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Anybody who buys items from WWE Shop will appreciate that it is easier to purchase WWE merchandise in 2020 than ever before.
In previous generations, WWE fans had to buy merchandise from shops, shows or catalogs if they wanted to represent their favorite Superstars. Nowadays, however, it only takes a few clicks of a button on a phone or computer to order products from WWE’s online stores.
There is also a wide variety of merchandise that fans can buy these days, with WWE selling items for almost every Superstar on the current RAW, SmackDown and NXT rosters, as well as legends.
Superstars with the highest number of items include Steve Austin (124), Bray Wyatt (101), Seth Rollins (86), The Undertaker (69), Hulk Hogan (68), Becky Lynch (64), Alexa Bliss (61) and Roman Reigns (60).
While the majority of merchandise stays active on WWE Shop even when the items have sold out, WWE has sometimes taken the unusual step of removing a particular item from its store, or even deleting a Superstar’s page entirely.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who had merchandise removed, as well as the reasons why.
#5 WWE removed Brock Lesnar’s merchandise
Roman Reigns defeated “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman at WWE Payback 2020 to win the Universal Championship, but the next day’s wrestling news was dominated by another story instead.
It emerged after Payback that all of Brock Lesnar’s merchandise had been removed from WWE Shop, even though he was still listed as an active Superstar on the company’s main website.
Later in the day, it was first reported by PW Insider’s Mike Johnson that Lesnar and WWE hit an impasse in negotiations after his contract expired, which explains why his merchandise was suddenly removed from WWE Shop.
Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue added that WWE has every intention of bringing Lesnar back as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, and The Beast does not plan on working for any other companies despite officially becoming a free agent.
Lesnar’s interest is purely in WWE, according to Colohue, as that is where he can earn the most money and have the largest audience.
#4 WWE removed CM Punk’s merchandise
CM Punk walked out on WWE after a heated conversation with Triple H and Vince McMahon before the post-Royal Rumble 2014 episode of RAW.
The Best In The World’s merchandise remained on WWE Shop in the months leading up to his official departure from the company in July 2014, which is when WWE removed all of his items from its online store.
Speaking in November 2014 on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, Punk recalled a conversation that he had with Vince McMahon about becoming WWE’s top merchandise seller, surpassing John Cena.
“I said, 'I'm going to prove to you that I am exactly everything that I say I am and I am who I know I can be. I just need the machine to get behind me,’ and then boom. I was the first guy, and nobody since has outsold John Cena in merchandise. I did that.” [H/T Cageside Seats]
When a Superstar leaves the company, WWE Shop usually reduces the price of their merchandise and moves it to the ‘clearance’ section of the website.
In this case, just like Brock Lesnar, Punk’s merchandise was suddenly removed with no warning.
#3 WWE removed a John Cena shirt
As CM Punk said in 2014, hardly anybody surpassed John Cena in merchandise sales during the 16-time WWE World Champion’s 10+ years as the company’s top guy.
In May 2016, WWE released a black Cena shirt which contained his “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” slogan, as well as a picture of the man himself posing inside a blue circle.
Unfortunately, the new merchandise did not go down well with beer company Pabst Blue Ribbon, who threatened WWE with a cease and desist because they felt that the new design was too similar to their logo.
WWE confirmed in a statement to Pro Wrestling Sheet that the shirt had been removed from WWE Shop, even though they did not believe they had done anything wrong.
“As a content creator, WWE respects trademarks and intellectual property, and therefore will not proceed selling the merchandise, despite it being an original design clearly within fair use.”
One month later, the shirt reappeared on WWE Shop and Pabst Blue Ribbon jokingly tweeted that “Cena always kicks out at 2”.
Cena said in a January 2017 interview with ESPN that it was “pretty much social media suicide” for Pabst Blue Ribbon to post the cease and desist tweet.
He also revealed that the brewery realized WWE’s power and reached out to Vince McMahon’s company to establish a relationship, which is what ultimately led to the shirt being added back to WWE Shop.
#2 WWE removed Hulk Hogan’s merchandise
In July 2015, Hulk Hogan was fired by WWE and removed from the Hall of Fame after audio emerged of him using racial slurs in a recording from 2006.
At the time, the eight-time WrestleMania main-eventer worked on the Tough Enough reality series as a judge, while he also made sporadic appearances on WWE's other shows.
As well as having his Tough Enough role and Hall of Fame status taken away, Hogan’s merchandise was immediately removed from WWE Shop.
The Hulkster was essentially erased from WWE history until he was reinstated into the Hall of Fame on the day of the Extreme Rules pay-per-view in July 2018.
Since then, Hogan’s merchandise has been added back to WWE Shop and he has made a handful of appearances on WWE television, most notably at Crown Jewel 2019 when he managed five babyface Superstars to victory over Team Ric Flair.
As of the time of writing, only Steve Austin, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins and The Undertaker have more items for sale on WWE Shop than Hogan.
#1 WWE removed a Becky Lynch shirt
In May 2015, WWE released several shirts for NXT Superstars ahead of the NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable event at Full Sail.
The penultimate match on the show saw Becky Lynch unsuccessfully challenge Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Championship, but the Irish Lass Kicker still produced one of the most impressive performances of her NXT career.
Due to her increasing popularity around this time, it was no surprise that WWE decided to make a shirt for Lynch in the build-up to the show. However, as you can see from the picture on the left at the top of this page (H/T Cageside Seats), the original design had to be removed from WWE Shop.
The shirt, which was also available in men’s sizes, initially only contained the words “Lass Kicker” on the front.
This, of course, could have been problematic if a non-wrestling fan spotted a grown man wearing a shirt that implied that he beats up women.
WWE soon realized the error and created another shirt for Lynch, this time including her name (picture on the right) below the “Lass Kicker” phrase on the shirt.
