Most controversial or offensive storylines or incidents ever done in wrestling

[AtlantaWhaler]

Going off (a bad) memory...wasn't there an angle where Jeff Jarrett only fought against women? Maybe for the IC title? I believe he feuded with Chyna.

 

[Kimi]

And its just my opinion of course, *MOST* of the "controversial" angles I have no problem with as long as it makes for a good story. I view wrestling as a dramatic television show, nothing more. If there is a heinous character, and the writing is good, I am all for it. Ramsay Bolton style.

While you might do that, wrestling is still wrestling. It's not a drama show, it's fake sports. The drama should be coming from the fact that it's a sport over anything else. It's escapism to a cartoon world more than a drama show.

Still, you can have bad character do bad things and heavier storylines, but you don't need to exploit real life to do it. Doing an storyline with a character with a drinking problem is probably fine. Doing that storyline when the wrestler in question currently in rehab for a drinking problem really isn't fine. It's not enjoyable for anyone.

Turning real life into a storyline can sometimes be good. Reigns promo on Lesnar is a good example. There was a bad injury in TNA that they are going to play up in storyline which is making good use of an unfortunate accident.


The issues is often more with the timing of a story than the actual story it's self. After all, WWE are a company who run terrorist angles on a show the day that London was blown up by multiple terrorist bombs.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Going off (a bad) memory...wasn't there an angle where Jeff Jarrett only fought against women? Maybe for the IC title? I believe he feuded with Chyna.

He dropped the IC title on the same PPV where E&C and the Hardy Boys basically reinvented tag team wrestling for this era. It's also rumoured that Jarrett negotiated to get a potential $300,000 pay day just to lose that match.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Going off (a bad) memory...wasn't there an angle where Jeff Jarrett only fought against women? Maybe for the IC title? I believe he feuded with Chyna.

It wasn't an angle where he only fought women, it was a feud with Chyna, where she was #1 contender, and he kept telling her to get back into the kitchen and that wrestling was no place for women. They ended up doing a weapons match that was mostly kitchen objects as the weapons.

He dropped the IC title on the same PPV where E&C and the Hardy Boys basically reinvented tag team wrestling for this era. It's also rumoured that Jarrett negotiated to get a potential $300,000 pay day just to lose that match.

It wasn't an actual pay day, Jeff wanted his merchandising cheque before he left the company instead of having to wait for months like they usually did. Refused to go out there until he got it. That's why so many were surprised that he's going in the HOF this year.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It occurs to me that in my viewing of the WWE product I always happen to catch it during the worst possible time even when just checking to see what goes on. I had almost completely given up on Raw by Mania 22 and would watch every couple of weeks and still saw all the horrible crap it had to offer

In no order

1. Mae Young giving birth to a hand (not too young to remember that)
2. The entire Vince vs Stephanie fiasco with the "I quit" match
3. The Snitsky "It wasn't my fault" angle and baby punt
4. The live sex celebration -The whole thing was so stupid
5. Vince McMahon and the fruit of his loins Shane versus Shawn Michaels and God -just horrible
6. JBL playing border patrol - I didn't think it was in good taste
7. The entire Eddie Guerrero heel turn with being Dominick's Papi -I guess they got the reworked incest angle
8. Hornswoggle being McMahon's child - Easily the WORST thing I have ever watched. I don't even know if it's controversial or offensive. It was offensively horrible And saw it checking in
9. Everything done with Tim White trying to kill himself
10. Zach Gowen getting thrown down a flight of stairs by Brock Lesnar a few months after he stands up to Big Show's bullying of Rey Mysterio
11. The Piggy James debacle -which I saw courtesy of just checking in as well

Wasn’t the Domink angle one of Eddie’s last feuds before he died?

 

[These Are The Days]

Wasn’t the Domink angle one of Eddie’s last feuds before he died?

Yeah about a couple months before and then he was turned face again

 

[SladeWilson23]

And its just my opinion of course, *MOST* of the "controversial" angles I have no problem with as long as it makes for a good story. I view wrestling as a dramatic television show, nothing more. If there is a heinous character, and the writing is good, I am all for it. Ramsay Bolton style.

I agree. It just comes down to whether or not they "cross the line" or not.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

Yeah about a couple months before and then he was turned face again

Eh he never turned face again for real. He was supposed to win the title from Batista after cheating. He just unfortunately passed away before they ever had the chance

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I agree. It just comes down to whether or not they "cross the line" or not.

Agreed. You would think common sense would prevail on some stuff but it obviously hasn’t.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

He dropped the IC title on the same PPV where E&C and the Hardy Boys basically reinvented tag team wrestling for this era. It's also rumoured that Jarrett negotiated to get a potential $300,000 pay day just to lose that match.

Not just that.

His contract had expired the day before the defense and it was alleged that he and Russo (who had resigned) colluded to make sure the match happened after his contract expired so Jarrett could hold up Vince for $300,000 to wrestle the match and drop the title before leaving to WCW.

Eh he never turned face again for real. He was supposed to win the title from Batista after cheating. He just unfortunately passed away before they ever had the chance

Honestly I'm not even sure if the true plan has ever been confirmed. At least not that I can recall off the top of my head. The scenarios I've heard:

- Eddie Guerrero was going to win the World Title at that Smackdown taping and work a program with Randy Orton for the title so Batista could go off and get surgery.
- Eddie Guerrero was going to turn face regardless.
- Eddie Guerrero was going to work a match with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania that year.

Considering Batista was in bad shape at that point, and there seemed to be a lot of talks of Eddie/HBK that year, I'd lean to believing Eddie was going to win the title, drop it to Orton eventually and then work the interbrand match with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania. Whether he was going to be a face or heel for that match, I don't know.

 

[Emperoreddy]

“Do you know how you are going to support your kids now?”

 

[Paris in Flames]

Jesus. I remembered that they interviewed her but that was f***ed up.

Who does that shit?

Ugh. I really do believe Brian Pillman had Hall of Fame talent.

 

[JackSlater]

Ugh. I really do believe Brian Pillman had Hall of Fame talent.

Definitely true, even if we pretend that having a decent amount of talent was required for the WWE Hall of Fame. Pillman was quite a good in ring performer for years in WCW, eventually developed strong mic skills and his loose cannon character was both tremendous and ahead of its time.

 

[These Are The Days]

Eh he never turned face again for real. He was supposed to win the title from Batista after cheating. He just unfortunately passed away before they ever had the chance

I have heard for years on end that he was supposed to win the World Heavyweight Championship but it was just here and there. The fact you can give me something so specific as that Eddie was gonna cheat to do it and wasn't a true face shows me so many years after the fact it was true all along. It's sobering to think of. But I gotta be honest Eddie's passing came at the right time for Eddie himself. Had he won the championship and then passed away then it would've made an incredibly difficult thing even harder.

By God I miss him so much. Christ my eyes are watering up just thinking about it. His frog splash off the cage is probably my favorite moment in WWE history save for Lesnar's superplex.

Edit: yup shed a tear when I thought about how the way Cole's voice cracked when he said "Eddie Guerrero is champion!" when he won it all at No Way Out

 

[CaptainCrunch67]

Definitely true, even if we pretend that having a decent amount of talent was required for the WWE Hall of Fame. Pillman was quite a good in ring performer for years in WCW, eventually developed strong mic skills and his loose cannon character was both tremendous and ahead of its time.

His loose cannon character was brilliant, and a long rib on Bischoff, the dressing rooms of multiple companies and the fans. Jericho talked about Pillman at length in one of his books.

Pillman was brilliant, I do believe he was damaged, but he played a con that can never ever be replicated again.

 

[dahrougem2]

WWE tries to replicate Pillman with the insanely watered down version, Dean Ambrose.

One of the most disturbing moments to me was Vince forcing Trish to strip. That's just... imagine that happening today.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Triple H burial of Booker T, it was a racist angle and Triple H going over left a sour taste in people's mouths.

Big Bossman feeding Al Snow's dog to him

Big Bossman dragging Big Show's dead dad's casket

Remember Al Wilson?

Shawn Michael's SummerSlam match with Hogan for the simple fact it just exposed the business and showed how the old HBK still existed.

Mark Henry getting oral sex from a transexual

 

[CHGoalie27]

It's still crazy to me that WWE have show called "Elimination Chamber". They re-name it for Germany, but they still push it elsewhere. If you have to re-name a show and you do it, then it's probably a good idea to change the name completely.

And on the topic of Nazis, here's a NJPW poster:

It's actually a defensible design in their local market, Nazi style isn't a negative like it is in the west and they teach different history as they are very detached from Europe. But it's still terrible to the outside.

Not to get too political up here, but while we're taught the Nazi's were the most evil racist element ever, we had slavery and segregation here. Weird what a little research has to offer in explanation of that...any terrorist angle sucks to me now. Bad enough people in certain parts of the world are getting murdered for nothing they did wrong and it's glorified as anti terrorist here.

I think the Vince stripping Trish thing was the one most brilliantly offensive angle. The decision to do so, and for it to be Vince (cuz he's got the balls and stands frontline for his product)... feel free for anyone to make a homophobic joke at my expense but I still can't watch it thru to this day and never have.

In this game, anything is fair game. After all, did people blacklist Edward Norton for all he said in American History X? Sucks that Beezer will never make the HHOF because of nothing to do with hockey, but he wasn't prompted for act.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Not to get too political up here, but while we're taught the Nazi's were the most evil racist element ever, we had slavery and segregation here. Weird what a little research has to offer in explanation of that...any terrorist angle sucks to me now. Bad enough people in certain parts of the world are getting murdered for nothing they did wrong and it's glorified as anti terrorist here.

I think the Vince stripping Trish thing was the one most brilliantly offensive angle. The decision to do so, and for it to be Vince (cuz he's got the balls and stands frontline for his product)... feel free for anyone to make a homophobic joke at my expense but I still can't watch it thru to this day and never have.

In this game, anything is fair game. After all, did people blacklist Edward Norton for all he said in American History X? Sucks that Beezer will never make the HHOF because of nothing to do with hockey, but he wasn't prompted for act.

Mostly talking about the last paragraph. Are you really comparing an actor playing a character in a movie to a real life person making comments in real life?

 

[offkilter]

Claims to not want to get too political then proceeds to ramble on incoherently about politics for three paragraphs.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

I listened to something to wrestle and the match with Booker T and Triple H came up and of course he tried to defend it claiming things were taken out of context it was a joke to hear

 

[I Eat Crow]

-The Eddie/Mysterio angle about who's Dominick's baby daddy was the most messed up one to me. Kids should be off limits in that regard. Some may disagree, but that's how I feel. What a vile storyline that actually made me change the channel whenever something related was on.

-Anything to do with Eugene looking back was in very bad taste

-Currently, the whole body shaming thing with Nia Jaxx is pretty despicable, especially with the whole "Women's Revolution" being played up

Others off the top of my head:

-Muhammad Hassan: Booking torpedoed that poor guy's career. The whole angle was in poor taste, especially with the political climate and the Iraq war going on at the time

-The whole Edge/Matt Hardy/Lita angle: I'm shocked that Matt Hardy actually came back to work for WWE after all of the behind the scenes stuff that happened with those three. Also shocked that the whole "live sex" on TV thing actually got greenlit by the FCC for a TV-14 show. It was so awkward.

-Another vote for Piggie James from me

-The Dawn Marie/Torrie Wilson/Al Wilson debacle

-John Cena smacking the rear end of HHH's wife in the middle of the ring

Many more that I'm not thinking of...

 

[JackSlater]

-The Eddie/Mysterio angle about who's Dominick's baby daddy was the most messed up one to me. Kids should be off limits in that regard. Some may disagree, but that's how I feel. What a vile storyline that actually made me change the channel whenever something related was on.

This reminds me of another angle that could find a place in this thread, though I enjoyed it. In part of the Sandman-Raven feud in ECW Raven brought Sandman's ex wife (his real ex wife) into his "Raven's Nest" and then Sandman's real son as well, the implication being brainwashing. The son talked about how Sandman was an alcoholic and broke their family apart. In general Raven used the kid (Tyler I think) as a prop to torment Sandman.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Mostly talking about the last paragraph. Are you really comparing an actor playing a character in a movie to a real life person making comments in real life?

Read the very last line.

The guy you posted would understand everything I typed. Go figure.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Claims to not want to get too political then proceeds to ramble on incoherently about politics for three paragraphs.

Just because its beyond your ability to understand doesn't mean it's incoherent.