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WWE superstars attempt to connect with audiences and establish themselves in their hearts and minds. Though this is merely a means to an end, in the WWE universe, being “over” with the audience plays a role of paramount importance.
At the end of the day, as most wrestlers can never tire of reminding us, the fans matter the most and it is their continued patronage that the WWE thrives on. It is no different when it comes to individual wrestlers; in fact, the favour of the audience ranks atop the metaphorical checklist that defines a successful wrestler.
However, winning the hearts of the audience is no mean feat. It is something that wrestlers grapple with until there comes a point in time when all their efforts culminate to bear fruit – the tipping point. Varying from meltdowns to epic promos, a tipping point could be anything that serves to irrevocably carry the persona of the wrestler into the hearts of the audience.
These moments in time that uniquely punctuate the sport of wrestling are remembered for years, as defining moments that served to transition a wrestler into a superstar. Here then, is a look at 10 major WWE Superstars and their respective tipping points.
CM Punk
CM Punk versus Stone Cold Steve Austin was considered to be a dream match and in all probability will remain so due to Punk’s acrimonious parting with the company and Austin’s advancing years.
But one of the major reasons why this match was considered to be a dream match was the anti-authority sentiment shared and displayed by both wrestlers. It was thought that there lay a natural dynamic and storyline to exploit between the two controversial personas, and the interview they did with JR can now be considered one of the best build-ups to a match that never transpired.
The event that led to Punk being established and categorized as “anti-authority” was undeniably the shoot promo that he cut on WWE’s machinations in 2011. And although conspiracy theories about it being a “worked” shoot arose later, we can concur that despite the innate irony in the situation, the shoot promo was indeed the tipping point in his WWE career.
Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho belongs to the distinct band of wrestlers who do not need victories to ensure continued investment and support from the audience. His credibility in the ring, on the mic and even as a bonafide rockstar have excused him from such trivialities.
Surely a future WWE Hall of Famer, Jericho’s career in the WWE has been littered with achievements that have not been replicated till now. Apart from holding the Intercontinental Title a record nine times, Jericho also enjoys the honour of going down in WWE lore as the first ever Undisputed Champion who unified the WWE and then WCW titles, that too by defeating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night.
Jericho has always been very “over” with the fans, and the trend was set as early as his debut in the WWE. Not only did Jericho cause a stir by interrupting The Rock’s rhetoric, he also introduced us to his enduring catch-phrase “Raw is Jericho”, the continued use of which serves as testament to the impact that his debut created.
That is perhaps something many other wrestlers would love to experience – their “tipping point” on their debut.
Bret Hart
The name Bret Hart has been registered in every wrestling fan’s mind almost synonymously with the Montreal Screwjob, and with good reason. The Screwjob was a tipping point for the industry of wrestling, and certainly the WWE, as it led to the advent of the Attitude Era. With Hart leaving the WWE and jumping ship to WCW, newer and younger stars took his place and the WWE machine rolled on.
Earlier, Hart had been the top babyface in the company as he had symbolized exactly the WWE’s need of the hour: in-ring excellence and a lower profile out of it than compared to a megastar like Hulk Hogan. We have to remember that this was on the back of the steroid scandal that had almost wrecked the WWE and Vince McMahon.
Perhaps Hart’s rise was a opportune confluence of timing and skill, but certainly his credibility was never in question. From his first ever Intercontinental Title, won in an incredible match against Roddy Rowdy Piper at Wrestlemania 8, Hart’s in-ring ability constantly earned him plaudits and recognition from one and all.
In hindsight, that match in Wrestlemania 8 was the tipping point in the Hitman’s WWE career. It served as a sign of things to come, with his first WWE Title also following shortly.
Shawn Michaels
The Rockers, comprising of Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty, captured the fancy of many fans due to their high-flying and energetic in-ring style. After being accustomed to powerful and dominant tag teams such as The Road Warriors, The Rockers were considered by many to be a breath of fresh air.
The youthful exuberance of the duo was irresistible to most, and the chemistry they shared as tag team partners was equally apparent. But n the WWE, the concept of good chemistry usually indicates a good feud in the making, and it was only a matter of time before heartbreak ensued for the thousands of fans who had bought into the team of the Rockers.
Little snippets of discord had already been springing up between the partners for a fair period of time when, in an alarming and disbelief-inducing moment that was initially meant for reconciliation, Michaels superkicked Janetty and drove him head first through a glass window, thereby shattering it and the hearts of the viewing audience in the process.
That remains one of the most impactful partner vs partner turns that the WWE has ever pulled off, and it only came about due to HBK’s desire to pursue a singles career and not to consign himself merely to the tag team division.
We can now be glad that he felt the way he did and attacked Janetty, for it was the first step of many that eventually saw him cement his status as one of the greatest singles performers ever in WWE history.
Seth Rollins
Plan A : Reassemble Evolution and take out The Shield at Extreme Rules 2014.
When that did not quite bear fruition,
Plan B : Enter Seth Rollins.
The ire that Rollins earned from “selling out” to the Authority still resonates within the WWE Universe, so strong was its impact when it occurred. It instantly established Rollins as a heel character and generated a lot of heat towards him – a scenario that he has utilised admirably considering that he is currently the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Despite the obvious logic in the accusatory “You sold out!” chants that are customarily directed at him, perhaps Rollins does have a point when he says that he simply “bought in.”
Either way, it was Rollins’ actions that led to the break-up of The Shield and afforded each of them a run as a singles competitor. His chair attack from behind while the unsuspecting Ambrose and Reigns were engaging Triple H on the mic sent shockwaves through the WWE Universe, while at the same time ensuried that both his and the WWE’s futures were being secured.
Randy Orton
Certain wrestling matches you walk into as a relative rookie, knowing that you will walk out a gladiator. Facing the Hardcore Legend in a no holds barred hardcore match is one of them.
The full arsenal of weapons was used in the match as Randy Orton and Cactus Jack put each other through a gruelling test of pain tolerance and endurance in their Intercontinental Title face-off at Backlash 2004.
The bad blood between the two had been brewing for months, and met its final consummation in a bloody match that left the audience cringing due to the brutality of it all. By the end of the match, any lingering doubts as to whether the young and dashing Orton belonged to the ‘big league’ had been answered in graphic detail.
In what is still regarded as one of his best matches, there was almost a universal chorus of affirmation that Randy Orton had made the step up to the big league. 11 years and 12 World Titles later, we can certainly attest to the veracity of the claim.
John Cena
Having wrested the WWE Title from JBL at Wrestlemania 21 in what was a rather uninspiring bout, a Cena-JBL rematch at Judgement Day was not a prospect that one would have normally looked forward to in anticipation but for the “I Quit” stipulation attached to it. The match itself had been decided upon after a convoluted elimination process had been implemented to determine the number 1 contender for Cena’s WWE Title, in which JBL had come through.What both men lacked in in-ring technicality, they more than made up with some intense psychology interwoven into the storytelling of the match, which was in itself completely overshadowed by the blood and gore aspect of the encounter. John Cena eventually triumphed and retained his title but the effort that it took a severely bloodied Cena was not lost on the audience.
The temporal perspective that one affords this match places it at the beginning of Cena’s stardom. Although now, having endured the entirety of the PG era, one can observe the stark contrast in nature between how John Cena’s reign as the top babyface started and how it then played out. However if the “I Quit” match that Cena had with JBL was any indication to go by, one can only imagine how John Cena the persona might have turned out if not for the happenstance of the PG era.
The Rock
Dwayne Johnson, as hard as $82 Million makes for it to believe, once was near broke and devoid of a job. Just like he wasn’t always the extremely popular, larger-than-life Hollywood-WWE hybrid that he is now.
When he started out in the WWE his ring name was Rocky Maivia, christened in respect of his grandfather High Chief Peter Maivia and was pushed as a clean babyface. Although initially cheering him for the athletic ability and enthusiasm that he displayed, the fans soon got tired of his squeaky clean babyface persona and turned on him.
“Die Rocky Die!” chants coupled with “Rocky Sucks!”, rang across arenas as it increasingly became apparent that the Rocky Maivia character just wasn’t catching on with the fans.
Added to the rejection that he experienced from the fans, his Intercontinental Title loss to Owen Hart in 1997 caused something to snap in young Dwayne. He requested Vince Mcmahon 5 minutes of air time on the microphone so that he could tell the audience what he felt and the rest as they say, is history.
So began not only the tryst between Dwayne Johnson and the microphone, but also the use of his new ring name of The Rock and the third-person narrative that has so come to characterize it.
Stone Cold Steve Austin
”You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn’t get you anywhere. Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16...Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!” – words that flowed from a triumphant mouth, on the back of his 1996 King of the Ring victory over Jake the Snake Roberts who was then portraying a religious heel character.
Little did anyone know then that “Austin 3:16” would assume near-religious significance in WWE history, except perhaps the man himself. What followed this famous statement was fair warning to everyone in the locker-room that they were on Stone Cold’s hit-list and that he would take everyone out in his quest for championship gold.
We now know that those were anything but empty words, what with Austin’s revolutionary stint as the top draw of the company during its most popular era.
In actuality, the King of the Ring in 1996 was initially supposed to have been won by Triple H, but Austin ended up winning it and sealing his “push” to the top. Why Triple H did not emerge victorious is a debatable topic that has been a constant source of controversy over the years. However surely by now, no one is complaining, least of all the Chief Operating Officer of the WWE, Triple H.
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan is known as “The Immortal One” for a reason that was well reinforced during his Wrestlemania 18 showdown with The Rock.
Although the Hulkster was a heel, the audience reaction that he engendered eventually resulted in The Rock turning heel simply to accommodate the inordinate amount of support that Hogan was receiving. Richly deserved that too, owing to how inter-related the fortunes of Hulk Hogan and the WWE were in the late 80s.
What transpired at Wrestlemania 3, in front of 93000 people, is an event that is etched in the mind of every wrestling fan. Until then, even the thought of someone picking up Andre the Giant was written off as outlandish.
Hulk Hogan, on the other hand, picked up Andre over his head and body-slammed him. It was truly a slam that was heard throughout the world in that it helped establish Hulk Hogan as a global star and WWE as a global phenomenon.
Words cannot do justice in attempting to elucidate precisely how important Hulk Hogan’s body slam of Andre the Giant was to all the parties involved, and in some senses, it served as much as a tipping point for WWE as it did for Hulk Hogan.
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