The Scrappy/Professional Wrestling

Examples of The Scrappy in Professional Wrestling include:

The ur-example of wrestling would be Sean (X-Pac/Syxx/1-2-3 Kid) Waltman. Best known for naming the trope X-Pac Heat. To explain this a bit - Waltman had been part of the mega-popular D Generation X, and gotten very popular as part of it. His star faded though, but his gimmick didn't evolve. He took up plenty of TV time and rarely lost despite not really getting a push or doing anything interesting. Pretty soon the fans just didn't want to watch him. There were actually a few incidents where Waltman pulled himself out of the Scrappy Heap briefly, such as teaming with Jeff Hardy and doing the Hardy Boyz trademark double team moves with him, or a very good television match against Eddie Guerrero. But since his gimmick still wouldn't evolve.
- Of course these days he's not all that hated. Partly because he's spent a lot of time in Mexico and time heals all wounds, and partly because he's working on cleaning up the bad attitude that contributed to his Scrappydom.
John Cena has been The Scrappy at periods of his career. As a heel, he worked a Pretty Fly for a White Guy gimmick and was extremely popular... then suddenly he turned face and the fans were expected to take the formerly phony hip-hop posturing seriously. Then the WWE bookers started pushing him specifically to appeal to younger fans, giving him a Periphery Hatedom. Nowadays, fans mainly like Cena - he regularly gets awards in wrestling magazines - but they continue to boo him mainly because the WWE bookers try so hard to get the fans to cheer for him. Scrappy By Proxy? X Pac Heat Once Removed? It's weird.
- This whole attitude towards Cena may be best exemplified by ECW country
- Well John Cena did state in a promo before One Night Stand that he knew he wouldn't be welcomed in any ECW arena and would probably spark a riot if he won. Then said he was going to win. Maybe that reaction was wanted.
Along the same lines as the above example, Lince Dorado of CHIKARA is often given the nickname "Cena Dorado" because of the way Chikara pushes him; despite the bookers fluctuating between booking him like Cena and booking him like any other wrestler, Dorado's considered to be The Scrappy of the promotion. This attitude was in full effect at King of Trios 2009, when Lince's team (The Future is Now) was defeated by the eventual winners of the tournament (Friends in Similar Tights, aka Team FIST); despite being the heels, FIST got cheered for taking out TFiN. Seems that the bookers got the message though, as Lince has been stuck in the undercard for a while lately.
- It should be noted that a string of generally improved performances in-ring combined with a de-push, followed by a well executed Face Heel Turn is leading to much of the CHIKARMY ruling Lince as having been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
Jeff Hardy during the early part of the 21st century. He was mainly Estrogen Brigade Bait, and the male fanbase resented him for this. Also he was demotivated and drugged up. Things bottomed out when he made an appearance at Ring of Honor. High pitched squeals of female fans who'd gone to the show just to see Jeff, mixed with the roughly 1000 ROH regulars chanting "We Want Matt" and "Don't Come Back" at him.
- When Konnan went to Ring of Honor, he got the same treatment. For that matter, so did Matt Hardy, although he stuck around for a few more matches and put some of the Ring of Honor regulars over, redeeming himself in their eyes.
- Despite all this Jeff remained relatively popular with other promotions, although still somewhat of a Base Breaker. This is until the Epic Fail that was the Victory Road PPV, where Jeff came out to wrestle for TNA's title completely destroyed on drugs. After that, people have started to migrate away from Jeff.
Around the turn of the century, Lita was in the same position John Cena was recently. She could do a moonsault, and the casual fans loved her. But her moonsault sucked, and despite doing a few high spots (which she usually botched) she was a terrible worker with no sense of psychology, and she was booked like she was head shoulders and waist above all the other women on the roster. Internet fans did not care for her in the slightest.
- Then, she had an affair with Edge while dating Matt Hardy which made her hated by all.
Brian Adams as Crush of Demolition, as the three-man team era marked the beginning of the end of the team, as Ax would soon leave and Crush and Smash jobbed out.
Although the promotion Dragon Gate is popular with fans, it is something of a Scrappy to many other pro wrestlers. Dragon Gate's matches generally end with flat out barrages of finishing moves rather than a finisher. Many other Japanese wrestlers see this particular style as flat out disrespectful to the business itself.
Michael Cole serves as a non-wrestler Scrappy for his bland commentary and tendency to declare something as "the first time ever..." regardless of accuracy. He'll also make boneheaded comments like Bret Hart breaking his leg as the worst night of his life (why, yes, this was years after his brother Owen's fatal accident) and referring to Vickie Guerrero's tribute to her late husband at Wrestlemania XXVI as a "hog splash." Despite all this, Cole has maintained a unbroken commentary position with the WWE since 1999, something none of the other current commentators can say. Thus whenever anyone puts a beating on him, be it Bryan Danielson or Jim Ross, expect cheers. Lots and lots of cheers.
- Before it's mentioned, yes, we know his fanboying of The Miz is kayfabe. This does not make it any less annoying. He is madly and unapologetically in love with The Miz for some reason, unambiguously favoring him in matches by on at least one occasion, standing up and loudly cheering for him, and whenever anything bad happens to him, he spends the entire ~~match~~ night bitching about how unfairly The Miz was being treated, making him come off as extremely, and disgustingly whiny. At one point, he cost the WWE champion at the time, Randy Orton, a win, and claimed that since he had won the Money In The Bank, The Miz was completely justified in doing this because "he can do whatever he wants."
  - In all fairness to The Miz and Cole, that is pretty much the same way every MITB winner except for Rob Van Dam had cashed it in. Even CM Punk mentioned it was smart of The Miz. Nevertheless, Cole does this for nearly everything Miz does to the point that he had to become a Complete Monster Jerkass against long-time commentating partner Jerry Lawler when Jerry began feuding with Miz. Again, it's Kayfabe but it's very annoying. I don't want to see him punched. I want to see him go away.
- On the opposite end, there's his constant trolling of any and all internet favorites which has only become more shrill and annoying as the months go on.
TNA's Dixie Carter. The woman has no charisma or business sense. The worst part is, she never plays the heel, even though every one of TNA's fans and haters despise her. She literally had Tommy Dreamer beg on national TV for one last chance to show the world about ECW (something that did not happen for WWE's One Night Stand, because if it did, the Mutants would have destroyed Vince McMahon). Oh, and as pointed out by Spoony, she has only one facial expression, which is now known as "Dixie Carter Face".
Lacey Von Erich is regarded as one of the worst wrestlers in all of history to step into the ring. She's arguably even more incompetent in the ring than the WWE Divas, botches moves as often as she connects with them, and a failure at selling even the most basic of moves. The only person ever to display less in-ring talent than her in TNA history is Jenna Morasca. The worst part? She's got enough natural athleticism that there's no reason she couldn't pull a Trish Stratus and become good, but because of her wrestling pedigree (being part of the Von Erich family), she has never actually gone through wrestling training.
Vickie Guerrero, at least as a character. An untalented, shrill and downright ugly woman that had multiple segments of a SINGLE Smackdown! dedicated to her and whatever the hell she was doing at the time. As "GM" of the Smackdown! brand, Guerrero hogged the spotlight on a show that was mainly know for featuring a lot of up-and-coming stars and giving them shots at the big time. Her inability to act and properly play a crowd, besides some of the cheapest-brand Heat you could find, turned many off to the Smackdown! brand during her tenure as its GM.
As Rocky Maivia, The Rock had a huge hatedom. After his Face Heel Turn, he became the guy we all know and love.
Lay Cool. Unliked, not very talented, often mean-spirited and hateful and Generic Doomsday Villainesses (due to one of them being married to The Undertaker). An unholy combination of Scrappiness.
John Laurinaitis is the most recent example. In Real Life he was already disliked for being an incompetent stooge of Vince McMahon who primarily only has a job because he's such a suck-up. But it wasn't until 2011 that Laurinaitis made his WWE television debut, and currently most people wish he had just stayed behind-the-scenes. Initially it seemed like he was going to play Vince's right-hand Evil Minions similar to Brisco and Patterson back in the AE in order to mirror his Real Life role. However Vince went on another hiatus from television yet Laurinaitis remained behind. It quicly became clear that he was a terrible onscreen performer due to his lack of mic ability, poor acting skills, and having zero charisma. Despite this he stayed on TV and was played up as the person behind the conspiracy against Vince's son-in-law, Triple H. This arc was scrapped, but Vince still came back and appointed Laurinaitis as the new GM of RAW. He INSTANTLY became a one-dimensional and bland heel general manager, and finally ended up feuding with CM Punk. It didn't last long as the feud was a flop, and they teased Laurinaitis being fired, only for him to not only keep his job, but become permanent GM of RAW. It Got Worse when he feuded with Smackdown GM Teddy Long for control of both shows, which obviously Laurinaitis won, making him GM of both shows. After this Laurinaitis basically became the center of attention for the entire show. It's finally reached the point where now he's headlining a PPV against John Cena and winning. He's a blatant Mr. McMahon wannabe, but is really just an Expy of Vickie Guerrero, as in an annoying and untalented performer is pushed to the moon and made the center of attention and focus of the program simply and only manages to get X-Pac Heat due to them being a terrible performer, though WWE pretends it's heel heat and uses it as an excuse to push them.

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