Professional Wrestling — Poster from the Mexican lucha libre film Las Mujeres Vampiro.

Professional Wrestling

2007subculture / meme categoryclassic

Published September 23, 2026

Professional Wrestling built its own internet meme ecosystem around botched moves, memorable promo lines, and iconic fan moments, spawning formats like Botchamania compilations and inside-joke phrases such as Steiner Math and Good Lucha Things. What started as niche wrestling forum humor grew into a wider meme catalog spanning YouTube supercuts, Reddit shorthand, and even a John Oliver takedown.

wrestling memes catchphrase memes mashup video memes subreddit origin memes sports memes

Overview

The wrestling meme ecosystem runs on a shared vocabulary called kayfabe, plus insider terms like botch, shoot, work, face, and heel that fans deploy to snark on live segments and edits3. The dominant native format is the botch compilation, a short-clip supercut of blown spots, missed cues, and accidentally funny mistakes, popularized by Maffew Gregg's Botchamania series on YouTube3.

Alongside the compilations, single-line memes recur across wrestling Twitter and Reddit: Scott Steiner's Steiner Math promo about his 33 1/3 percent chance against Samoa Joe, Booker T's 1997 Spring Stampede outburst at Hulk Hogan, Chris Jericho's 'I invented that' interview quips, and Kalisto's 2016 'I'm here to bring you Good Lucha Things' stumble3. Jim Ross commentary lines like 'business is about to pick up' and 'Good God almighty, they've killed him' get dubbed onto unrelated clips as reaction audio3.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube / wrestling forums (viral spread)
Date
2007

Pro wrestling as a scripted entertainment format traces to 1830s France, where showmen billed characters like 'Edward, the steel eater' and offered 500 francs to anyone who could knock them down3. The modern American style hardened in the late 19th century out of Lancashire catch-as-catch-can and Irish collar-and-elbow grappling, though the theatrical version only fully overtook shoot wrestling after World War II3.

The internet meme layer arrived much later. Botchamania began on YouTube around 2007 with a user called TheOriginalMikey, and Maffew Gregg took over from installment 4 after deciding he could make a better video in his sleep, then went back and redid the earlier numbers3.

How It Spread

Botchamania moved from YouTube to a dedicated site at botchamania.net in early 2010, and after a March 2010 hosting bill spike prompted fans to donate the roughly $500 needed within two days, the project later shifted to botchamania.com3. Individual promo clips lived on r/SquaredCircle, 420chan wrestling threads, and forum boards, where Scott Steiner's 'Holla if ya hear me' theme song line and his 'fatasses' taunt at the Dudley Boys turned into Reddit shorthand3.

Mainstream attention arrived on March 31, 2019, when John Oliver's Last Week Tonight ran a long segment attacking WWE labor practices, framing Vince McMahon as 'morally subterranean' and citing wrestler deaths including Eddie Guerrero, Randy Savage, Chyna, and King Kong Bundy1. The Hollywood Reporter noted the segment showed McMahon's on-screen persona alongside real independent-contractor grievances1. YouTube archives still host the original wrestling clips that fans remix, from Undertaker WrestleMania streak moments to the Hell in a Cell match Jim Ross called famously2.

Timeline

1830

French showmen create the pay-to-beat-the-strongman format that seeds pro wrestling as entertainment.

2007

Botchamania launches on YouTube under user TheOriginalMikey.

2010-03

Botchamania hits a hosting cost crisis and fans donate roughly $500 to keep it online.

2014-04-06

Brock Lesnar ends The Undertaker's 21-0 WrestleMania streak, triggering #ThankYouTaker reaction tweets.

2016-07-19

Kalisto's post-WWE Draft interview botch spawns the 'Good Lucha Things' meme and merch.

2019-03-31

John Oliver devotes a Last Week Tonight main segment to WWE labor practices, temporarily hurting the stock.

Frequently Asked Questions