Professional wrestling is full of characters. Some of the guys are regarded as great individuals and you’ll never hear a bad story about them. The wrestler Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat comes to mind. You very rarely, if ever, hear a bad word about the man. On the other side, the business is full of jerks and douchebags. Here is a list of some of wrestling’s biggest douchebags.
Dynamite Kid
Owen Hart will go down in history as one of the best practical jokers in wrestling. On the other hand, Dynamite Kid will go down as one of the meanest, and a true example of what a douchebag is. As a joke, Dynamite Kid once filled up his partners steroid syringe with milk, and convinced him it was steroids. The trusting Davey Boy Smith then injected himself full of milk. Was it funny? Yes. Was it hazardous? It sure was. And it gets much worse. After the Benoit murders, Dynamite Kid’s ex wife came out and told stories about their horrible marriage. She said Dynamite Kid used to wake her up in the middle of the night with a gun in her mouth and say “one day it will be loaded.” A true scumbag douchebag.
JBL
John Bradshaw Layfield was a well known bully in the world of pro wrestling. The former heavyweight champion would often haze rookie wrestlers. One of these hazing rituals included going into the showers with the rookies and soaping up their butts to make the young guys feel uneasy. A true adult frat boy, Layfield also bullied many wrestlers in the ring. Such was the case with Blue Meanie, who he gave a black eye and cut face during an altercation at a WWE pay per view event. To his credit, Layfield was able to uphold the toughness of the sport, but his bullying antics made him one of the biggest douchebags.
Vince McMahon is a genius. He is the most powerful man in professional wrestling. He owns the entire industry. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Over the years, Vince McMahon has proven to be the biggest douchebag in wrestling. Not only did he nationalize an industry that, on a regional level employed several hundred wrestlers, but he also went on record and admitted wrestling was “fixed.” He admitted to the public that wrestling was not a legit competition so he could askew paying a state athletic commission. Additionally, Vince McMahon was so petty at times that he would take profitable wrestling characters and turn them into unpopular and debilitating characters that embarrassed the performer. Such was the case with Dusty Rhodes. The former multi time NWA Heavyweight Champion came to WWF with promises of more money. But when he got there, Dusty was made to wear yellow polka dotted wrestling trunks and dance with a heavy set African American woman. Vince McMahon relegated the former champion to plunging toilets on national TV as part of his “common man” gimmick. It was done out of pure enjoyment. Oh yeah, and he screwed Bret Hart out of the WWF title at Survivor Series 1997.
Hardcore Holly
The former Thurman “Sparky Plugg” Holly was a trainer for WWE Tough Enough season three when he took advantage of a young kid named Matt Cappotelli. The two were in the ring when Holly started stiffing the kid with closed fists and knife edge chops. At one point, he puts the kid in the corner and booted the young man several times in the chest and leaving the newcomer bleeding. Hardcore Holly has a reputation of being a bully, as he also attacked rookie Rene Dupree during a tag team match. A level of comeuppance occurred when he tried to bully Brock Lesnar during a match, and Lesnar dropped Hardcore Holly on his head, resulting in a broken neck. Karma sucks.
There are more stories floating around about Shawn Michaels douchebag behavior than any other wrestler. But does that mean hes the biggest douchebag, or just a product of the internet times. Michaels and his friends, referred to as the kliq, were responsible for monopolizing the top spots in WWF for several years, They told several agents and Vince McMahon who to push, and whom to fire. Such was the case with Bam Bam Bigelow, who was promised a big push for doing a great job with Lawrence Taylor at Wrestlemania 11. However, The Kliq persuaded Vince to back out of his word. Bam Bam Bigelow did much of nothing as a babyface, until he was released later in the year. Besides holding people down, Shawn also stole their girlfriend and drugs. One night, after scoring some coke from Ahmed Johnson, Tammy Sytch spent the night with Shawn. The next morning, Shawn rubbed right in the face of her boyfriend Chris Candido. Whether Candido was madder about the drugs or the girlfriend is unknown but it caused him to quit WWF later that night. And of course, lets not forget about his involvement with the Montreal screwjob.
“The Immortal” Hulk Hogan was known as a master backstage politician in the wrestling industry. He knew what to say and who to say it to. A man as popular and famous as Hulk Hogan doesn’t get that fame and money without doing some douchebag things. This includes an incident in 1997. Hulk Hogan was the top heel at the time, and was being chased by the very popular Sting. It was the hottest feud in wrestling. It rivaled Hogan-Andre from 1987. However, instead of giving the crowd what they wanted, which was a clean win for Sting, Hogan botched the ending. The referee was supposed to “screw” Sting out of the title by counting a Hogan pin quickly. However, he counted a regular pin, which resulted in the aftermath looking like a complete cluster fuck. It was the biggest screw up in pay per view history. Another incident happened in 1995, when Hogan was feuding with the monster Vader. Vader had been destroying opponents with his powerbomb finisher for years. At a televised event, he gave Hogan the powerbomb. Instead of selling the move and “looking weak,” Hogan stood right up and didn’t sell the move. The fans no longer believed in the monster Vader. He never recovered. Hulk Hogan did a lot of good for wrestling. More than anybody else perhaps. But he was a douchebag.
Since there is no employee union for wrestlers, you can expect a dog eat dog mentality. All the wrestlers are out for themselves. They are selfish. And the selfishness breeds bad behavior. As long as there is wrestling, there will be douchebags.
