It may be seen as a form of "cheap heat" as it is a guarantee to induce a crowd reaction, but insulting the local city's sports team has been a go-to in professional wrestling for generations. Although it has become a repetitive tactic, it is a classic that can still produce boos and laughs.
RELATED: 10 Best Insults In WWE History
Some teams are easy targets while others need a more creative approach, sometimes using a deep dive into a historical event or fact to pour salt in the wounds. The following wrestlers got heated reactions from the crowd when they insulted their hometown team.
10 Toronto Maple Leafs - The Rock
One of the easiest targets to receive insults in the sports world is the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs. Chad Gable happily threw some jabs at the Toronto, Canada crowd on WWE Raw in August 2022, mocking them for losing to a team from a city with no ice (Tampa Bay), and calling star player Auston Matthews a 'geek'.
The most infamous blast of the Leafs may have come in February 2003 on Raw courtesy of The Rock who said, "Stronger than a bear, faster than a buck, the biggest thing to hit Canada 'cus the Maple Leafs suck!"
9 Team Canada - Kurt Angle
Not necessarily a major sports team but Team Canada's figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, USA, who won gold albeit with controversy in the pairs' competition, were recognized at WrestleMania 18 in Toronto during an in-ring segment by another Olympic gold medalist in Kurt Angle.
RELATED: The Rock's 10 Funniest Insults In His WWE Career
Before his match with Kane, Angle said, "If I would've won my Olympic gold medal the way this country's figure skaters won their gold medal, I'd wanna shoot myself in the freakin' head!" Angle then mocked the athletes for whining and complaining and saying that unlike them, he earned his medal.
8 New York Islanders - CM Punk
Long Island, New York is MJF territory when it comes to AEW. While in a rivalry with CM Punk in December 2021, Dynamite made a stop at MJF's home town and the fans were not fond of Punk. While getting jeered by the fans Punk said, "I can't understand what you're saying, just how like the Islanders can't understand how to put a puck in the net."
Punk was not done going after the local NHL club and seemingly buried one of his fellow roster members unintentionally, "The Islanders beat Ottawa last night; that's like me beating QT Marshall two weeks ago." When AEW returned to Long Island in May 2022, Punk picked up his antics by wearing an Islanders jersey but of the team's former captain John Tavares who left Long Island for Toronto years prior.
7 Buffalo Bills - MJF
MJF is known as "Salt of the Earth" and anything he does certainly should be taken with a grain of salt. Following his return at All Out 2022, the following Dynamite was in Buffalo, New York, and MJF made an appearance. To a large crowd ovation, Friedman came out wearing an NFL Buffalo Bills jersey of the team's quarterback Josh Allen.
RELATED: 10 Wrestlers You Forgot Took Shots At Other Wrestling In Interviews
After some backhanded comments that turned to outright insults, MJF inferred that the Bills are 'the worst football team in the history of the United States of America'. MJF then ripped off his jersey, rubbed it between his backside, then threw it in the crowd before grabbing the microphone to yell, "Josh Allen sucks!!"
6 Denver Nuggets - Vince McMahon
A WWE-NBA controversy occurred in May 2009. WWE had the arena booked in Denver, Colorado for Raw and had the booking since the prior year. Denver's basketball team, the Nuggets, made the NBA Western Conference Finals and needed their arena for a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on the same night WWE had it booked for Raw. Ultimately, WWE was forced to move. With the Lakers' arena empty, WWE decided to move Raw to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Some of the show's airtime was used by Vince McMahon to insult the team's owner, claiming he did not have enough faith in them to book the arena in advance. Later in the night was a multi-man tag match where the fan favorites wore Lakers jerseys and their opponents wore Nuggets jerseys with the latter taking the loss, foreshadowing the Lakers' win over the Nuggets in six games en route to winning the NBA Finals. WWE portrayed the Nuggets as villains and losers.
5 Chelsea F.C. - Shane McMahon
WWE held an edition of Raw in the United Kingdom in April 2007. Emanating from London, the night's opening contest was a handicap match with Mr. McMahon, Shane McMahon, and Umaga defeating Robbie Brookside. Before the match, Shane took to the microphone and identified in the crowd the manager of the local Chelsea Football Club Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho was met with a sea of boos. Shane would tell the crowd he went looking for Great Britain's greatest wrestler and witnessed someone defeat 6 men 'if you could call them men'. Shane turned his back at Jose and said, "I think they were members of your Chelsea Football Club."
4 Manchester United - Wade Barrett
Making a stop in Manchester, England in November 2015 for Raw, Wade Barrett and his League of Nations stablemate Sheamus took notice of a special guest sitting in the front row, that being star footballer Wayne Rooney of Manchester United.
Barrett described himself and Sheamus as 'championship material' and that is more than what you could say about Rooney and Man U that season. The crowd must have been mostly Manchester City fans as Barrett's comment received cheers.
3 Sacramento Kings - The Rock
During his "Rock Concert" on Raw in March 2003 in Sacramento, The Rock took a few liberties with the city's NBA team the Kings. Rock first said he would return to Sacramento when the [Los Angeles] Lakers beat the Kings in May, referencing the prior year's NBA Conference Finals.
Rock would take it a step further by saying his good friend Lakers star player Shaquille O'Neal called the team the Sacramento 'Queens'. In early 2022 WWE made edits to the segment on Peacock/WWE Network.
2 Montreal Canadiens - Elias
Elias took to the ring for another acoustic performance on Raw in Montreal in April 2019 during the Superstar Shake-up. In addition to telling those in attendance to silence their phones, hold their applause, and shut their mouths, Elias could not hold back on the sensitive spot, being hockey.
"The Bell Centre is packed tonight. The energy is off the charts. And just think, you could feel this energy regularly if the Canadiens were good enough to make the playoffs." Montreal is very passionate about their NHL team which created a big backlash for Elias from the fans.
1 Washington Commanders - Wade Barrett
Now known as the Washington Commanders of the NFL, the team underwent an identity change in 2019 after being known as the Redskins since the 1930s. The Redskins name and logo were changed after a lengthy debate over racist overtones that many believed were present.
Raw took place in Washington in June 2014. Wade Barrett would fire up the crowd by saying he was going to beat Dolph Ziggler so bad he would have to change his name, "Just like your racist, constantly losing NFL team." There was a reason he was called Bad News Barrett.
