Well I’m back with the “Best/Worst I’ve Seen” series, the “Since 2000” edition. What made me write this article after writing one yesterday you say? I don’t know. When you’re in your room watching the NBA playoffs, certain things just come to you, you know? Anyways, we’ve seen a lot of crappy angles in WWE, but recently I found some that stood out to me in particular, and I would like to share them with you today. You can’t appreciate how great WWE can be sometimes when you realize how bad it has been for them at certain times. With that said, let’s go through some dishonorable nominees. And they are:
Summer of Punk – CM Punk, who on one episode of Monday Night RAW, stopped the Earth’s rotation, with an earth-shattering promo where he would break the lines between scripted television and real disdain. When you mention Ring of Honor, you know it gets serious. After that incredible display of mic skills, he would proceed to have one of the greatest matches in WWE history against John Cena at Money In The Bank. With his contract expiring that night, he would leave WWE with its most storied title. John Cena would then win the WWE Title in a tournament, but CM Punk would return to determine the undisputed champion. That was the issue though. He returned far too soon. And then, when Triple H got involved, it was all downhill. Triple H would needlessly beat CM Punk at Night of Champions and somehow culminated in Triple H vs. Kevin Nash. The horrible memories of 2003 comes to mind. This wouldn’t be on the main list had it been for Punk’s 434 day reign, but I think WWE dropped the ball on this one.
18 Seconds: Daniel Bryan and Sheamus are two people with incredible chemistry in the ring. At WrestleMania 28, they were bound to have a great bout had they gotten a good amount of time. Yet when Daniel Bryan had his back turned to kiss his on-screen girlfriend, AJ, he would get a Brogue Kick to the face in what would be one of the worst, cheapest victories in WrestleMania history. WrestleMania 28 would be one of the greatest WrestleManias ever, but this blunder on the show is something that should be erased from the archives.
John Cena defeats Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules 2012: Lesnar’s domination of Cena at Summerslam last year made up for this, but otherwise, it would be on the main list. You have Brock Lesnar, arguably the most dominant athlete WWE has ever seen go up against John Cena, coming off a loss against The Rock at WrestleMania. He’s a beast, and he proves it with his dismantling of Cena of the weeks leading up to their matchup. When they would actually fight, it was shaping out to be one the most one-sided fights ever. It was a good 15 minutes of Cena getting his ass handed to him. But all it took was a shot with a chain and an Atittude Adjustment on some steel steps to finish the beast off. In Lesnar’s first match back in over eight years, you would have think he would have gotten a win, but in a match that can only be described as Goku vs. Broly (for my Dragon Ball Z fans out there), the wrong guy went over. If there is one thing I hate, it’s a stupid Superman act.
Twice In A Lifetime: If you’re going to advertise a match as Once In A Lifetime between John Cena and The Rock, there should be no rematch planned for the following year. But we all know Cena must always have the last laugh. Because he’s John Cena.
21-1: I get why they did it. But I thought this record was something that was meant to be sacred, and having a man who doesn’t consistently show up on RAW ending it was kind of a slap to the face. But I’m sure Undertaker was involved in the decision, so if he ended it on his terms, it lessens the blow a bit. But now we won’t see people challenging Undertaker for an undefeated streak.
Vince McMahon wins the ECW Championship: Let’s just forget about this one.
Anything involving Mike Adamle: Yea, this too…..
Now, onto the main event. (Warning: the following list may contain a lot of Triple H. Viewer discretion is advised.)
10. Ending of Battleground 2013
There were many things that went wrong with this disgrace of a show, but none more than the main event. WWE vacated the WWE Championship after Daniel Bryan beat Orton on a fast count. So now they are in a rematch to determine the new WWE Champion. In a decent back and forth match, for some god-forsaken reason, The Big Show’s fat ass runs down to the ring, knocks everyone out in sight, and the WWE graphic that shows the end of a PPV appeared on the bottom left of the screen to end the show. There is still no champion, and it’s because The Big Show decides to make himself relevant. Any show in 2013 that ends with The Big Show standing tall means you have messed up. It’s not only that he interfered but what would happen after. Orton would later go on to beat Daniel Bryan at Hell In A Cell in predictable fashion and The Big Show takes Daniel Bryan’s spot for no reason whatsoever. This stunted Daniel Bryan’s ascent to the top and for some reason WWE thought that Randy Orton vs. The Big Show in a main event would be interesting. Shame on them.
9. Randy Orton/Christian Rivalry
I’m a huge Orton fan, so I didn’t mind this feud as much. What I hated is how they booked Christian. After Edge vacated the World Heavyweight Championship after a career-ending neck predicament, his best friend Christian would go on to beat Alberto Del Rio at Extreme Rules to become the new World Champion. The Smackdown that same week, Orton comes to challenge for the World Title and Teddy Long makes the match. Hey, getting Christian and Orton on TV in a World Title match for free is something I can take. But for some reason, WWE decides to take the title off of Christian. Just because he’s Orton. Christian was World Heavyweight Champion for a total of five days. Now every match Orton and Christian had in this feud were excellent, so at least there’s that. But WWE had Christian go from a valiant, fighting World Champion to a baby who complains a lot and wins with the easy way out. He won the World Title back at Money In The Bank when he defeated Randy Orton by disqualification. At the next PPV, Summerslam, Orton would WIN BACK THE TITLE, in albeit, a great no holds barred match. So Orton gained two needless World Heavyweight Title reigns from this feud which didn’t last very long, so it’s not like he was able to brag about it. As for Christian, he withered away into aimless feuds and lost his footing as well. This was pointless, it didn’t help Christian’s career, and it certainly did Orton no favors as well. The only saving grace was that this would lead to Mark Henry beating Orton clean at the very next PPV for his first World Title reign.
8. Triple H/Chris Jericho main events over The Rock/Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18
If you are reading a match card for a show in 2002, and you see Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock on the show, surely you would expect it to be the main event. But no, the main event of this show was Triple H and Chris Jericho for the Undisputed Championship. Now sure, a WWE Title match ending a PPV isn’t something to be mad about. However, there are certain situations where you need to lay back. WrestleMania 18 is such an example. The Rock and Hulk Hogan fighting was only considered a dream at one time. When that dream became reality at WrestleMania 18, the crowd went berserk for every moment. You felt the electricity and the aura of star power within that fight between the two. While the match itself was certainly nothing to write home about, the importance and gravity of the match would more than suffice being the main event. The Triple H comeback story from his quad injury was great, and his return was even better, but this match as the main event was a bad choice. The crowd had used up all their energy for The Rock/Hogan match, and nothing was left for these two save the final sequence. The match felt like an extended RAW match back in 2002. You know, the type of matches where there was interference, moments where they would fight on the outside and the ref wouldn’t bother counting, the works. This was no where near worthy of the main event and while Chris Jericho main eventing WrestleMania is a great story, it shouldn’t have gotten the nod.
7. John Cena Takes Down Nexus – Summerslam 2010
Oh, who can forget this? The Nexus was comprised of select talents of NXT and ran rough shot over the WWE roster. With assaults leaving plenty of carnage, WWE had struck oil. Just one issue. Their first victim was John Cena. A big no-no when pushing younger talents. This led to WWE leading of a team of select WWE superstars entitled “Team WWE” against the Nexus at Summerslam. The Nexus found themselves with a 2 on 1 advantage with Justin Gabriel and captain Wade Barrett against John Cena two on one. They destroyed him even removing the protective matting on the floor. John Cena surely was on his way to a loss. But with a cheap roll up on Justin Gabriel and a submission on Barrett as if he was never hurt, the beginning of the end was in store for Nexus. Edge and Jericho would state on a podcast that it was a stupid choice and Cena would even admit later it was pretty stupid as well. Barrett and Cena would have a singles feud and while Barrett would pick up a victory with Cena joining Nexus, that would prove to be an utter failure as Cena was “Fired”, came back, and defeated Barrett again. This was one of the biggest waste of what may have been the greatest faction in the post Attitude Era.
6. Anonymus RAW GM
Now, you see there’s stupid, and then there’s VERY stupid. I’m not sure whether or not WWE thought Michael Cole saying “May I have your attention please” was in any way entertaining, but this was one of the worst uses of time ever. You have a robot talking from a computer, making stipulations, matches, decisions, all of that. Two years later, an “investigation” for who this RAW Gm really was took place. No seriously. It gets better. It is revealed that all this time, the man who made all of these decisions was Hornswoggle. Oh yea. Tell me you didn’t like it. All that build-up. I mean, come on. And you know what else? That RAW GM made an impromptu cameo late last year when he booked matches for TLC? If we already know who he was, why bring back the damn computer? Especially considering it was only for one episode and it was completely random. You just have to shake your head at things like this.
5. Booker T/Triple H Feud
So in 2003, Booker T won a battle royal (which included The Rock – a testament to him putting over talent, even the Green Hurricane that same year) to determine who would face Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship belt at WrestleMania. In the weeks leading up to their bout, Triple H would mock Booker T, but he would start to push some buttons he shouldn’t have. He said that “people like you” don’t get to win the World Title. If you haven’t noticed, Triple H is white. Booker T? Pretty black to me. Now I’m not one to jump to conclusions and deem Triple H a racist, but it is pretty unwise to justify him saying that. I mean, you say that sort of things on the street and you get slaughtered for it. Now Triple H insinuates that when he made that statement, he was referring to WCW guys. Yet it is hard to believe that considering that at the time WCW was dead for over a year. Possible racism was further exacerbated in the coming weeks when Triple H would request him to do stuff like dance, carry his luggage and get him a towel for a dollar. Does that not sound like something a slave master would say to his slave? As for the actual match, it should have been Booker T, the man who overcame insurmountable odds as a child to make it big going over Triple H, the man who married the boss’ daughter and was physically handed the World Title on a silver platter by Eric Bischoff. However Triple H would hit a pedigree, both men collapsed, and after 30 seconds of laying down, Triple H gingerly covered Booker T, and there was no kick out. That was more than enough time for him to kick out. But no, he lost. And what did WWE have to show for it? A Triple H/Kevin Nash feud? Funny! While Booker T would win the World Heavyweight Championship against Rey Mysterio three years later, it was three years overdue.
4. Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon – WrestleMania 26
Now surely we all know why this match goes down. Bret is pissed with WWE, more specifically, Vince McMahon and wants to bail for WWE’s rival, WCW. At the Survivor Series in 1997, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart fight for the WWF title and at the end of the match, Vince calls for the ref to ring the bell when Shawn locks in the Sharpshooter on Bret when he did not submit. So Bret was screwed out of the title. 13 years later, Bret returns, he wants vengeance for his humiliation and the two fight at WrestleMania. The match was very disturbing to watch. Considering that both men had a combined age of over 100, this would prove to be a waste of time. With Bret’s deficiencies in the ring, this was bound to collapse on itself. Vince McMahon certainly wasn’t about to help matters. Now if the entire Hart family came out and jumped Vince McMahon and Bret pinned Vince within 2 minutes, everything would have been just fine. But this match somehow stretched to over 11 minutes in what was a disturbing disaster. Bret finally received retribution, but a handshake would have been just fine.
3. Invasion
This had all the makings of the best program in WWE history. Shane McMahon drops a bombshell on one episode of RAW is War (those were the days) on his father that he has purchased WCW and then Booker T attacks Stone Cold on one episode and the line is drawn. Soon, more and more WCW guys would get involved. Then, Stephanie McMahon revealed that she is the owner of ECW, and now guys like Rob Van Dam makes their presence felt as well. So the war was officially on. However, this angle would flop completely on its back. Stone Cold turns heel after he had just turned face from his Vince McMahon alliance at WrestleMania 17. So now the WWF Champion is on The Alliance. It would be discovered that WWF was intent on making guys from ECW and WWF relatively week save for a rare few such as RVD. Triple H’s injury and missing out on this angle was certainly a huge blow, but then you realize that some of WCW’s biggest stars at the time like Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Steiner, Sting, Goldberg and Luger weren’t involved. As a matter fact, ALL of them except Luger would come to the WWF the following year. So the star power was extremely lacking on both sides as well. Then you also consider, hmmmm, I certainly remember people like Eddie Guererro, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and The Big Show on either ECW or WCW, or both. So why not put them on The Alliance as well? At the culmination of the angle at the Survivor Series, The Alliance ended up having Kurt Angle, Stone Cold (WWF Champion) and Shane McMahon on their team, all of them firmly in the WWF. Let’s not forget how short the feud was. This started at the Invasion PPV and ended at Survivor Series. This feud and the gravity of it was something that could have easily been extended to WrestleMania 18. This feud was the biggest waste of a potentially great money-drawing angle the WWF has ever seen. I must admit though, that build up package I pasted was the best I’ve seen.
2. Chris Benoit Tribute Show
One thing that cannot be disputed is that Chris Benoit was one of the best technicians the sport of wrestling has ever seen and based on his accolades in the ring, he would be more than worthy of a Hall of Fame induction. One day in 2007, WWE learned that Chris Benoit had died and held a tribute show in his honor just as they did two years prior to Eddie Guerrerro. All of this was well and good. We had memories of his career and people like Edge and Chavo Guererro tearing up about the loss of another good friend. Just one issue. Twenty four hours later, WWE would find out that Chris Benoit had actually taken the lives of his son and wife before killing himself. WWE realized that they had dedicated an entire episode of Monday Night RAW to a murderer. This was a case of WWE not having all of the facts before making a hasty decision. WWE needed a way to address this, but a tribute show without knowing the whole story was worthy of a double face palm. Vince McMahon would later apologize for this, but it still doesn’t remove the gross negligence that they showed. Since that day, no mention of Chris Benoit has been made. However, WWE will be sure to find themselves in awkward positions when people ask questions such as “Why can’t I find the winner of the 2004 Royal Rumble on the website” or “Who did Randy Orton beat to become the youngest World Heavyweight Champion?”. There is still great debate going as to whether or not Chris Benoit had lethal intent or if it was a by-product of insanity courtesy of complications involving his brain, which research showed he had an equivalent to an Alzheimer’s patient in their 80s. I won’t put my input into this, but needless to say, this was a bad, bad move on WWE’s part.
1. Katie Vick
Disgusting. Out of line. Tasteless. Reprehensible. Disturbing. Unacceptable. Those are some of the words to describe this atrocity. WWE thought that a necrophiliac storyline was appropriate to put on television. No, seriously. Stop laughing. At the time Triple H was world champion and was set to face Kane at No Mercy to unify the World Heavyweight Championship and Intercontinental Championship. But for some reason, WWE thought the best way to build up the match was to have Triple H call out Kane on having a relationship with a woman named Katie Vick. Apparently, Kane had drank one too many beers and had crashed a car with Katie in it, with Vick dying and Kane surviving. After the accident, Kane supposedly, ugh, had sexual relations with her dead, unliving corpse. Now, this was disturbing enough on its own. But the real kciker here is when Triple H showed alleged footage of the incident, though how he would obtain the smoking gun would be anyone’s guess. The video footage showed Triple H in a church with Kane’s mask on. Started out funny enough, cause he’s wearing a mask and making jokes. Ha ha. He then approaches the casket that apparently had Katie Vick inside it, when in actuality, it was a female mannequin. Then, the improbable happened. Triple H gets on top of the mannequin inside the casket, takes off his shirt, lifts up her legs, and just, um…Well as my 10th grade Health teacher would call it, did the “funky chicken”. After the incident, Triple H holds this thick substance in his hand and said “I really screwed your brains out”. Then the crowd would just boo, not for Triple H, but the disgusting nature of what they had just shown. It’s one thing to say that this actually happened, and that would be disgusting on its own, but to actually have the video shown for all to see was an unmitigated disaster of a choice. I told you this list had a lot of Triple H, didn’t I?
Disagree? Agree? Wish I would go screw myself? Comment below. Until next time.
