Even Evil Has Standards/Professional Wrestling

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Undertaker's initial Heel Face Turn was because he saved Miss Elizabeth from getting smashed unexpectedly by a steel chair by Jake "The Snake" Roberts as she entered back through the curtain. This was before such vicious attacks against women became common place in the current era, of course.

Jake: Whose side are you on?!
Undertaker: Not. Yours.

    • So even Big Evil has standards?
      • At least when compared to a Complete Monster like Jake, anyway.
      • Ironically, Undertaker wound up becoming the Complete Monster himself at the end of that decade. See, while not quite "evil" per se, Stone Cold Steve Austin was a selfish, chaotic Jerkass who beat up referees, commentators, and even Santa impersonators whenever he felt like it, yet even he couldn't stand for Undertaker kidnapping the innocent Stephanie McMahon and putting her through a forced Satanic wedding. This made for one of the first times Austin looked like an actual good guy when he pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment on the proceedings despite the fact that it was Vince McMahon's daughter, a man Austin detested so much he refused to handle the matter before it got to the Satanic wedding part.
  • Jerry Lawler, who relentlessly insulted Bret Hart's family for two years, expressed disgust when Diesel pulled Mad Dog Vachon's prosthetic leg off.
    • Lawler pulled one again before Summerslam 2000. For the years preceding, Lawler was an unabashed heel commentator who would openly bash the faces and sing praises to the heels at every opportunity. Then, heel Tazz decides to bully face commentator Jim Ross. Then, Lawler surprisingly jumps up and knocks Tazz on his ass before he can assault J.R.
    • Lawler had a few of these as a commentator. Being a Heel, it was his job to side with heel wrestlers by defending pretty much anything they did, no matter how malicious, unfair or downright evil. However, if a heel were to attack a woman, there was a chance Lawler would condemn him for it. He also did it during Shawn Michaels' return match against Triple H at SummerSlam 2002. Lawler was a full-fledged heel and Triple H (whenever HE was a heel) had always been one of Lawler's favorite wrestlers. But when Triple H turned Shawn Michaels' back into the "Ring the bell" game at the carnival and bashed it with a sledgehammer, even Lawler had to shout "Get that hammer away from him!"
  • For awhile, when Bradshaw was just starting his JBL gimmick, Triple H, who was a heel at the time as well, showed open disgust for JBL (who was portrayed as racist against Latinos), while still remaining a heel.
  • This trope was also the basis for the Four Horsemen-nWo feud.
  • This went hand in hand with Jimmy Jacobs's Moral Event Horizon. After Austin Aries lured Jimmy's ex-girlfriend, Lacey, out of the Age of the Fall, he decided to stalk her by going to a gym that she frequented. The two confronted each other, with Jacobs pulling his signature railroad spike out on her. Tyler Black and Joey Matthews, the two who shot the footage, immediately stopped the video while expressing their disapproval for this.
  • Vince McMahon himself, who has often been called Satan himself by commentators, looked shocked/horrified when Brock Lesnar pushed Zach Gowen (a one-leggged wrestler) down the stairs. He even tried to talk Brock out of it beforehand, to no avail.
  • In TNA, when Eric Bischoff planned to force the injured Mr. Anderson to compete, Matt Morgan pointed out that Anderson had a concussion, and he might die. Bischoff loudly announced that he didn't care, prompting Morgan's Heel Face Turn.
    • Forgetting of course that it was Matt Morgan who gave Hernandez a "concussion" in storyline and put him out of action for months by putting Hernandez's head between his foot while it was doing the carbon footprint, and the steel ring post, and trying to do the same thing to Amazing Red.
      • He still didn't make them wrestle and put them further in harms way afterwards, which is even worse. And he also mentioned that he'd learned a lot more about concussions now and understands how dangerous they are.
  • Kane, of all people -- the guy who's twice buried his brother alive and set people on fire -- showed this when he stopped The Big Show from beating Ricardo Rodriguez to death after Rodriguez hit Show with Alberto Del Rio's car. There was actually logic behind it: Kane knew Del Rio would press charges against Show, thus preventing Show from going after Del Rio. So yeah, Kane has the standard of not killing someone if it will prevent you from getting your hands on the person you really want to hurt.
  • The Miz himself isn't immune to this when he was feuding with Jerry Lawler as he went on to offer Lawler his condolences when Lawler's mother passed away. Makes him a better man than say Michael Cole who openly mocked Lawler's mother's passing.
  • After Eve Torres dropped the bombshell on using Zack Ryder she wants the Bella Twins to personally record her going to John Cena and crying her eyes out. Naturally, the Bellas were a little bit unnerved at the idea of doing so.
  • Michael Cole, the same guy who as mentioned above. He was unnerved seeing that Kane had attacked Randy Orton's father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton.
    • After John Laurinaitis, Lord Tensai, and Tensai's manager treated John Cena (who had a broken arm) to a three-on-one assault, ending with them squashing Cena's arm between a chair and the steel steps, Cole was horrified. Subverted when it turned out Cole was only concerned about Laurinaitis getting fired for his actions. When he wasn't, Cole supported him.
      • When Laurinaitis fired the Big Show for no good reason, even after the Big Show got down on his knees and begged, not only does Cole not defend Laurinaitis against Jerry Lawler pretty much dubbing the act a Moral Event Horizon, he looks genuinely disgusted by Laurinaitis' actions.
    • Brock Lesnar's general "I'll do and hurt WTF I want, I run this show" persona has really gone over badly with Cole.
    • He was mortified at Miz's beating on Lawler in one of the final RAWs of 2010.
  • In 2013, when Paul Bearer died in real life, Vickie Guerrero ordered CM Punk in a no disqualification match against Kane as punishment for his lack of respect and vandalizing the urn during a memorial for Bearer. Considering that Vickie is a widow herself, she does draws the line when it comes to the dead.
  • March 17, 2014, The Shield was ordered to triple power bomb Lawler on the grounds he had a role in the Occupy RAW incident back in Memphis, Lawler’s hometown. The Shield thought about the situation since decided to let Lawler, who survived a health scare, go and went after the guy who ordered the power bomb. Since it happened on St. Patrick’s Day, luck was clearly on Lawler’s side.
  • Even Zeb Coulter, who has extreme conservative right-wing view, had enough of Paul Heyman bragging how Brock Lesnar defeated The Undertaker at Wrestlemania.
  • When Brock Lesnar went insane after Seth Rollins got excused from his match due to jet lag, Paul Heyman had to the look of shock on his face after those in the way were taken out. However, when a cameraman was attacked, Stephanie McMahon ran out and demanded that he leave the guy alone. While the Authority has little issues about going after any wrestler who defy their orders, they have their limits and refuse to attack civilians and bystanders. Like her father and husband, Stephanie McMahon is a well-known heel but Lesnar clearly pushed it by attacking an innocent cameraman, which left Stephanie appalled.
  • Even after going back to their heel roots, The Usos called out on AJ Styles for attacking Shane McMahon and likely agreed with Daniel Bryan on firing him