With the rise of social media in the 21st century, fans have been able to interact with each other, share information, and generally discuss professional wrestling, especially as it relates to the big leagues like WWE. Social media has also affected the wrestlers themselves, giving fans and wrestlers constant access to each other, which has sometimes led to problems.
Twitter is a great place for wrestlers to put their feet in their mouths and publicly mock each other, which has happened countless times over the years. Let’s take a look at 10 cases where wrestlers suffered some form of humiliation on social media.
10 Dinner wants a peacemaker
John Cena’s presence on Twitter consists mostly of inspirational quotes and following people indiscriminately – he currently follows nearly 600,000 users and counting. However, in 2022, Cena broke from the usual fare when commenting on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, expressing his desire to “summon the powers of a real life #Peacemaker”, referring to his starring role on the HBO series. Max. Pacifier. Regardless of the intent, Twitter users viewed the tweet as a tacky promotion, resulting in a rare blunder for John Cena.
9 “You are my favorite midcarder”
Since there was an obvious limit to Cody Rhodes prior to his departure from WWE in 2016 and the subsequent founding of AEW, it’s been hard for many to see “The American Nightmare” as anything more than a midcarder. In an August 2020 interaction, Rhodes, known for being quite active on Twitter, responded to a user who called him “midcard for life” with confusion, noting that said user was following Rhodes. The user responded with “Because you’re my favorite midcarder,” which came off as hilariously deadpan despite being in text form.
8 long live the bam
While a controversial figure for both wrestling and non-wrestling reasons, Hulk Hogan’s Twitter has resulted in several gems over the years, including his legendary “Work yourself a shot” tweet and , most recently, the time she accidentally tweeted about running out of toilet paper. Alongside those two moments is the moment he thought Bam Margera was dead.
Tweeting a photo of himself with Margera, Hogan obviously mistook Margera for his partner. Donkey star Ryan Dunn, who tragically died in 2011, prompting Bam to reply, “I’m alive bro, but I miss you too!” It’s hard to imagine a more bizarrely wholesome Twitter gaffe.
7 Seth defends WWE
Let Seth Rollins draw the ire of Twitter wrestling fans with a positive tweet. Toward Grounds stomping In 2019, Rollins’ date tweeted a post from WWE’s main account, praising his employer for having the “Best Pro Wrestling on the Planet. Period.” Because this was in reference to WWE in 2019, fans dragged Rollins down for the tweet, which ended in an online war of words with New Japan’s Will Ospreay. Neither looked good in this fight. from Twitter, especially Rollins, who decided to go the “let’s compare bank accounts” route.
6 Cody Ether Disco Hell
In 2018, Cody Rhodes was arrested in New Japan Pro-Wrestling after he was kicked in the face by Kenny Omega and posted a photo on Twitter of the results. This led to nobody’s favorite midcarder Disco Inferno weighing in on the state of modern wrestling, stating that “Nobody knows how to ‘work’ anymore” and accusing Rhodes and Omega of legitimately harming each other to get a good review. by Dave Meltzer. In a quote tweet, Rhodes trashed Disco in a response that quickly rose to legendary status among fans.
5 Jaxson Ryker says he’s forgotten
After a forgettable career in Impact Wrestling, the former Gunner found himself in WWE, where he had a forgettable career as Jaxson Ryker, enforcer for the Forgotten Sons team. In the midst of Black Lives Matter in 2020, Ryker decided to not only tweet his support for President Donald Trump, but also removed his group’s slogan, “No More Forgotten.” Unsurprisingly, many fans took issue with this, as did several of Rykers’ coworkers, including Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Mustafa Ali. As a result, The Forgotten Sons was quickly taken off television and disbanded.
4 Impact can’t get a RT
These days, Impact Wrestling is a respectable tag team, albeit sadly under the radar. But during his days as TNA, he had developed a rather poor reputation for his various mistakes, missteps, and blunders. Given this Twitter incident, it was happening as recently as 2014.
Before slammiversary In 2014, Impact tweeted that if they could get 500 retweets, they would announce the opening match of the pay-per-view. The tweet reportedly failed to garner any attention, only getting a couple hundred retweets before it was removed by Impact.
3 Social outcasts have a gang
Fans may remember “The Yeti” Josh Bredl as the co-winner of the revived Tough enough in 2015 or as one of the tracks followed in the WWE Network documentary series breaking ground. However, in early 2016, Bredl, whose possible NXT ring name was Bronson Matthews, found himself in trouble with a main roster group. Livetweeting an episode of Raw, Bredl referred to the newly debuted Social Outcasts as “Social Jobbers”. It was in the context of a thumbs up tweet, but it received a very public reaction on Twitter from a number of main-list stars, including Social Outcasts themselves.
2 Braun is coming for the cruisers
After his mega duel against Omos in crown jewel 2022, Braun Strowman decided to provoke the ire of fans and fighters online. In a now-deleted tweet, Braun took inconsistent pride in himself and Omos for sticking to the smaller, cruiser-style wrestlers, whom he referred to as “flipppy floppers” and whose appearance he likened to the bag boys in grocery stores. groceries. The tweet resulted in much teasing, Will Ospreay somehow sound like a reasonable person for onceand Strowman being paired on a team with Ricochet.
1 Ryback is now legally required to retire.
Sometime in the 2010s, Ryback gained a taste for fighting with fans on Twitter, a trend that continues to this day, with often bizarre results. In 2021, Ryback posted a poll on Twitter so fans could vote on his next move in wrestling, which included not only AEW and WWE, but also simply retiring. Of course, an overwhelming number of Twitter users voted for his removal, with Ryback urging fans to stand down. No vote that way. It wasn’t clear what his intentions were as to whether he was a troll or a publicity stunt, but it was weird either way.