World Wrestling Entertainment/Brand Extension/YMMV

Lists the various WWE wrestlers active during the Brand Extension Era, from 2002 to 2011. Please limit associated tropes to that wrestler's time in the WWE.

Alberto Del Rio (Alberto Rodríguez) 2010-

 * Narm Charm: "I'm handsome! I'm powerful! I'm RICH! I'M EVERYTHING!!"

Alex Riley (Kevin Robert Kiley, Jr.) 2010-

 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Of course Riley would be cheered after beating the crap out of The Miz the week before, but the fact that he got to enter to this new theme doesn't hurt him one bit.
 * Irony: The track is performed by Downstait, the same band that does Miz's AAAAAWWWWWWWWWEEEESSSOOOOMMMMEEE Villain Song, "I Came To Play".

Batista (David Michael Bautista, Jr.) 2002-2010
""That's my title, and coming this Sunday, I'll be taking it back!"
 * Badass Decay: While he can still be considered as one, he's not as Badass as he once was during Evolution. At least, until his recent Face Heel Turn where he regained his badass status in a big way.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: During his time in Evolution back in 2004-2005.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Wrestlemania 21 was supposed to be HHH vs. Orton for the World Heavyweight title, but Batista's popularity at the time was unexpectedly increasing rapidly. So much that they put him in the main event instead.
 * Memetic Mutation: Batista's very much Photoshop fodder.

"Basketballs don't hold grudges!"

"Weapons aren't only encouraged. They're allowed.""


 * Moral Event Horizon: Wrestling fans can forgive many things, but beating up on Bret Hart? Not one of them.

Bobby Lashley (Franklin Roberto "Bobby" Lashley) 2005-2008

 * Ensemble Darkhorse
 * Narm: My God. His fighting skills are the exact opposite of his talking skills.

Brock Lesnar (Brock Edward Lesnar) 2002-2004

 * Base Breaker: In his first 12 months he won the King Of the Ring, becomes the youngest WWE champion winning the Undisputed Championship, the Royal Rumble and highlights and wins at Wrestlemania.
 * Complete Monster: Heel.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Until WrestleMania XX that is...

Brodus Clay (George Murdoch), 2010-

 * Ear Worm: WE GONNA RIP IT UP!
 * Straw Man Has a Point: Was kicked off of NXT despite winning every challenge. Soon after cut a promo calling out the fans for voting him off because of his appearance rather than his ability, triggering his quest to completely annihilate the "do-good" superstar look.
 * WTH Casting Agency: Some people's reaction to his repackaging as the 'Funkasaurus.'

Carlito (Carlos Edwin "Carly" Colon, Jr.) 2004-2010

 * He Just Didn't Care: When Carlito is dissatisfied with his standing in the company he tends to phone in his matches. This was notable between 2007 and 2008, he stepped his game back up while teaming with Primo, but after they broke up went back to not trying.

Cody Rhodes (Cody Runnels) 2007-

 * Ear Worm: "WOOOOOOOAH-OH! YOU'RE ONLY SMOKE AND MIRRORS!" (Which lasted as long as the "Dashing" prefix.)
 * Returned, in altered form, on the November 14th, 2011 episode of Raw.
 * Ham and Cheese

Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) 2010-

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Considering that he's won the most outstanding wrestler of the decade.
 * HSQ: Him showing up on WWE television gets Holy Shit chants.
 * Hype Backlash: Not everyone "gets" the love for Daniel Bryan.

Dolph Ziggler (Nick Nemeth) 2005, 2006, 2008-

 * Evil Is Sexy: Good enough for Vickie Guerrero.

Drew McIntyre (Drew Galloway) 2009-

 * Creators Pet: Invoked. His initial push to the Intercontinental Title involved WWE getting him over as a heel by giving him Creators Pet-ish traits (courtesy of Vince McMahon himself, being talked up by the commentators as a breakout star, and generally playing a Boring Invincible Villain).
 * Averted as of his transfer to Raw, as he was quickly Demoted to Extra.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: "Broken Dreams," a dark and brooding song in contrast to his peers' more energetic songs.

Evan Bourne (Matthew Joseph Korklan) 2008-

 * HSQ

Finlay (David Finlay) 2006-2011

 * Freud Was Right: The shillelagh doesn't look phallic at all.

The Great Khali (Dalip Singh Rana) 2006-2011

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: In India, Khali was always presented as a Face. Even when Heel in the USA.
 * Badass Decay: So much after losing the World Heavyweight title.
 * His alliance with newcomer (and fellow Indian) Jinder Mahal looks to reverse this trend.

Jack Swagger (Jacob "Jake" Hager) 2008-

 * Badass Decay: From World Heavyweight Champion...to Michael Cole's trainer / Dumb Muscle...to jobbing out repeatedly to a likely perennial midcarder in Evan Bourne. Lampshaded by Cole...at the worst opportune time.
 * Replacement Scrappy: Let's just say the fans doesn't like him for filling Kurt Angle's Jerk Jock gimmick.

John Cena (John Felix Anthony Cena, Jr.) 2002-

 * Badass Decay: So, so much after dropping his Dr. Of Thuganomics gimmick. He's been saddled with a massive inferiority complex, even though part of his charm as the DOT was that he rarely doubted himself, if at all. There was also the softening of his edginess when the 'E began to mold him into a "friendlier" hero, for lack of a better term. "JBL is poopy,"
 * Creators Pet: At least to WWE's target demographic.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Got some of it during his heel run, but now he's become Ron the Death Eater.
 * Evil Is Cool: The Dr. of Thuganomics, a reason why most fans still hope he'd go back to basics thuganomics.
 * Ho Yay: With Shawn Michaels, most notably.
 * The Scrappy: 2005-present.
 * They Changed Him Now He Sucks: Currently WWE's quintessential example.

John Morrison (John Randall Hennigan) 2004-2011

 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: John showed that he was a pretty decent guy by catching his rival Ted DiBiase's Gold Digger of a girlfriend, Maryse, who isn't too nice herself, and setting her down, putting off revenge and winning the Money in the Bank Ladder match just to do the right thing? It's good to see a face do something nice beyond praising the audience or looking better than the other guy.
 * Draco in Leather Pants
 * Evil Is Sexy: Or so he claimed. He didn't stop after his face turn either, but then he wasn't evil anymore.
 * Ho Yay: He and tag-team partner Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.

Kaval (Brandon Silvestry) 2010

 * Badass Decay: In the indies as Lo-Ki he was a GIANT badass. A Stoic's Stoic who rarely talked and just wrestled, plus he had the hardest kicks in wrestling. But when WWE brought him in as Kaval, he became a "rookie" with Laycool of all people, as his mentors despite having ten years of experience,only won NXT because of his popularity and wore a pink shirt. And his treatment at Smackdown got even worse! where he only won a single match against Dolph Ziggler. His last match with WWE was with Drew Mcintyre and lasted only 26 seconds.
 * Narm Charm: His entrance consists of him stalking out to the ring in a manner similar to Goldberg, except he's around half Bill's size.
 * What an Idiot: Accepted a match for his spot on Team Smackdown at Bragging Rights against Tyler Reks right after lasting five minutes against The Big Show. Guess how that ended...

Ken Kennedy (Ken Anderson) 2005-2009

 * Draco in Leather Pants

Kofi Kingston (Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah) 2008-

 * Badass Decay: Not horribly, but definitely noticeable. He started getting a serious push around '08 and, at one point, was hammering on Randy Orton and leg-dropping him through the Spanish Announcers Table. After apparently botching the ending of a match with Orton, he slipped back to the upper-midcard. Granted, he's won both the IC and US titles since, but he's had a hard time making it past that point.

Montel Vontavious Porter (Alvin Burke, Jr.) 2006-210

 * Fashion Victim Villain: The Power Ranger costume. In reality, he has a tattoo of Malcolm X and Vince was worried about offending more conservative viewers. As if that's ever stopped him before...
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: His Inferno Match with Kane. My God, who'd have thought MVP had that kind of a match in him?

Muhammad Hassan (Mark Copani) 2004-2005

 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character/Plot - His original gimmick had the potential to make him into one of the biggest woobies in the WWE. Sadly they went with the other direction (see above).

Randy Orton (Randal "Randy" Keith Orton) 2002-

 * Complete Monster: If he's a Heel.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Triple H was handcuffed to the ropes; Orton was forcing him to watch as he beat his surrogate family (the McMahons) mercilessly -- the crowd was going absolutely wild for him!
 * Evil Is Cool
 * Evil Is Sexy: Just ask his fangirls.

R-Truth (Ronald "Ron" Killings) 1999-2000, 2008-

 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Right Time definitely. Subverted, in that the song didn't get over with the crowd & he went back to "What's Up" in around a month.
 * THE TRUTH! HAS SET ME FREE!
 * Fan Hater: Of John Cena fans, as a heel.
 * The Scrappy: His current character plays with this - He was popular with the younger fans, but various points in his face run (Such as his tag team with John Morrison) highlighted a lack of charisma or had him acting like a brat (John Cena is unwillingly in The Nexus, R-Truth says he should just quit the WWE but Cena refuses, Truth runs away & tells Randy Orton that he thinks Cena's going to screw him over because he refused to quit); since his heel turn, he's been convinced that he's deserving of a WWE title shot despite (In-universe) not actually doing anything to deserve one & even the other heels (Who usually join in when a face is being mocked) think he's annoying. Given the number of times the WWE has tried pushing him & then dropped him back to the low-mid card after he didn't get over as well as they wanted, he may also qualify as a legitimate Scrappy.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: Subverted. R-Truth gets victories over Randy Orton and John Morrison during a Gauntlet match, before wrestling John Cena to a double disqualification, winding up with his first shot at the WWE Championship. However the next week John Morrison, who's supposed to be Truth's friend, comes out and mocks him for being unfit (Due to his drinking water during a match and smoking cigarettes) & only getting his shot because the New Nexus attacked Randy Orton & The Miz caused a double disqualification to try amd get out of defending the title. R-Truth then points that all John's trying to do is get into his head, so that he challenges John to a match & puts his title shot on the line, a challenge which John then accepts. However, R-Truth then tries to back out of the match (He doesn't say that he never actually challenged John to a match, he starts trying to back out of the match), before Morrison points out that Truth had just said that if he won the WWE title, he would be a fighting champion. R-Truth then tries to get the fans to agree with him, only for them to cheer in response to the idea of the match & R-Truth to agree because of that. Morrison then beats Truth quickly, taking his spot in the title match; he snaps & beats up Morrison. The next week he tells the fans that doing things "for them" has gotten him nowhere and actively cost him his chance at the gold. Keep in mind that whilst R-Truth has a point in his reasoning for his Face Heel Turn, Morrison also had a valid point by pointing out that Truth had really earnt the shot due to the interference in his matches.
 * What an Idiot: On the 02-07-2011 episode of Raw, airing from Milwaukee, he tried to get his customary Cheap Pop and got the city wrong, referring to Green Bay instead. This was probably because it was the day after the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl that weekend. The crowd almost immediately started "Milwaukee" chants, and Michael Cole joined in and started inciting the crowd.
 * Getting goaded into a match by John Morrison putting his WWE title contendership on the line. Losing the match cue his Heel Turn

Santino Marella (Anthony Carelli) 2007-

 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Arguably became one once the WWE (and, by extension, the fans) figured out his gift for comedy.

Sheamus (Stephen Farrelly) 2009-

 * Badass Decay: Oh god yes, he started out as an uber heel that murdered everyone, beat John Cena for the WWE Championship, "retired" Triple H and dominated most people he's been up against, as soon as he won the championship a second time he's really started to loose all the badass cred, Randy Orton punked him out whenever they faced each other (to this day Sheamus has never beaten Orton), he ran like a bitch from The Nexus, hell, The Miz kicked his ass.
 * Fashion Victim Villain: Kevin Dunn doesn't like Sheamus, so he was given the stupid crown and weak booking to make him look like an idiot.

Umaga (Edward "Eddie" Solofa Fatu) 2002-2003, 2005-2009

 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Close, Austrians loved him.
 * And Samoans, but that's obvious.

Wade Barrett (Stuart Alexander Bennett) 2010-

 * Magnificent Bastard: Probably too early to tell, but his huge charisma, intelligence, and skill at implementing his plans put him on the road to being one.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: Despite being portrayed as villains, the rookies do have legitimate complaints against WWE management.

Zack Ryder (Matthew Cardona) 2007-

 * Crowning Moment of Funny: His entire Youtube show, Z! True Long Island Story, can definitely count. Especially humor related to his woes regarding his placement in the company (such as a skit of him trying to climb a fence while declaring he's trying to "get over").
 * Ear Worm / Memetic Mutation: "Ohhhh radioooo, tell me everything you know."
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: A jobber who rarely appears on TV yet thanks to his twitter and especially his Youtube series has garnered a tremendous fan following. And those fans (either of him, his series or both) include The Miz, John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, CM Punk, Arn Anderson and The Rock.
 * Now makes regular appearances on both Raw and Smackdown, wins matches, and has been appointed Teddy Long's assistant.
 * Fashion Victim Villain: Thankfully got better over time.
 * Narm Charm: He should not be able to be convincing as a wrestler.