5 Superstars who legitimately disliked being booed by WWE fans
In WWE, there have been Superstars who legitimately disliked being booed by fans. That might sound strange considering pro wrestling functions on a babyface-heel dynamic in which the good guys get cheered and the bad guys are booed. Surely it's par for the course, right?
But what if you believed you were doing everything in your power to make the WWE Universe love you, but they just threw it back in your face? Or what if they booed you because of things that aren't even related to the show?
Crowds can be fickle and unruly, and many wrestlers have likely felt this way. In this list, we'll explore five who have been especially candid about how much they hated hearing those boos.
#5 Seth Rollins couldn't come to grips with the WWE Universe
In 2019, Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35 to become WWE Champion. He was the underdog babyface conquering the all-powerful Beast Incarnate, and fans were 100% behind him.
However, by the end of the year, everything had gone wrong. He was being booed by fans who rejected his feuds with Baron Corbin and The Fiend. He made the situation worse by taking to social media to refute the criticism, positioning himself as a corporate poster boy and denying any faults in WWE's creative.
It seemed the fans had gotten to him, and he lashed out in a number of interviews. Take this snippet from a 2020 chat with Sporting News, for instance:
"It’s funny how that works. I don’t know what the fans want. You give them what they want and they reject it. Then you give them what they want again and after two weeks and they want what they rejected."
Rollins elaborated during a 2019 appearance on Ryan Satin's Out of Character podcast, saying:
“When you’re a babyface in this era, it is hard to keep people liking you. It is difficult because I think people’s natural reaction is, for whatever reason, to dislike almost everything, and I don’t know why that is. That’s what entertainment has turned into."
#4. Being booed was totally foreign to The Rock
The Rock is not a man accustomed to being booed. In fact, he's probably more familiar with fans cheering when they're supposed to boo, such as during his Corporate Champion heel run during the Attitude Era.
It's only natural. He is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time and one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men - the guy knows how to make people like him.
As a result, when The Great One appeared at the 2015 Royal Rumble to help put his cousin Roman Reigns over with the WWE Universe, he was genuinely taken aback by the reaction. He totally underestimated the negative feeling that had been brewing towards Reigns.
In his subscriber podcast, Dave Meltzer claimed Rock was upset following the event. He said:
“It wasn’t the changes in the Rumble, it was that he got booed and that he didn’t realise what he was getting into. You know, he thought he would come back to this amazing reception and it didn’t happen, so he was surprised." (H/T CageSideSeats)
#3. Ronda Rousey called the WWE Universe "ungrateful idiots"
I’ve seen you same “fans” chanting #WeWantWyatt last night chanting “We want beach balls” over @WWEBrayWyatt performing. If the @wwe treated him like he was expendable it was because you ungrateful idiots did first
Ronda Rousey's relationship with the WWE Universe has been strained for a long time. During her first run with the company, she was routinely booed by fans, who simply didn't warm to her babyface character.
It clearly affected her, and she took to lambasting fans on Twitter for it. For example, when Bray Wyatt was fired by WWE, she placed the blame squarely on crowds for treating him as if he was expendable. She even called them "ungrateful idiots!"
Rousey has since opened up on her YouTube channel, revealing that she'd made peace with the negative fan reaction. She shared an anecdote about going backstage after her first Raw appearance following her return at Royal Rumble 2022:
"So I went and talked to Vince. He was like, 'That was fantastic. Just — you need to smile.' I was telling him like, 'You know, they were booing me on the way out of every stadium. He's like, 'Yeah, but they've forgiven you for that.' I’m like, 'Well, I haven't forgiven them.' And he goes, 'But it’s not about you. It’s about them. It was like such a good point that I’d been thinking about myself and how this relates to myself, and I was forgetting that this is a show about entertaining them."
#2. Batista took "Bluetista" very personally
Six guys put their health on the line in a violent match. Three guys use their success to make three newer guys bigger stars. The finale of a great program.Smart marks focus on me wearing blue and start the Bluetista chant. Which is all people remember.Yeah hysterical. twitter.com/alexdelbarrio/…
When Batista returned to WWE in 2013 and won the Royal Rumble match, fans were apoplectic. You see, Batista, as beloved as he had been previously to the WWE Universe, was not Daniel Bryan.
Bryan was the only person fans wanted to win the match and Batista suffered by proxy. He was resoundingly booed out of every building, and even mockingly dubbed "Bluetista" when he had the temerity to wear blue trunks for a PPV match.
All in all, the run was a total disaster, and it hurt Batista a lot. In a 2019 interview with Lilian Garcia, he admitted:
"It was horrible (his 2013-2014 run). I tried not to take it personally but I really did and it hurt because it's hard to tell people that you want to be there for the right reasons, but they don't want to hear it. They just don't care why you are there; they just don't want you there."
#1. Goldberg has an issue with the current generation of fans
Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX featured one of the most legendarily hostile WWE crowds in history. Fans knew both guys were on their way out of the company, so they booed and jeered through the entire contest.
In 2020, Goldberg told Inside the Ropes:
"It was tough, though. It was tough. It hurt my heart, you know. I mean, we went out there. I completely understand. But, you know, you don't feel appreciated when you are in the ring and people are booing you and you are trying to give it your best."
It wasn't the only time Goldberg has had to deal with boos in his career, though. He's faced it pretty regularly in his more recent runs with WWE and, while he claims it doesn't upset him anymore, he's still definitely not fond of it.
In an interview on the American Monster Productions podcast, Goldberg said:
“If I go out and a crowd boos me, I don’t take it personally and feel as if I’m not worthy of doing anything. No offense, guys, there’s a lot of a$$hole fans out there. There’s a different generation of fans now, they want to be that guy who started that chant and that guy who made Goldberg spit at him or do whatever, and I’m not here to give them the time to do that."