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Top 5 Washed Up Wrestlers We Don’t Feel Sorry For Anymore - Part 1
5 KEN SHAMROCK:Ken Shamrock is an oddball talent for getting overlooked as a wrestling legend, despite having had a killer physique, very good ring skills, and awesome real life credentials as a mixed martial artist.
There are many parallels between his assets and those of Brock Lesnar, Yet while Lesnar is allowed to hold world titles for the better part of a year while working a part time schedule, and will surely wind up in the Hall of Fame someday, Shamrock generally gets the snub by WWE.
So was Shamrock just ahead of his time and now underappreciated? It’s an arguable point, but Shamrock hasn’t exactly endeared himself based on his comments in interviews over the last year. It was clear he always had a high pinion of himself, and he was widely rumored to have priced himself out of a lot of pro wrestling opportunities since the late 1990s.
His more recent claims that he ought to be brought in to feud with Lesnar, and claims that the only reason he’s not is because of Triple H’s ego come across as out of touch, self absorbed, and not particularly sympathetic.
4 SID VICIOUS: In terms of look and star power, Sid Vicious is a guy whose wrestling legend ought to shine bright. He was a multi-time world champion across WWE and WCW and main evented WrestleMania twice. Ask any wrestling fan from the 1990s, and there’s little doubt he’ll remember him.
He faded a long way, however, to wind up a guy more likely to show up in “where are they now” features than on screen for any high level wrestling promotion. While fans are inclined to feel poorly for a guy who had it all and has seen it slip from his grasp.
However, as the wrestling podcast, documentary, and tell all book markets have taken off, a lot of incriminating information has come up about him. These points range from having a scissor fight with Arn Anderson to nearly killing Brian Pillman with a pair of ill advised power bombs in War Games, where the roof of the cage was too low do deliver the move safely.
Add on top of that allegations of him feigning injuries, and more recently no showing indie appearances, and you have a guy folks don’t have much sympathy for anymore.
3 BRUTUS BEEFCAKE: Brutus Beefcake was a recognizable mid carder for WWE during the original Hulkamania years. He went on to get spotlighted more in WCW as a heel challenger to Hulk Hogan, and then a man of diverse gimmicks up to the end of the promotion.
He got some extra consideration from fans on account of a parasailing accident that crushed his face and nearly ended his career in the early 1990s. Like many wrestlers of his era, Beefcake’s star has largely faded.
He hasn’t endeared himself much to fans since. His antics purportedly include selling counterfeit autographed merchandise of his former best friend Hogan, and engaging in a childish war of words over Twitter with The Hulkster.
Combine that with his limitations as a performer and the widely held belief that Hogan’s friendship was the only reason he got so many opportunities in the first place, and wrestling fans don’t lose any sleep about how far Beefcake has fallen now.
2 LANNY POFFO: Lanny Poffo wrestled for WWE throughout the 1980s before settling into his best remembered gimmick as The Genius, and mostly working as a manager. From a more historical perspective, Poffo may be better remembered, not for his own work, than for the fact that he’s The Macho Man Randy Savage’s little brother.
It would be easy to sympathize with Poffo for losing his brother too soon, and after seeing his own career unfairly overshadowed in a time when light heavyweights weren’t given much opportunity to shine. Poffo hasn’t represented himself quite so positively over the years to follow his brother’s death, though.
First, he appeared to be the gatekeeper, refusing to play ball with WWE when they wanted to induct him into the Hall of Fame (the two sides did ultimately resolve their differences).
Furthermore, the revelation that Poffo reportedly earned a seven figure salary from WCW as a favor to Savage, despite never actually wrestling or appearing on television at all for the company, has made him feel less like someone to feel sorry for than a guy who lucked his way into fame and fortune.
1 HULK HOGAN: Few professional wrestlers have ever taken as steep of a fall from grace as Hulk Hogan. After becoming the biggest wrestling star in the world via his WWE work from the mid 1980s to early 1990s, and reinventing himself as an iconic heel in WCW, he enjoyed yet another swing on top as the ultimate nostalgia figure, starring again for WWE and then TNA.
Hogan lost it all, though. He went through a messy divorce, then had a sex tape released of him. From there, audio leaked of him using the n-word over and over again. These tapes cost him his contract as a WWE legend and largely tarnished his name with not only wrestling fans, but the rest of the world.
Hogan came across as pitiful in the days to follow, largely remorseful in interviews and on social media.
However, he has largely fumbled efforts to recover his reputation, making clumsy comments in response to the Black Lives Mater movement, coming across as morally dubious in suing Gawker out of business, and continuing to charge steep fees to fans seeking to meet him and get picture or autographs at public appearances.