Wrestling Moments No One Was Buying

Wrestling as a form of entertainment requires a level of buy-in from fans. Every kid who grows up watching it will eventually have that moment where they learn that it is predetermined. It is kind of like finding out (spoilers) Santa Claus isn't real. Fans either accept that it is a performance and roll with it or move on to other things. If a fan can suspend their disbelief and enjoy it for what it is, wrestling can provide incredible entertainment. The athleticism, passion, and pageantry are like nothing else in the world. Simply put, wrestling is wonderful.

This can be a difficult idea to defend (especially with a photo of a man in a turkey costume as that found above the text), however, it's true. Ask any fan why they love wrestling. They will get misty-eyed talking about Bret Hart, The Rock, Antonio Inoki, Mick Foley, or whichever performer made them fall in love with the art form. There is something magical about wrestling when it's done right.

As a spectacle, it can also, at times, be a disaster. In the history of the business, there are storylines, gimmicks, and moments that are impossible to defend. They can be comical, offensive, or just plain stupid. Some of these moments are infamous. Some of them get a tongue-in-cheek wink from the company responsible. Some of them are glossed over. This piece will examine the moments that fans just couldn't buy. 

Fred Ottman has the dubious honor of being at the center of the most unintentionally funny moment in the history of wrestling. Ottman actually had a very respectable run in the WWF. He competed at pay-per-view events, was an ally of Hulk Hogan, and, after a run as Tugboat, turned heel to become Typhoon. As one half of the Natural Disasters tag team, he won the WWF Tag Titles in July 1992. In 1993, Ottman left the WWF to sign with WCW. This is where things went off the rails.

The date was August 18, 1993. The event was the Clash of the Champions XXIV. Sting, Davey Boy Smith, and Dustin Rhodes were scheduled to face Sid Vicious, Vader, Kane (Stevie Ray), and Kole (Booker T) in an upcoming War Games match. Sting's team was concealing the identity of their secret. Vicious' team demanded answers. Sting proclaimed, "our partner is going to shock the world because he is none other than the Shockmaster!" 

Ottman, wearing a Stormtrooper helmet covered in glitter was supposed to bust through a wall after some pyro. Instead, he fell flat on his face. According to Arn Anderson on "The Arn Show" podcast, this made Davey Boy yell, "he busted his f***ing a**" off camera. Ole Anderson was voicing the Shockmaster. You can clearly hear him laugh (understandably) right before starting his ominous promo. As far as intimidating introductions go, it couldn't get any worse. 

WCW pivoted his character to a klutz shortly thereafter and, amazingly, he picked up a win or two. Ottman, to his everlasting credit, has a sense of humor about it and comes across as a lovely dude. It's a great perspective for someone tied to this shocking debut (groan).

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) had some amazing moments in the '90s: the Hulk Hogan heel turn, the New World Order (NWO), Goldberg (at times), and great cruiserweight matches are all prime examples. WCW boasted a very talented roster with names like Flair, Sting, Pillman, Hall, etc. They could just put the performers in the ring and let them cook. Sadly, that wasn't always the creative direction. WCW also had a history of comically overbooking. One of the more ridiculous examples of this happened on May 19, 1990 at Capital Combat.

RoboCop was a series of middling, but awesome films about a half-man, half-robot police officer. For whatever reason, WCW decided to help promote "RoboCop 2" by having the lead character take part in a pay-per-view event. It was absurd from the get-go. Robocop arrived at the arena flanked by what appeared to be Secret Service officers, some security, and Sting. The Stinger made his way down to the ring and was then jumped by the Horsemen. The Horsemen then proceeded to force Stinger into a cage (which was conveniently at ringside from earlier). From there, Robocop appeared on the walkway. At a very gentlemanly pace, Robocop made his way to the cage where Sting was trapped. The robot proceeded to bend the clearly rubber cage bars and free Sting. Jim Ross on commentary said, "what strength by Robocop!" Then, the Horsemen quickly left. That's it. That was the segment. 

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this was terrible. It now lives in the humorous eye-roll section of wrestling history. Sting said in an interview with Bleacher Report that, "at the time, it was one of the most embarrassing things to endure." It was pretty embarrassing for the fans as well. 

"WCW Nitro" from October 12, 1998 was a microcosm of why WCW was wonderful, and, at times, tasteless and completely unhinged. This episode featured Goldberg picking up his 150th (cough) win during his unbeaten streak. There was also a remarkably coherent promo from (Ultimate) Warrior. Jericho and Raven had a fun little TV match. Throw in some making light of a person's substance abuse issues, then top this off with a cameo from a homicidal doll, and you've got the idea.

At the time, Rick Steiner was feuding with his younger brother Scott. The elder Steiner went to the ring to do an in-ring interview with Mean Gene Okerlund. Suddenly, they were interrupted by an ominous and overly-long cackle. Naturally, the cackle belonged to Chucky. For anyone unfamiliar, Chucky is a series of campy horror films turned TV show starring a small murderous child doll. Chucky proceeded to dunk on Mean Gene. He called Gene "cue ball" before bragging that he's "doing love scenes with Jennifer Tilly." Chucky then moved his attention to Rick Steiner. After threatening Steiner and getting in a plug for the new Chucky movie, the doll revealed his plans. Apparently, Chucky's true creative passion was directing. Chucky says he cast Rick's brother, Scott, in a new movie, however, he was concerned that Scott will be hurt, which would keep Chucky from winning an award.

To be clear, that was a doll threatening a wrestler due to his concerns about winning an Academy Award. Scott and Rick's feud continued and thankfully Chucky wasn't involved any further. Chucky wasn't involved again in wrestling until October 26, 2021 when he cut a promo for "NXT" Halloween Havoc and dunked on a Steiner once more.

The biggest day in professional wrestling every year is without question WrestleMania. It's an annual event that sells out massive arenas, creates memorable occurrences, and gives WWE Superstars their moment. Since WrestleMania began, the event has brought celebrity and non-wrestling athletes into the wrestling world in an effort to generate buzz. The WWE also has a long history of using their flagship event as a platform to create attraction matches. Floyd Mayweather, Lawrence Taylor, and Johnny Knoxville have all competed on The Grandest Stage of them All.

At WrestleMania 21 (an excellent show), Big Show competed against a legitimate sumo wrestling champion named Akebono. WWE did an official weigh in on "SmackDown" the week of WrestleMania. They also had Akebono squash some poor dude. The WrestleMania match was about as flat as possible. It certainly didn't help that the contest took place right after the Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels bout (an all-time great match). After going through the traditional sumo rituals, the two men came together. The crowd was quiet or, at best, being polite. If you watch the match you can see some of them coming back from getting food. Tazz and Michael Cole did their level best to commentate, but it was a lost cause. Paul Wight was eventually tossed out of the ring, a loss according to sumo rules. Big Show described it as his most embarrassing moment in wrestling.

Akebono went on to have a respectable wrestling career in Japan. He competed in All Japan, New Japan, Dragon Gate, and Zero1 before retiring. Big Show hadn't seen the end of the Mania gimmick matches. He faced (and lost to) Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania XXIV. 

By the year 2000, WCW was on its last legs for a lot of reasons. A finger poke, Viagra on a pole, Vince Russo, and not using their talent right all contributed. After giving the WWF a run for their money, WCW chased off a large chunk of their fans. The year 2000 saw the WWF routinely beat WCW in the ratings. The moment that many fans highlight as the end of WCW came on the April 26, 2000 episode of "Thunder."

David Arquette is an actor who is most known for his work in the "Scream" franchise. He also legitimately loves wrestling. In April 2000, Warner Bros. and WCW were getting ready to release a wrestling movie called "Ready to Rumble." The movie starred Arquette and members of the WCW roster (along with Joe Pantoliano, weirdly). As a way to promote the movie, Arquette was in a tag match on "Thunder." He teamed with DDP against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. The match had a stipulation that whoever got the pin would win the WCW World Title. David Arquette speared Bischoff and pinned him. He won the title and shredded any credibility WCW had left. 

The movie and this decision both flopped. "Ready to Rumble" holds a 52% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and only grossed $12.4 million. Arquette was very unhappy with his role in hurting professional wrestling. He tried to make amends by legitimately training and then competing in the ring. He made a documentary about this journey called "You Cannot Kill David Arquette."

The Attitude Era in the WWF was a wild time. It produced some of the biggest Superstars and moments in the history of professional wrestling. D-Generation X, The Rock, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin were all staples of that era in sports entertainment. It is also more than fair to say that it produced some pretty ugly-minded stuff. There is, however, one angle that was the most tasteless, disgusting, and stomach-churning of all. It is perhaps the ugliest moment in the history of professional wrestling, which, oddly enough, occurred only months after the Attitude Era ended. That honor belongs to the Katie Vick storyline.

In October 2002, Kane was feuding with Triple H. On the October 14 episode of "Raw," Hunter alleged that Kane had killed his friend Katie Vick. He took it a million steps too far when he accused the Big Red Machine of having sex with her lifeless body. One week later on "Raw," Triple H screened a videotape for the WWE universe. On this tape, Hunter, dressed as Kane, violated Katie Vick's body at a funeral home. There really isn't another way to describe it. He referenced her panties and his own stiffness before removing her clothes and, well, you get the idea. The big finish to this segment was when Triple H proclaimed gleefully, "I screwed your brains out!" 

Even if this segment is given the benefit of being over 20 years old, it's reprehensible. There isn't really anything else one can say about it. 

Another moment to file under revolting segments of the early 2000s came during the February 28, 2000 episode of "Raw." For some contrast, this episode featured a good little tag match between X-Pac and Road Dogg versus The Dudley Boyz. It also had a lovely (and super dated) tribute video to Mick Foley, who had just been retired by Triple H at No Way Out. Neither of these moments were what caused fans to roll their eyes. That feat was accomplished by Mae Young, The Fabulous Moolah, Mark Henry, and a fake hand fetus (not a typo).

The story, such as it is, was that Mark Henry was sleeping with Mae Young and had gotten her pregnant. On this particular Attitude Era episode of "Raw," Mark Henry, aka Sexual Chocolate, faced Crash Holly for the Hardcore Championship. While Holly was down, Mae Young attempted a running splash and then began holding her stomach. She was then rushed to the back to deliver the baby. The segment involved a cigar, special effects sounds of passing gas, and too many off-color jokes to count. At the end of it all, Mae delivered a fake hand covered in what appeared to be "Ghostbusters" Ecto goo. It isn't great. The only redeemable part was Mark Henry's smile. He clearly couldn't take it seriously, which was the only acceptable reaction.

When asked about this years later on the "AEW Unrestricted" podcast, Henry said, "I still, to this day, don't get it" (via Inside The Ropes). It's okay Mark, no one else got it either.

Andrew Hankinson has had an interesting ride in professional wrestling. As Doc Gallows he is a legit star and Bullet Club staple in Japan. He and teammate Karl Anderson won the 2013 World Tag League tournament. At Wrestle Kingdom 8, they won the IWGP Tag Team Championships. He has also wrestled in TNA Impact (and won titles), AEW, and WWE. His first run with WWE in 2006 was gimmicky and lame for reasons that are no fault of Hankinson. He just wasn't given good material to work with (he was Imposter Kane).

After Imposter Kane, Hankinson was brought back to the main roster as Festus. His gimmick centered on being developmentally disabled. Apparently, Vince McMahon asked Hankinson if he could make a face and Festus was born. As gimmicks go, it's about as ridiculous as you can get. Festus didn't exactly take off. On the December 21, 2007 episode of "SmackDown," he was in a Santa match against Deuce. Michael Cole and JBL couldn't stop laughing during commentary. Strictly speaking, that isn't great for a wrestler career-wise. The character eventually disappeared.

Hankinson moved on to other promotions and better opportunities. His time in New Japan and other promotions proved he could work. It also proved that he didn't need an absurd gimmick. If you watch any of his matches, he is pretty great for a big guy. On October 10, 2022, Gallows and Anderson returned to WWE, and, judging by the reaction of the crowd, the team is pretty over.  

In case it hasn't been made clear, the WWF was at times clearly off the rails in the late '90s. In August 1998, there was a lot happening on "Raw." The WWF was in the middle of the famous disaster known as The Brawl for All. Heel Vince McMahon was messing with Mankind. The Oddities were kind of a thing. It was a lot. In the midst of all this, the WWF decided to cash in on a tabloid story involving a man named John Wayne Bobbitt having his penis cut off. There isn't another way to write that.

Val Venis worked a porn star gimmick in the WWF. On the August 3, 1998 episode of "Raw," Venis was feuding with the Kai En Tai stable. Val was also sleeping with the sister of Taka Michinoku and partnered with him. Surprise, surprise, Val was betrayed by Taka and hauled to the back for retribution. Kai En Tai were about to chop Val's penis off, but, not to worry, John Wayne Bobbitt was on hand. Bobbitt turned the lights off just in time, saving Val in the process. 

The next week on "Raw," Venis went to the ring holding an ice pack on his groin accompanied by Bobbitt and the lady in question. They managed to get off about 20 private part jokes before this train wreck was over. Among the jokes, Jerry Lawler wondered if you could put a missing penis on a milk carton. It's awful. It's just plain awful.

The early to mid-'90s WWF was awash with absurd gimmicks. Prior to the Attitude Era, a WWF wrestler always seemed to need to be something. Dr. Isaac Yankem (Glenn Jacobs, aka Kane) was an evil dentist. Nailz was a convict. Bastion Booger was gross. The Repo Man was well, a repo man. You get the idea. There is one gimmick, however, that towers above all in terms of stupidity. It's one that was so cosmically stupid and ill-thought-out, that it defies explanation. That gimmick was born or, to be accurate, hatched at Survivor Series 1990.

Prior to the 1990 Survivor Series, a large egg began appearing at WWF events. In theory, this was to build suspense, although it's hard to picture fans getting fired up about an egg being ringside. In Hartford, Connecticut at Survivor Series, the mystery was revealed. Mean Gene Okerlund (bless his heart) was beside the egg and really tried to sell it. The egg hatched and a man in a turkey costume popped out. The fan response was tepid because it was a man in a turkey costume. "Don't tell me you're the Gobbledy Gooker," said Mean Gene, which on rewatch could make someone want to cry. The Gooker went to the ring and tried to get the fans fired up. It didn't work.

The Gobbledy Gooker disappeared quickly thereafter, probably because it was terrible. WWE brings ole Gooker back every once in awhile to poke fun at themselves. At Survivor Series 2020, The Gobbledy Gooker won the 24/7 Championship on the Kickoff show. That means a man in a turkey costume has won more titles in WWE than Jake Roberts. Sometimes, you just have to laugh.

The May 16, 1992 episode of "WWF Superstars" had a whole lot of cliches in it. A young mullet-haired Shawn Michaels barbecued some poor jobber named Sonny Blaze. The Mountie (with Jimmy Hart) cut a promo in front of what appears to be the wall of an aerobics studio. Tatanka kept his undefeated streak alive against a jobber named Barry Hardy. Amidst all this gold was the next chapter in the Ultimate Warrior versus Papa Shango story.

The week prior on "Superstars," Shango cursed The Ultimate Warrior. On May 16, Warrior was matched up against Brian Knobbs. As an aside, Ultimate Warrior was loved by the fans during this era. The venue comes unglued when his music hits. During the match, Warrior's wristband comes off. Papa Shango arrived, took the wristband, and left. Warrior picked up the win (of course) and was celebrating when Shango returned. He was brandishing a smoking skull and kind of twitching. Ultimate Warrior fell off the apron and started rolling around on the ground clutching his stomach. The acting during this thing was very bad. They took Warrior to the back for medical attention. While there, he vomited what looked like a lot of pea soup on a guy pretending to be a doctor (the dude looks like he's about 24), and then the segment was over.

This angle eventually fizzled out, probably because it was terrible. Charles Wright who played Shango (as well as Kama and Godfather) told WSI (Wrestling Shoot Interviews) this angle was created on the fly to cover some backstage issues. This almost excuses it, almost.