EvenWWESuperstars have regrets, just like everyone else in the world. It’s rare for anyone to look back at their life or career and not wish that things went a smidge differently, be it in a decision they made or in a direction their life went.
As the saying goes, the grass always looks greener on the other side, and even the most successful of WWE wrestlers carry regret about their wrestling careers, understandably so. After all, wrestlers often have to carry out a script given to them; sometimes, the script may not yield favorable results. Other times, regrets stem from instances of misdirection or outright mistakes that they made with their own careers.
10Kurt Angle Regrets Not Retiring a Decade Earlier
Wishes He Retired While He Was Still Healthy and Capable of Great Matches
In 2019, 20 years after Kurt Angle’s WWE debut,he ended his wrestling career atWrestleMania 35in a match with Baron Corbin. While some critics have called ita bad Mania moment worth forgetting, wrestling Corbin at Mania isn’t so much a regret for Angle as much as he regrets still wrestling at all at this stage in his life.
In an interview withChris Van Vliet, Angle expresses that he wishes he retired 10 years earlier than he did. While retiring earlier would’ve deprived fans ofan underrated moment fromWrestleMania 34, Angle says that near the end of his career in his 40s, he could tell he was “losing a step” in the ring. “I didn’t like what I saw,” he says. “And I didn’t want the fans remembering me as a broken down Kurt Angle.” He would’ve ratherended his career sooner andstill in his prime.
9Jinder Mahal Regrets Cutting Racist Japanese Promo
Going into SummerSlam 2017, Jinder Mahal was set to defend his WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. In the build to the match, The Maharaja would cut a promo on SmackDown thatadmittedly displayed some racial undertonesand an unflattering impression of Nakamura, hyper-focusing on his accent as a Japanese native. Reflecting on the promo as a regret, Yuvraj Dhesi spoke toCVVabout the moment, saying the following:
So that day, I had the promo, I got the script from the writer [who says] “this is from Vince. He wants you to say this.” I was like, “Oh, man, I don’t want to say this. Is there anything else we can do?” He said, “No, it’s coming from Vince.” So, I even asked Vince. I’m like, “Vince, this is gonna get negative backlash.” He said, “No, no, no, don’t worry, who cares? It’s not you, it’s a character. It’s just entertainment.” So, did the promo, was not happy with it. Not proud of myself for doing it. Really wish that I could take that moment back, but unfortunately I can’t.
Dhesi also recalls as soon as he returned backstage from the promo, a social media manager approached him immediately telling him aboutthenegative reception his promo was receivingonline, just as Dhesi expected. Because of the bad PR, McMahon wanted Dhesi to release a statement created by the PR team. Dhesi was willing to tweet his apology, but right before uploading the statement, McMahon changed his mind and decided not to release anything.
8Undertaker Regrets Not Wrestling AJ Styles More
The main event of Night One ofWrestleMania 36proved to beThe Undertaker’s final match. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic, his match with AJ Styles was changed to a cinematic match, titled the Boneyard Match, which received critical acclaim and one that Taker admits to being proud of to this day. It was the best possible match the two parties could have had together under worldly circumstances, but one regret is that The Phenom hadn’t done more with The Phenomenal One.
In an interview withSPORTbible, Mark Calaway says that he wishes he could have had a chance to not only have a real feud with Styles, but forStyles to have come to WWE sooner. “I’ve told him on several occasions, ‘Man, I wish you’d have gotten here 10–15 years earlier!'” He wishes he had the chance to have a more “traditional” match with AJ, particularly in his prime.
7Booker T Regrets Cursing on Live TV in Infamous WCW Meme Promo
He Is Embarrassed of His Big Slip-Up and How Popular It Has Gotten
One of the most infamous moments in wrestling history came in a promo that a young up-and-coming Booker T cut while still a rookie in WCW. Alongside his tag team partner Stevie Ray as a part of Harlem Heat and alongside manager “Sensational” Sherri Martel, Booker T is anxious to wrestle Hulk Hogan, and in the heat of the moment, he slips and says a word that wasn’t in the script. “We want the gold, sucka! Hulk Hogan, we coming for you, n****!” The moment has since become a highly publicized meme.
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“That wasthe worst moment in my lifeat that point in time,” Booker Huffman expresses on hisReality of Wrestlingpodcast. Huffman explains that while that is a word that he used to say on a regular basis every day in his neighborhood, he had never said it in a professional setting and that was the first time any of his WCW co-workers heard him say it. Nowadays, the NXT crowd, where Huffman works as an announcer, has turned an edulcorated version of the phrase into a funny, non-offensive tribute to the popular Hall of Famer.
6Stone Cold Regrets Turning Heel at WrestleMania X-7
One of the Most Controversial Booking Decisions in WWE History
In what is arguably the most shockingmoment in his careerand Mania history, Stone Cold Steve Austin, as Jim Ross put it on commentary, “sold his soul to Satan himself” when he colluded with archrival Mr. McMahon to ensure himself a win in the main event ofWrestleMania X-Seven. This marked the start of a heel turn that has been heavily criticized over the years, even by Austin himself.
Stone Cold often goes on record saying that in retrospect, he wishes he called an audible that night, meaningimprovise giving McMahon a Stunnerto send the fans home happy and maintain a babyface presence. Had he done that, the remainder of 2001 - which included a dominant heel Austin, his comedy schtick, and his joining The Alliance in WCW and ECW’s in-universe fight against WWE - would have looked very different.
5Triple H Regrets Not Wrestling The Rock One-on-One at Mania
A Career-Long Rivalry Never Acknowledged in a WrestleMania Singles Match
Triple H and The Rock were career rivals in every sense of the term, climbing the ladder together. As rookies, they challenged each other for the Intercontinental Championship, and as main eventers, they headlined WrestleMania for the WWE Championship. Granted, they did so alongside Mick Foley and The Big Show in the main event ofWrestleMania 2000.They never competed one-on-one at Mania.
In Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Paul Levesque admits that the timing of both The Undertaker’s return and Stone Cold’s return to WWE deprived the pair of the Mania payoff he wanted to have with The Rock. “A couple of months later, we would have the one-on-one Iron Man Match that we wanted to have at WrestleMania,” he added. “Unfortunately for me, I just feel that’s the one thing, we got to this unbelievable, heated long-term rivalry and then never got to pay it off on the biggest platform possible.”
4Cody Rhodes Regrets Booking Himself to Never Challenge for the AEW World Title
Carved a Clearer Path for Him to Return to WWE
In All Elite Wrestling’s first active year in the professional wrestling business, Chris Jericho became the inaugural World Champion and in his first pay-per-view title defense, he was challenged by Cody Rhodes. As Executive Vice President of the company, Cody had the idea to add intrigue to the match byadding the stipulation that he could never challenge for the title again if he lost, which he did.
Time and time again,the WWE Undisputed Championhas gone on record expressing his regret for the booking decision. He recognizes now thatfans wanted him desperately in that title picture. Depriving them of that not only made his character stagnant, but led to fans booing him in time. In many ways, not having a World Title to challenge for was one of the many deciding factors in Cody returning to WWE.
3Shawn Michaels Regrets Coming out of Retirement
Another Controversial Crown Jewel Moment
Shawn Michaels’ wrestling career initially ended after losing aStreak vs. Career match to The UndertakeratWrestleMania 26in what has been praised as one of the best Mania matches of all time. Many fans believed that ending his career while still at the top of his game only bolstered Michaels’s legacy. Those same fans changed their tunewhen Michaels came out of retirement for one night only at Crown Jewel 2018for a dream match between DX and The Brothers of Destruction. The match didn’t showcase the best of their abilities, to put it kindly.
“I wish that I’d have known that,” Hickenbottom says. “All I can do is apologize to the guys.”
While speaking to theNew York Post, Michael Hickenbottom expressed he didn’t have regrets about wrestling the match until he learned that Mark Calaway wanted to wrestle a matchhe could end his career onproudly. Unfortunately, due to the age of the contenders and the many issues they had to face, including Triple H suffering a torn pectoral muscle during the match, that bout is not one fans like to remember.
2Shelton Benjamin Regrets Being “Too Nice” and Not Asserting Himself Backstage at WWE
Also Regrets Cutting a Racist Promo on Yoshi Tatsu
In late 2024, Shelton Benjamin conducted an interview with Chris Van Vliet, available now on YouTube. CVV asked him why he thinks he never progressed to main event status under the WWE banner despite always being cited as one of the best tonever win a WWE World Title. While Benjamin admits that he was an athlete first in a company that prioritized theatrics and he wasn’t a theatrical character, he also sayshis biggest issue is he was “too nice.”
Shelton Benjamin discusses why he thinks he was undervalued in WWE at the 34:14 time stamp.
He was aware of his strengths and weaknesses as a wrestler, but feels that becausehe never advocated for himself backstage enough, he was pigeonholed into a role. He says he would rather let his work speak for itself instead of vocally fighting for a spot and became too willing to do everything he was asked for. He adds that he also regrets cutting a “racist” promo on Yoshi Tatsu, calling it a “black eye” on his career.
1John Cena Regrets Making Fun of The Rock for Being a Part-Timer
Cena Became Exactly What He Criticized
During their feud onscreen going intoWrestleMania 28and29, respectively, John Cena would hype his match with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson by criticizing the fact that The Rock was wrestling on a part-time schedule. Cena often implied that because he wasn’t on WWE TV every week, it meant The Rock didn’t love the wrestling business like he used to.
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In the later years,John Cena would become a part-timer himselfto balance out his movie career and remain as healthy as possible before his matches. Now understanding the nuance of the situation from the alternative perspective, Cena has expressed in multiple interviews just how much he regrets criticizing The Rock on that level. In fact, he’s admitted to being wrong and publicly apologized to The Rock. No one is going to question Cena’s love forWWE, especially as he continues to promote and propel the product while he’s away.
Source:Insight with Chris Van Vlieton YouTube (1,2),SPORTbible,Reality of Wrestling on YouTube,Impaulsive with Logan Paul on YouTube
