wanted to win the thing, even though that would have ruined the man. The internet would
09:30have been after him, but I suppose if you are this far lost, you wouldn't care anyway.
09:33Soon after this he was told to go home, and given that Vince McMahon on the Pat McAfee show said he
09:38was disappointed with some family members, well none of this sounds very good at all.
09:42Know of any other times that egos cost wrestlers everything? Make sure you let us know in the
09:46comments below and don't forget to like the video, share the video and subscribe.