8 Most Poorly Aged Spots In WWE History
Highlights
- The content discusses outdated and inappropriate moments from WWE's history that would not be acceptable in today's culture.
- From non-consensual kisses to degrading and humiliating acts, these incidents highlight the need for change in wrestling storytelling.
- Exploiting real-life struggles with alcoholism and using offensive stereotypes shows a lack of sensitivity and understanding in the industry.
As with all of culture, pop culture or otherwise, the times, they are a-changing, as Bob Dylan once famously sang. As those times do change, so does what society at large says is acceptable. Every week, Ralph Kramden used to threaten to bash his wife’s face in and “send her to the moon,” and the fans of The Honeymooners ate it up.
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The wrestling too has had to grow and change over the years to match societal conventions. It’s an interesting tightrope to navigate. While some of these spots and storylines from WWE were pretty good for their times and might even hold up in context, they’re also just woefully inappropriate for today’s audiences.
8 Ric Flair Forcing A Kiss On Miss Elizabeth / Becky Lynch
When part of your slogan, your mission statement is that you’re “kiss stealing…” occasionally you might have the need to actually show that you can steal a kiss or two. Even if it’s against a lady’s will - after all you are stealing. But ol’ Slick Ric didn’t seem to mind forcing himself down a few ladies' throats.
First up with Miss Elizabeth during his unsuccessful title defense against The Macho Man at WrestleMania 8. You’d think he would have learned, but nope. Years later he pulled the same nonsense on Becky Lynch to help Charlotte retain The SmackDown Women’s Championship.
7 Spanking The Ladies
Obviously, several spots on this list probably weren’t cool when they first happened let alone now. But big babyface wrestlers like Hulk Hogan all the way to Tommy Dreamer used to get massive pops from the crowd for heaving a heel valet over their knees and letting loose with a spanking.
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Hulk in particular with The Sensational Sherri was not above bending her over his knee and doing so - much to the delight of immoral and despicable Pukeamaniacs.
6 Rock Beats Mick With A Chair
Plenty of wrestling fans can become desensitized to the levels of violence that happen during the course of a match. But every so often, something so brutal - and in a weird way, so real can happen over the course of a match that can make even the most cynical fan cringe in horror. One of those moments came at the 1999 Royal Rumble during the I Quit Match between The Rock and Mankind.
The Rock had Foley handcuffed and then preceded to swing for the fences right into Mankind’s face repeatedly while his family watched on helplessly. Out of all the punishments Foley had received over the years, this is the worst to watch.
5 Bark Like A Dog
While it’s not a spot from a wrestling match, watching the boss Vince McMahon degrade and humiliate one of his employees is always a little unsettling - especially in the light of his current investigations. But what he does to Trish Stratus is on another level.
The Chairman had the poor girl begging on her knees and barking like a dog. Several weeks later, he dumped a slop bucket on her. His comeuppance - Trish helped Shane defeat him at WrestleMania 17, so…”thank you, Trish?”
4 I’m Gonna Make A Man Out Of You
Thankfully, the decision to wear ladies' undergarments underneath his tights at WrestleMania 12 was entirely Goldust’s decision - we might be having a different conversation at that point.
However, even though the moment Roddy Piper stripped him after beating him down was played up for comedy, it could be very insensitive to certain groups nowadays.
3 3 Minute Warning Ruin HLA
When Eric Bischoff first came to Raw as GM, he implemented a lot of changes to try and make Raw great again - at least in storyline. One of those implementations was HLA - Hot Lesbian Action. This entry could certainly be considered a two-for-one sale.
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There’s certainly nothing wrong with HLA, but most humans have come to learn that there are better ways to sell the product than straight sex. But what got even worse was that after three minutes, Bischoff sent Rosey and Jamal out to obliterate the two ladies before placing them in a compromised position and delivering the big splash.
2 Beating Down Eugene
Speaking of “Uncle Eric,” his nephew Eugene winds up on our list as well. Originally debuting as a bit of an homage to Eugene Palermo, a super fan who happened to have Down Syndrome, Eugene became a bit of an inspiration.
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Until he became a bit of a punching bag, which is an unfortunate part of becoming a wrestler - eventually Vince McMahon might see humor in your character. Only when it came to Eugene, it became at his expense instead of laughing with him.
1 Using Alcohol Against Alcoholics
Both Jake The Snake Roberts and Scott Hall had battled their demons and thanks to DDP and healthy support systems were able to come out the other side to tell the tale. But during their struggles, WWE brass thought it would be a good idea to exploit both men’s real-life struggles with alcoholism - first with Jerry Lawler making all sorts of incessant comments and then by pouring beer on The Snake.
Nearly a decade later, Stone Cold would kidnap Scott Hall and so the same thing to him - only Scott neglected to tell anyone that he was taking Antabuse at the time. The drug is designed to make people sick at the scent of alcohol.
