Popular wrestlers I hated

I've been a fan of professional wrestling most of my life. I've kind of fallen out of touch with it lately because the gimmicks aren't really doing it for me and I appreciated back when wrestling was a more hardcore thing complete with blood, loads of PED's, and not at all PC characters. These days I think wrestling struggles to stay relevant because there are so many rules to follow that the characters don't really do it for me. I haven't seen any standout newer wrestlers other than Bray Wyatt in years that did it for me.

There was a time in my life that I was super dedicated to wrestling in that I would buy the magazines, watch all the stuff that was on TV, and would get all emotional if my guy didn't win. I tended to like the bad guys or the "heels" for some reason and the good guys or "babyfaces" rarely resonated with me.

There were a couple of babyface wrestlers that were wildly popular that I absolutely hated though and I want to talk about them now.

Hulk Hogan

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I don't think many people can hold a candle to the level of success that Hulk Hogan experienced in the 80's and also 90's. Perhaps the Rock was just as popular or even moreso but I do remember that Hulk merch was basically everywhere when I was a kid and I didn't want any of it. While Hulk Hogan was a "eat your vitamins, say your prayers, and listen to your parents" iconic good guy, I was more of a fan of the "kiss stealing, wheelin-dealin', limousine ridin, jet flyin, WHOOO! son of a gun!" like Ric Flair.

Hulk would almost always win big events like WrestleMania to the point where it wasn't even necessary to watch these events as it was already kind of a foregone conclusion. I knew that wrestling was fake even as a kid but that didn't make it not entertaining to me.

I would find out years later in interviews that almost everyone inside of the organization hated Hogan as well because he was such a star that he demanded creative control, would never drop the belt at major events, and also wasn't a technically gifted wrestler. His finishing move was a leg drop for crissakes

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_{quite possibly the weakest finishing move of all time}

The Ultimate Warrior

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Warrior was one of the first seriously roided out superstars in WWE (then WWF) and he was everything I hated about babyface wrestlers. He was wild, while a big guy he had very boring move sets, and his microphone skills were almost non-existent. I think I can say for sure that if it weren't for his inhuman physique this guy never would have made it to the top flight. He was of course a baby face that would come and rescue other babyfaces when the heels would inevitably cheat to win a match.

The main problem I had with him is that his own matches were boring and the only excitement they could get out of the guy was to have him hijack other people's matches in order to create some sort of alliance between the two so that someone else could pick up the slack as far as cutting promos was concerned.

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Years later, once again, it would be revealed that other wrestlers didn't like working with Warrior because he was not technically gifted, would make stiff shots, botch moves, and was a liability to injury in the ring. He also had enough clout with the boss that he didn't need to improve this.

I didn't know or care about any of that stuff at the time but I just didn't like his constant babyface persona because it didn't make sense. Here we have this Amazon or something wild man and he always sides with the other good guys? I dunno exactly but I would almost always root for whoever he was up against even if they had to cheat in order to beat him.

Goldberg

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When Goldberg was first introduced to WCW all those years ago I thought he was awesome. He was an unusual addition to the roster because he was neither a face, nor a heel. He was a one-man army that sided with no one and didn't need to side with anyone. When his unbeaten streak eventually ended - as all good things must - they decided to make him a babyface and that was where the fun stopped. He was yet another person that didn't have much in the way of microphone skills so when he would cut a promo as a good guy it just seemed forced and stupid.

Once again we have a giant man with very little in the way of wrestling skills that was prone to injuring his opponents in the ring. Once again we have a wrestler that seasoned veterans didn't want to work with because he was a liability in the ring and he also had very limited movement and other than his spear, his moveset was quite boring.

Once he turned face I turned my back on him and even when he made his grand return to WWE years later I was completely uninterested.

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There are many many more and I will probably get to them later at some point because this is a fun trip down memory lane for me. Hopefully you have a wrestler in mind that just rubbed you the wrong way as well. For me, I've never understood the popularity of most face wrestlers but then again, we need them in order for the heels to perform as well as they do.