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Creator's Pet/Professional Wrestling: Difference between revisions
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Realistically, just about any wrestler who is overpushed (that is to say, given more screen-time and wins than their talent level or popularity would deserve) ''could'' be a Creator's Pet. Only the most obvious examples should be listed below, and as with all [[Subjective Tropes]], [[Your Mileage May Vary|take them with a grain of salt]].
* Pick any wrestler who is on the booking team, or better yet, a relative of someone on the booking team. Some American examples: Dustin Rhodes (AKA Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes), [[Triple H]] (son-in-law of [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s [[Vince McMahon]]), [[Jeff Jarrett]] (co-owner and son of Jerry Jarrett) in [[TNA]], Eric Watts (son of Bill Watts), David Sammartino (son of Bruno Sammartino), David Flair (son of [[Ric Flair]]), and [[Kevin Nash]] (booker in 1998-1999) in [[WCW]], Greg Gagne and Larry Zbyszko (son and son-in-law of Verne Gagne, respectively) in [[American Wrestling Association|AWA]]. Such wrestlers are usually pushed far beyond their ability levels or to the point where fans become sick of seeing them. Other countries' promotions are not immune to this either.
** [[Triple H]] is arguably the prime example in this genre. Even when he was out for a year with a quad injury, it seemed like [[Jim Ross|J.R.]] or [[Jerry Lawler]] would mention him during every match (even a women's or cruiserweight match). And that's when they weren't showing heroic montages of HHH's rehab. If he wasn't a Creator's Pet already, that time period made him one.
*** And now [[Triple H]] has managed to become an even bigger Creator's Pet [[Up to Eleven|than he was before]] with the recent COO storyline, to the point where the entire roster save for a few face main eventers pulled a [[Face Heel Turn]](a temporary one in the case of face wrestlers) voted "No Confidence" on him, in which he responded by saying a broom could do a better job than all of them, and the remaining face wrestlers who stayed behind kissed his ass, including [[CM Punk]], the guy he had been feuding with for months. Even [[Vince McMahon]] himself came back to [[Character Shilling|shill]] his son-in-law/future heir as COO, even as he is stripping him of his duties of running RAW. The entire purpose was just to put over how amazing HHH is as kayfabe COO and will be as Vince's successor in [[Real Life]] when Vince steps down/dies.
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* [[Hulk Hogan]] himself was and is beloved in WWE/F, but in WCW he was, for the most part, a Creator's Pet. When he first arrived, fans hated his [[Invincible Hero]] schtick. Hogan's solution was that [[Completely Missing the Point|he wasn't invincible enough]], and so he set about burying all the other top drawing wrestlers in the booking. Things got so bad that WCW had to take anti-Hogan signs from fans before letting them into the arenas, and free Hogan merchandise given to the fans in the front row was thrown back. Of course, Hogan was [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap]] when the [[New World Order]] formed. A few years later the nWo had run its course and Hogan turned face again, and went right back into Pet-ness, where he remained until a falling out with booker [[Vince Russo]] had him removed from television until WCW's demise.
* [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], for much of his first year or so. Green as grass, pushed to the moon, won the IC title, all over TV and the fans ''loathed'' him. "Die Rocky, Die" chants were not uncommon. He was only rescued by his [[Face Heel Turn]], making the most of fan hatred while letting him grow as a performer. It also helped that they retooled the character from a squeaky clean face into "[[Dwayne Johnson]], cranked [[Up to Eleven]]".
* Lex Luger's "Made in the USA" gimmick in [[
* Towards the end of [[ECW]]'s run, Justin Credible was made their World Champion. Now, Credible had been quite good in his previous upper midcard role, as one half of the Impact Players tag team with [[Lance Storm]]. But when Storm left for WCW, Credible was promoted to the main event. As any wrestling fan knows, singles wrestling and tag teams are completely different and a great tag wrestler can be completely boring without his partner. Also, Storm's excellent wrestling ability covered up the flaws in Credible's work. But in an un-ECW like decision, Credible kept the belt, and retained it time and again, mostly against wrestlers who would work the title defense, maybe 2 or 3 other matches, and then leave the company. By the time the belt switched hands half a year later, fans were SICK of Justin Credible.
** This is actually an invoked example in Credible's case. Around this time, ECW's talent well was being sucked dry by the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] (who got such stars as [[Tazz]] and The Dudley Boys) and [[WCW]] (who got [[Lance Storm]] and others). Paul Heyman wanted a long term ECW champion, and so, in his own words, put the title on the one guy neither promotion would even ''try'' to sign.
* Steve "Mongo" McMichael, a member of the mid-late 90's version of the 4 Horsemen, could qualify as this. Mongo wasn't so much talentless as incredibly green in the ring, but he was still far, far below what a hardcore fan would expect from one of the Horsemen. Still, he was given a fairly long reign as the WCW United States Champion and a never-ending series of angles involving his then-wife now ex-wife Debra. Keep in mind that while all this was happening, Mongo still needed to be carried through matches.
* [[CHIKARA]] has Lince Dorado. He was pushed way, way too hard right after his debut, and then went through a period where he would alternately be booked too strongly and be booked as a wrestler of his stature normally would be. End result, Lince's popularity plummeted to the point where it wrecked that of his stablemates in The Future Is Now, Jimmy "Equinox II" Olsen and Helios. The bookers have gotten the message and Lince is now booked in the undercards, but the fans still consider The Future Is Now to be the least interesting group on the roster. When uber-heel group F.I.S.T beat TFiN, the fans chanted "Thank you FIST". More recently, during Cibernetico Incredible, the crowd began booing after Lince scored two eliminations in the torneo cibernetico. A [[Face Heel Turn]] seems to have rescued him, however...
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