You thought only WCW was capably of having bad moments? Just because WWE is pretty decent at hiding their weaknesses, it doesn’t mean that the occasional bad idea doesn’t slip through the cracks. More often than not, WWE’s bad ideas are attempts at finding out how far the line could be pushed or no one telling Vince McMahon just how stupid one of his brilliant brainstorms are.
You’ll realize quickly that even a terrible WWE idea is nowhere near as bad as some of what WCW churned out. Simply put, even at their lowest, the WWE seldom looked bush league or desperate. Sometimes when you look back on history and really think about the logic behind a moment, you’ll realize how bad it was or how it was in poor taste, as there’s plenty of degradation and deprivation on this list. Unlike WCW though, seldom was a match poorly planned out and that’s why WWE won the Monday Night War. No matter how much ridiculousness was going on out of the ring, what went on inside the WWE ring was vastly superior to the endless amounts of “on a pole” matches WCW were doing.
Since no celebrity ever won the WWE title, nor was it ever decided via a finger flick, picking number one wasn’t exactly “a gimme,” so read on, because just like the WWE, anything can happen on this list.
20 20. Hopefully, the Real Courtship Didn't Happen this Way
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6dsrz_test-and-stephanie-mcmahon-s-weddin_sport
Test was all set to marry Stephanie McMahon and the blessed event was to take place live on Raw. Vince had declared he would fire any non–family member if they interfered. The Cerebral Assassin appeared to disrupt the ceremony, letting everyone know that Steph was already married to him. He had paid the bartender at Steph's bachelorette party to drug her and then he drove to a cheap Vegas chapel and conned his way into the McMahon family. In reality, Stephanie McMahon was abducted, roofied, and forced into marriage. But in pro wrestling, this just meant that a heel turn was coming for the Billion Dollar Princess. Though this angle was in poor taste, considering her own father had to be convinced into not doing an incest angle, this one's quite tame.
19 19. Ladies Shouldn’t Bark
Perhaps the NXT Divas should think twice about wanting to come to the main roster. Besides those women barely getting any ring time, there was a point when the most popular female in history was degraded and made to bark like a dog and humiliate herself for Vince McMahon. Trish Stratus was having relations with the boss, until he aligned himself with his daughter and they decided to poor sewage on her, force her to strip to her skivvies and bark like a dog. While she did get her revenge at WrestleMania X–Seven, this segment was still terrible to watch.
18 18. The Anonymous Raw General Manager
For a little over a year, Raw audiences would hear an email alert ring throughout the arena, a signal that the Anonymous Raw General Manager had an edict to issue. Through his conduit, Michael Cole, who would begin with the words “and I quote…”, they would let us know of the GM's rulings. It’s not so much that for a year we had no idea who was running things,or the fact that Cole, who the fans already despised, would be the voice of the Anonymous GM, it was the fact that they ended it on a piss–poor joke instead of giving it some serious payoff. It was finally revealed that Hornswaggle was the man behind the keyboard, just having fun at the expense of the superstars.
17 17. Vince McMahon Is Blown to Bits
We know that wrestling is filled with scripted storylines and finishes to matches coupled with real life athleticism. Sure, we watch a world where a dead guy has reigned supreme for 25 years, but every so often a storyline comes along that makes fans scratch their heads. Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night on Raw culminated with Vince getting into his limo, which exploded. On top of being an angle in poor taste, some fans in the arena bought it and called the police to tell them Vince McMahon’s car had exploded. While this was supposed to be the “Who Shot J.R.?” of the WWE, it came off as ridiculous.
16 16. Choppy Choppy Pee Pee
Val Venis, the WWE’s resident adult film star, had been having an affair with Mrs. Yamaguchi-San, the wife of the leader of Kaientai. For his transgressions, Yamaguchi–San threatened to cut off Venis’ favorite body part. Luckily, the exotic superstar was saved by John Wayne Bobbitt (who had his own member snipped by his wife), who turned off the lights and got Venis out of the room. Similar to the first entry on our list, this was something that might have been entertaining at the time, but when lookng back, it's a pretty bad image to project on WWE TV. On top of that, no one really believed a man would be castrated on national television.
15 15. A DQ Means a Title Loss
In 2009, Randy Orton would begin to systematically take apart the McMahon family. Triple H would be outed as Stephanie’s real life hubby and head to Orton’s home to destroy Yhe Viper. The match was set for WrestleMania XXV and should have been an absolute bloodbath. As if having to follow HBK/Taker wasn’t bad enough, the stipulation was added that if Triple H was disqualified, he’d lose the World Title, which meant we got a non–violent encounter for the strap. With the Game's bloodlust hamstrung, the final match at WrestleMania XXV was subpar at best.
14 14. The DX Anthem
WrestleMania XIV was the inaugural event in the Attitude Era, with Stone Cold vs. HBK as their main event. Luckily, what most fans have forgotten is how the event began. Like every other WrestleMania, the event began with a rendition of America the Beautiful, but this one was performed by Chris Warren and the DX band, who gave their version of the Star Spangled Banner. Only this rendition was so terrible that it made Roseanne’s performance sound like Whitney Houston's. The fans in Boston booed the hell out of this performance and rightfully so.
13 13. The Invasion
When Vince McMahon bought WCW, all of the dream matches fans had been concocting for years could be realized. Why did the entire angle fail? A lot of WCW’s biggest guns decided to sit out the rest of their contracts with AOL/Time Warner and get paid for doing nothing, so the Invasion was just a bunch of mid–card guys and Booker T.
Secondly, there was no chance that Vince McMahon was going to allow WCW to exist as anything more than fodder for the WWE to bash around. Combine that with an abysmal debut WCW title match on Raw and you have a disaster.
12 12. Blindfold Match
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hsfmz
At WrestleMania VII, we were given the first ever blindfold match, which was pretty boring to watch. Instead of watching two talented wrestlers go at it, we watched two talented wrestlers waddle around the ring. Inside the arena, fans were into it, cheering Jake on and letting him know if he was close to Martel or not. However, if you watched it at home, it was just two guys waving at air for about ten minutes until Jake nailed the DDT.
11 11. Fake Diesel / Razor
When Kevin Nash and Scott Hall left the WWE for WCW, they debuted as invaders who were coming to take over. The announcers never referred to either guy by name and it appeared that Vince had sent his biggest stars to dismantle WCW. Around the same time in the WWE, Jim Ross was trying to get over as a heel and he claimed that Diesel and Razor Ramon were coming back. True to his word, he did bring Diesel and Razor back, but not Nash and Hall. Now playing those characters was a pre–Kane Glenn Jacobs and some guy named Rick Bognar. The fans crapped on this angle and the whole thing made WWE look second rate.
10 10. Brawl for All
In 1998, on the back of UFC's new found popularity, Vince Russo thought it would be a good idea to pit some of their tougher wrestlers against each other in real life boxing/wrestling matches. Dubbed the Brawl for All, these were not staged segments, just two guys beating on each other. The problem is that when people want to watch real fighting, they’ll watch UFC, not untrained professional wrestlers who aren't trained for this kind of combat.
9 9. Pepper Anyone?
When the Big Boss Man returned to the WWE, he engaged in a feud with Al Snow as a vicious heel. During this feud, we saw one of the more despicable angles in WWE history, as the Boss Man kidnapped Al Snow's dog (Pepper), only to feed him to an unknowing Al Snow. It all led to the Kennel from Hell match–which was the old school blue steel cage surrounded by the Hell in a Cell which contained "attack dogs," who basically just roamed around the ring and didn't do a whole lot of attacking. This was a disturbing angle that led to a horrible match.
8 8. Mae Births a Hand
At one point, all of the ladies wanted a piece of Sexual Chocolate, Mark Henry. On the flip side, Mae Young had been living out the end of her career as a vivacious elder vixen with a voracious appetite. It was only a matter of time before the May–December romance would happen. However, fans were really thrown for a loop when Mae announced she was pregnant, a true miracle at 77 years young. Believe it or not, there was genuine interest in this, but when Mae gave birth to a bloody hand, absolutely no one was impressed.
7 7. Double–Chinned Diva vs. the Donald
In 2007, there was a very real war of words going on between media personalities, Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump, over things like O’Donnell’s weight and the Donald’s dealings with Miss USA. Vince McMahon promised a face off on Raw between the two and hyped it to be big event like Hulk/Andre. Instead we got two poor impersonators who engaged in a nine minute snore fest, in which both “competitors” made Keven Federline look like a bonafide contender. AS much as Vince McMahon has done for the business, he also likes to show how obnoxious of a sense of humor he has from time to time.
6 6. Are You There God? It’s Me, Vince
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyalm0_shane-mr-mcmahon-vs-shawn-michaels-god_sport
He's been referred to as Satan for so long, that it was bound to happen that Vince McMahon would call out the Almighty. After losing to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 22, Vince McMahon called the win an act of God and set a match for Backlash, where McMahon and the "product of his semen" (Shane McMahon), would take on Michaels and his tag team partner, the good Lord himself. The promos for this match were Vince and Shane at their best, Vince appearing in churches, telling the Lord to strike him down, with Shane stepping away in case God would actually do such a thing. But calling out the Lord and using his name to set up a handicap match was in poor taste.
5 5. Negating the Hitman
With Hulk Hogan gone and Bret Hart having phenomenal matches with everyone, there was a clear shift coming and it was cemented when Bret defeated Ric Flair to win his first title. At WrestleMania IX, the Excellence of Execution would lose the title to Yokozuna, before the returning Hogan would come out to check on the former champion and be challenged by Mr. Fuji on the spot. Hogan obliged and left ‘Mania new champion. Hogan would again be gone by June and Hart would continue to prove why he deserved to be the man. Forget the Yes Movement, the Pink and Black Attack was the original grass roots movement. Vince had no choice but to right his wrong and book Bret to win the gold again at WrestleMania X.
4 4. 18 Seconds
If “Bootista” winning the 2014 Royal Rumble was the final straw in the Yes Movement becoming an unstoppable monster, then it was an 18 second defeat at WrestleMania XXVIII where the Yes Movement would begin to take hold. As a heel, then–World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan would prance to the ring chanting “Yes, Yes, Yes.” Little by little, the fans stopped booing and starting joining the former American Dragon in celebrating himself. Always respected for his wrestling ability, the world had assumed that as World Champion, Bryan would finally get the chance to show his stuff, defending the championship against Sheamus at a WrestleMania. But on this night, it was not to be–the powers that be decided it would be far more entertaining if Sheamus kicked the heck out of Bryan the minute the bell rung and won the title immediately.
3 3. What’s in the Egg?
The 1990 edition of Survivor Series will go down in history for two vastly different reasons, the debut of The Undertaker and the debut of The Gobbledy Gooker. For months, there would be an egg on stage of every WWE show. In the end, it wasn’t money or aliens, it was Hector Guerrero in a giant turkey costume. Commentators Roddy Piper and Gorilla Monsoon tried to get the horrible act over, but Piper just couldn’t compose himself and laughed through the complete stupidity of it all. Monsoon even tried to get Piper to take the dancing Turkey home. Luckily, the Gooker wasn’t seen again until being quickly tossed from the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X–Seven.
2 2. Stone Cold Turns Heel
One of the greatest PPVs of all time is WrestleMania X–Seven. There really wasn't a dull moment, except the riotous ending. The Rock and Stone Cold tore the house down and the Houston fans were at a fever pitch waiting for their hometown boy Austin to win the title, when Vince McMahon headed to the ring to help Austin, siding with the man he spent almost two years feuding with. The crowd booed the win, not accepting a heel Stone Cold. Austin has said if he knew the fans weren’t going to accept him as a heel, he would’ve stunned Vince and sent the crowd home happy.
1 1. Katie Vick
When a storyline involves something as disturbing as necrophilia, it’s a lock to make a list like this. During a program with Kane, Triple H revealed to the world that Kane had unrequited love for a woman named Katie Vick, who Kane had tragically killed in a car accident. However, Triple H showed us a weird video that proved a little thing like death wouldn’t stop the Big Red Machine, who decided to be with her regardless. Storylines like this show that Vince McMahon clearly doesn’t have a clue where the line is.