I'm thinking that we have all had those Wrestlers that you liked but whenever you go online or speak to other Wrestling fans they all seem to dislike him or her? 

A few that spring to mind for me are Viscera, I always thought for a man his size he was really good, another was Muhammed Hassan in which case it wasn't his fault he was handed such a controversial gimmick, He played the part perfectly in my opinion and I was never offended by his antics, Imagine him playing Jinder Mahal's role now... He'd be millions times better. 

Anyway just wonder what Wrestlers  you guys & girls liked but seemingly the rest of the world hated?? 

Jeff Jarrett
JBL
Dean Douglas. Not Shane, Dean.
Toru Yano
Honkytonk Man
Jimmy Rave
Larry Zbyszko
Dreamer, Sandman, New Jack...most of the major ECW stars.

And probably dozens more.

Everyone loves Toru. I dunno what you're talking about.

Currently this five come to mind.
Alicia Fox: When she had a mini feud with Sasha people were claiming Sasha was getting depush because she didn't squashing her.
Dolph Ziggler: He was an internet favorite for a long time now anything he does people just say boring or he needs to retire.
JBL: He is just from an older era and people where calling for his job for the longest time for bullying. But no one seems to care about Micheal Hayes.
R-Truth: He is devaluing this title.
Randy Orton: Tried of him and he is boring. Oh he better put this person over Cena just beat.

Oct 6, 2017 2:20:54 GMT X-zero said:

Randy Orton: Tried of him and he is boring. Oh he better put this person over Cena just beat.

Gotta admit I was one of the Randy Orton haters it's only in the last 12/18 months after seeing him on Sam Roberts's Podcast and listening to E&C's Pod of Awesomeness that I've started to like the guy he seems a really genuine chilled out kinda guy really. 

Curtis Axel instantly comes to mind... another guy is Jack Swagger, would have loved for them to team up as "The Perfect Americans".

Jeff Jarrett is awesome, I don't care what anyone else says.

I liked Miz before it was cool to like him. Man I got a lot of hate back in 2010 for daring to think he was entertaining and worthy of being WWE Champion.

Sidenote: God, that was 7 years ago now, hard to believe it.

Oct 6, 2017 2:05:09 GMT KITN said:

Everyone loves Toru. I dunno what you're talking about.

Really? He was just about universally hated when I discovered his greatness a few years ago. I hope things have changed. 

JBL, Muhammed Hassan, Chris Masters.

I really enjoyed most of their stuff, I don’t mind Reigns at all.
After Cena’s mega push never dying after fan Backlash I don’t know why people think it will for Roman.

I've liked Ryback since day one. I wish his WWE career had gone better than it did.

He was handed a gift when John Cena got hurt and CM Punk made him look like a legitimate threat. It was awesome.

Then it all got wasted.

The three biggest ones for me were JBL, Muhammad Hassan, and King Booker.

Was Hassan hated back in 05? Or is this less internet opinions and more crowd reaction? Hassan was around at the perfect time really where we were all about freedom fries and shit. I doubt it would be the same today.

Oct 6, 2017 12:52:58 GMT Baker said:

Oct 6, 2017 2:05:09 GMT KITN said:

Everyone loves Toru. I dunno what you're talking about.

Really? He was just about universally hated when I discovered his greatness a few years ago. I hope things have changed. 

Yeah, as far as I know, everyone I talk to loves his antics and how much of a shit he is. He's like one of the best comedy wrestlers going today. 

Good shouts with Miz, JBL, and Jeff Jarrett. I had the Viscera love too, but not when he was Viscera. Dug his Mabel schtick when he was a face, and his Big Daddy V reinvention.

I'll add Bob Holly and Test to the mix. Fucking loved both. People seemed to super rag on Holly, especially after that Tough Enough thing, and then after his title shot against Brock too. Test might've been more a victim of bad booking than dislikeability, but I feel like people generally still ragged unfairly on the guy for how underratedly awesome he was.

My top shout though has to be Doug Basham. I was so heartbroken when he had to shave his head and got stuck with Danny. The Machine should've been allowed to shine on his own!

KJ has some guilty pleasures that fit this threat. *cough* Mike Sanders *cough*

Pretty sure Baker and I are the only ones who have admitted to liking Yano in public on PW. Baker was the first "Yano guy" though. I hated him at first, but he slowly won me over, and now he's a G1 highlight. His lack of favour may be because very few people watch NJPW besides the big big matches. HilaryFan does, and I know he hates Yano.

Justin Credible in ECW.
Matt Hardy before it was cool.
Billy Kidman in WWE. He was always liked in WCW, yet didn't translate well to the WWE fanbase.

I didn't know King Booker was unpopular. I thought people were split on him at worst. Add him to the list then because King Booker ruled. I liked Book a lot in 2001-2002 but King Booker was easily the best run of his WWE career.

Hardcore Holly built up a lot of good will with me during his awesome "Big Shot" run in 1999 so I never really turned on him completely after that.

I also had a soft spot for Billy Gunn. Not Smokin' Gunns or New Age Outlaws Billy Gunn, mind you. Couldn't stand either team. But Billy Gunn from around his late 2000 return from injury on. I'm pretty sure it started as mere appreciation for his long line of amazing themes but I was all in for real on Billy once Billy & Chuck became a thing.

Billy & Chuck reminds me of other awesome and underappreciated tag teams like the New Breed (including their winning gimmick of tag team from the future), Spirit Squad, Texicans (not Godwinns though because Phineas sucked), and New Rockers. Were Fire & Ice popular? Probably not. Add 'em to the list!

TNA Erik Watts also ruled.

New Jack is reviled as it gets but god damn I love him. I guess Roman Reigns would be another one, never really got the hate for that guy.

Oct 7, 2017 3:48:14 GMT N A T H said:

Justin Credible in ECW.
Matt Hardy before it was cool.
Billy Kidman in WWE. He was always liked in WCW, yet didn't translate well to the WWE fanbase.

I really liked the Billy Kidman/Paul London storyline when Kidman turned heel after at first being apparently so traumatised when he injured someone (can't remember who it was now) with the SSP. It really made the move look bad ass and both guys played the roles well.

Good shout for the guy mentioning Test, I honestly thought he was going to be a main eventor after the 'Triple H marriage to Stephanie Mcmahon' storyline. He should have embraced the Un-Americans role better too although I understand why he might have been a little uncomfortable doing it with all the chaos happening at that time.

Not sure if he was really disliked but kinda liked Gangrel at first as the entrance and theme music was awesome.

Oct 7, 2017 4:54:02 GMT shinobimusashi said:

New Jack is reviled as it gets but god damn I love him. I guess Roman Reigns would be another one, never really got the hate for that guy.

Were you following the WWE around October of 2014?

Reigns suffered an injury and instead of taking him off television and letting the fans speculate his return they would constantly check up on him. In 2002, that was a heel gimmick for Randy Orton, in 2014 it came off as cheap propaganda and the fans weren't buying into it.

Reigns made his triumphant return at TLC where he helped even the odds in Cena's match against Seth Rollins. Instead of starting Reigns off hot by having him face off against a hot heel like Seth Rollins, they paired him up with The Big Show. In a lot of ways, The Big Show is basically the older version of Reigns. He isn't the worst performer in the world, but his character was so poorly written that he had no credibility in the eyes of fans.

It was at this point that Reigns' popularity nose-dived. Just 12 months prior fans could not get enough of Roman and wanted to see him succeed. But after horrible promo after horrible promo, the CM Punk podcast and the return of Daniel Bryan it was clear that the WWE had missed the boat on Reigns. It was like Lex Luger in '93 where they had to pull the trigger at SummerSlam '93 and they botched it so bad they had to change all their plans and go with The Hitman instead. Except this time around, they didn't go with The Hitman, they stuck to their guns and did everything to get Reigns cheered. They had Kane & Big Show, two of the least entertaining guys in the company eliminate every fan favourite one by one until there was nobody left but Roman. Then to lay it on thicker, they brought in The Rock who for the first time since 2002 was booed out of the building as a babyface. The Rock's reaction was priceless, he was completely ambushed by the reaction and couldn't believe how detested Roman was.

So they go into damage control on Reigns. In what turned out to be a blessing in disguise, the live Raw was replaced with a clip show where they had guys cut promos on one another. Paul Heyman in typical Heyman fashion sold Reigns like he was the second coming and little by little fans were coming around on Roman. The WWE were succeeding in turning Reigns into a hero for young children until they got to Wrestlemania and got gun-shy. Instead of having Reigns fulfill his destiny and defeat Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania, they had Roman Reigns suffer a gut-wrenching defeat after Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase.

They went back to Roman in 2016 but by that point it was too late, he got suspended for a drug violation and he's been kept away from the championship ever since, although it appears at Wrestlemania XXXIV we well get our rematch from Wrestlemania XXXI with Brock defending against Roman. The problem for Reigns now is that Braun Strowman who virtually got over because of his slow and steady booking, is perceived as a much bigger star and Reigns' feels dated. He should have been champion in 2014, he should have been an ass-kicker who only ever spoke when he had the right words to say and didn't have to name-drop his family to get over.

I hope that The Shield reunion can help rehabilitate Roman, who would have been a big star in any promotion at any point in time.

Mine would be Sheamus. He was pushed too hard, too soon and as a mic. worker he really isn't anything special. However, as a in-ring performer, he's a joy to watch and while there's some question marks over how well he protects his fellow workers (especially in relation to Daniel Bryan) as somebody with no in-ring experience I can't accurately assess that.

Mojo Rawley is hated because he was pushed in NXT, was green as goose shit and collapsed before his nothing tag team with Zach Ryder was eventually pushed to SmackDown where they proceeded to do nothing of interest. I can't lie, anytime I see Mojo on my television screen I'm just happy - the dude is like DDP and just seems so jolly.

Titus O'Neil gets hated on in a similar fashion, but he's one of the best promos they have in the company and just seems like one of the nicest guys in Pro Wrestling. He was called up too early as apart of that silly reality based NXT before being paired together with Darren Young in the Prime Time Players stable where they were never really pushed. From there he's just been floating around on the roster working with another underrated guy in Heath Slater. I don't know if Titus could have been a big box office attraction, but as an entertainer and a guy who can cut a promo, he would have been an improvement on the show for sure.

He's been released now, but Simon Gotch deserved better. By the time the Vaudevillains made the jump up from NXT, they had their run. They should have only been called up briefly and then gone their separate ways where Simon could have been a good hand in the mid-card. English for what it's worth has been doing a good job with all the crappy roles he's been given.

Finally, I still believe in Dolph Ziggler. If he cared about his career, Ziggler should have left the WWE, joined NJPW in 2015 and forged a fine career for himself in the independents as Nick Nemeth.

Sinn Bodhi. I loved his look and the way have moved around the ring.

Randy Orton is someone I've always liked and is not so well liked by people online. Been a big fan of his since his RNN segments and when he really came into his own in Evolution, followed by the Legend Killer gimmick and beyond that. I think he's a solid worker and his current run you can tell that he's just having fun without a care in the world. Sure, a lot of stuff this year with the likes of Bray and Jinder haven't been the best but he's made it fun, and after hearing him on the E&C podcast he seems like a really cool guy.

Miz is another guy I always liked since his Tough Enough days because he was a guy that just wanted to live out his dream of being a pro wrestler that worked for the WWE.

Big Show is another one. I've always had a soft spot for the big guy but others didn't feel the same way I did and I remember he would get a lot of flack on the internet, and people would chant "Please retire", which I always thought was kind of disrespectful. I feel the same way about Kane as well, I have a soft spot for him too. Both Kane and Show seem like really nice, stand up guys outside of the ring too.

Triple H, there was a time when the internet absolutely despised him but I was always in the minority. John Cena falls into that category as well, while being despised on the internet I always liked him and still do, same with Triple H. I would say Roman but I'll admit that there was a brief period where I turned a bit sour towards him but I've come around to him again.

Oct 6, 2017 15:30:55 GMT Ness said:

Was Hassan hated back in 05? Or is this less internet opinions and more crowd reaction? Hassan was around at the perfect time really where we were all about freedom fries and shit. I doubt it would be the same today.

I remember defending his in-ring skills a lot on here. He was pretty universally panned for being a bad/boring wrestler but I thought he used rather good psychology. Gimmick wise I think it was a little more split.

Matt Hardy post-V1 and pre-Broken. His run in WWECW was fantastic and made me see him in a new light. He got good-great matches out of a large variety of opponents. Different shapes and sizes, different levels of experience. His match(es) with Mark Henry stand out, because I thought Mark Henry was terrible at the time, and thus it was a huge achievement to even get a passable match out of him. I haven't seen that quality of ring work from him since, but of course his work in recent years has taken a much different direction.

Drew McIntyre in his first WWE run. I thought he was a tremendous heel. He established a bruiser ring style with emphasis on using the ring itself (apron, turnbuckle, post) to do damage. Not the flashiest style in the world, but he was able to work compelling heel matches with this style. His angle against Teddy Long as the entitled prick heel who could boss around the GM because of his personal favour with Mr McMahon was my favourite storyline going, and got even better when Kofi Kingston stepped in to put Drew in his place. Interestingly, Drew then went to the indies and in my opinion regressed in the ring, something that is unheard of. But his indy run seems to have won him the love of the smarkbase that he never had before, and now he's ruling NXT, so good for him. As for me, Drew peaked in 2010.

Hassan was screwed by circumstance. Smackdown aired a Hassan orchestrated "terrorist attack" just hours after the London bus bombing. Although this was before SD was aired live and the whole thing was recorded days before the real terrorist attack, it was harshly criticized. The E was in a tough spot. They had already shot the scene and had no time to replace it with other footage. They did run a scroll at the bottom of the screen explaining that it was all just coincidence. In the end, Hassan took the brunt of the criticism. I really thought the E would bring him back repackaged. Afterall, if I recall the guy wasn't even Middle Eastern. I think he was actually Italian!