Angles and things that bothered you

[willywonka666]

Sure, we know it's made for entertainment, but there are times when we might think "Geez, this is almost upsetting"

The Filthy Animals dragging Ric Flair out to the middle of nowhere was disturbing to me. Really any angle when someone younger is attacking someone older that can't match up to them anymore. It came off like some young punks mugging and beating an old man senseless and just ugh.

The Sid ankle incident which of course was accidental. I felt SO bad for him. Scott Steiner insisted they replay the footage at the next ppv that I attended in Nashville and I just stared at the floor. I still can't handle it.

There's more, but those are two that came right off the top of my head immediately.

How about you?

[Deleted]

None really.

I cringe a little bit when they use real life deaths/illnesses for heel heat.

To me, they’re not booing the wrestler saying it. They’re booing the company for writing it. Case in point: “Eddie’s down there, IN HELL!”


Paige’s comment on Reid Flair was tasteless aswell. Can’t believe Ric knew nothing about that.

[Spider2024]

The Boogeyman & Jillian Hall. I legit almost threw up.

[BorneAgain]

The invocation of dead wrestlers is always creates an uncomfortable air, and rarely seems worth the heat it gets.

The Angelina Love/Winter storyline from Impact Wrestling a few years back was as baffling as it was tasteless. The entire angle pretty much consisted of a vaguely supernatural Winter brainwashing/drugging Angelina into becoming her ally which is a bit out there but probably could have been looked past. It could have been if not for the fact that the former was clearly lusting after the latter, which led to backstage segments of Angelina zonked out of her mind being kissed or getting a topless back massage by Winter.

I'm fairly certain the only reason it didn't get a lot of controversy was TNA's irrelevance/expected low standards combined that it was an angle with a predatory female wrestler as opposed to a male one. Even still its remarkable that an on air storyline with such a creepy context is largely forgotten.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Jim Ross’ years of humiliation.

Eddie’s death getting prostituted for years, which culminated with Chavo calling Edge his new uncle.

Accepting blood money from Saudi Arabia and becoming another arm of propaganda for the dictator.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

It's the subject of jokes now, but the Big Bossman kidnapping and mutilating Pepper does bother me a lot. Like, remember the segment where Bossman had a muzzle around that poor dog as it looked completely terrified, made the all the worse in hindsight when you know what happens? Yikes.

I mean, I know the dog didn't actually get legit murdered or anything, but ugh.

[Cvslfc123]

Well Kurt used to annoy me a lot with his heel tactics in 2000

[James Fabiano]

I'll agree with using death for wrestling angles.

Using Over the Edge '99 as a template for worked shoots/worked injuries.

Lori Fullington when she went full blown crack whore character.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Feb 7, 2019 10:29:00 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

It's the subject of jokes now, but the Big Bossman kidnapping and mutilating Pepper does bother me a lot. Like, remember the segment where Bossman had a muzzle around that poor dog as it looked completely terrified, made the all the worse in hindsight when you know what happens? Yikes.

I mean, I know the dog didn't actually get legit murdered or anything, but ugh.

That shit was created because Vince overhead a rib Mr Fuji allegedly played on Jimmy Snuka.

[Aceorton]

Choppy-choppy the pee-pee. What I found most haunting about it was that you had an angry gang dragging a semi-conscious guy through the backstage area after telling the world they planned to cut off his penis, and people are just standing around watching them pass.

Also: no criminal charges?

[TheMediocreWarrior]

Feb 7, 2019 11:24:15 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

Choppy-choppy the pee-pee. What I found most haunting about it was that you had an angry gang dragging a semi-conscious guy through the backstage area after telling the world they planned to cut off his penis, and people are just standing around watching them pass.

Also: no criminal charges?

One of the things that I hate most about it is that Taka ended up being just another foreign heel. I wonder if he would have had a better WWF run if he were written as an underdog face.

I don't think real life tragedy should be used in pro-wrestling, so "Eddie's in Hell", "Reid Flair wasn't strong enough", or the recent Roman Reigns comments are going way too far. I know pro-wrestling isn't known for being classy, but it can at least be reasonably respectful.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Feb 7, 2019 11:24:15 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

Choppy-choppy the pee-pee. What I found most haunting about it was that you had an angry gang dragging a semi-conscious guy through the backstage area after telling the world they planned to cut off his penis, and people are just standing around watching them pass.

Also: no criminal charges?

Mick Foley said he was embarrassed of working in the wwf right after that aired.

That segment made my parents to ban me from ever watching raw. I had to sneak out and watch it in a friend’s house or wait for the replay and watch it while my parents were sleeping.

[Chainsaw]

Pretty much any angle that involved JR getting beaten up or embarrassed. The Dr. Heiney sketch, I think, was the beginning of the end of my devotion to WWE, because I think a line got crossed with that, even more than them making fun of his Bell's Palsey, all because Vince doesn't really like JR.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Feb 7, 2019 14:58:18 GMT -5 Chainsaw said:

Pretty much any angle that involved JR getting beaten up or embarrassed. The Dr. Heiney sketch, I think, was the beginning of the end of my devotion to WWE, because I think a line got crossed with that, even more than them making fun of his Bell's Palsey, all because Vince doesn't really like JR.

Prichard said that Vince humiliates JR because Ross legit gets mad and sells it but he also admitted that Vince crossed the line regularly, and that he would burst out laughing when Ed Ferrara did the impression in front of him.

[Ben Wyatt]

JBL beating the tar out of Hornswaggle in the cage made me legit uncomfortable.

Same for Lita getting the ever loving piss beaten out of her by Austin and HHH. She took that beating like an absolute champ

[Venti]

I'll name ones I actually remember watching live(I stopped watching from 03 to 06 so I missed alot of tasteless RA era garbage, and I'm too young to remember the first half of the Attitude Era)

When CM Punk was still getting cheered when he was heel and they had him doing tasteless stuff to get cheap heat.
First mocking Jerry Lawler's heart attack. I'm sure Jerry was cool with it, but him coming back was a legit happy moment and I didn't think they needed to go there.
Then all the stuff after Paul Bearer passed. Oof.

Another one even though I'm sure it was probably not that crazy looking in hindsight, Rated RKO dragging a bloody Ric Flair from backstage sorta bugged a 10 year old me. Same reasons as the OP, felt like they were beating up on someone's grandpa to me.

This is an odd one, but I remember someone using a crossface in WWE a few months after Benoit died, and it felt really awkward. A few years later seeing the move wasn't a big deal to me, but it felt very soon in 2007. I guess getting the hold unassociated with his name had to happen at some point.


Now as for going back and watching things? I can handle most of the famously bad stuff like Katie Vick and Val Venis almost getting his little friend chopped off.
But there's some random small things that bug me. Pretty anything that invokes reminders of real life deaths is hard to watch. Like I'm a sucker for Royal Rumbles and I very frequently go back to watch them, but I couldn't keep watching the 2000 Rumble because there's a huge succession of both recently and long-since deceased wrestlers entering, several of them in a row. And it wasn't even 20 years ago.
I think it affects me more than all the 80s and early 90s cards do because these are the guys I watched when I first started watching wrestling as a child, so it's a huge buzzkill.

And a last somewhat similar one, watching alot of the really dark storylines in 1999 is kinda hard knowing someone actually died in the ring right in the middle of this time period. All the Ministry stuff, caskets, etc.
They even showed a replay of a casket match at Over The Edge! Like damn...

For some reason my brain just subconsciously goes there when I'm watching this period.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

I always found Vince’s kiss my ass club segments kind of disturbing. They didn’t really bother me but I wasn’t sitting there all excited going “Kiss it! Kiss it!” either. I felt bad for the person that was being humiliated and I’d rather Vince kept his pants on while I’m watching wrestling.

[jason1980s]

Anything related to embarrassing Jim Ross or purposely hurting him. It amazes me that a 50-60 year old man thinks like, acts like/behaves like a middle school aged child.

With anything negative being done towards Jim, I truly wish that "this business" were regulated like a real, actual business. If wrestling were treated as a real business with regulations, WWF would be under fire for wrongful termination (either of Jim's firings due to bells palsy) or workplace harassment. I get Jim is a devoted employee and loves being involved with wrestling but I'm sure he knows that if he turns down being involved in the skits or physical activities (butt kissing, having cement smashed on his head) that he would either be let go or be forced into a low level position.

The only saving grace is that Jim Ross mentally is a much stronger person than Vince McMahon. I get Vince and WWE have helped guys financially and brought them back time after time but really what a classless human being for having fun doing the things he's done to Jim Ross. And hopefully if WWE ever does try to hang with the real football league owners or real business owners/ceos in board rooms, hopefully those business owners and ceos laugh this 75 year old child out of their board rooms.

[DiBiase is Good]

Airing the “Terrorist” segment the same day as the 7/7 bombings. I don’t buy for one second that WWE had no power to stop it airing, had there been a terror attack in the US that day there’s no way that segment would have aired.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Feb 7, 2019 15:11:54 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

JBL beating the tar out of Hornswaggle in the cage made me legit uncomfortable.

Same for Lita getting the ever loving piss beaten out of her by Austin and HHH. She took that beating like an absolute champ

The cage was uncomfortable but Hornswoggle taking the trash can is hilarious for the wrong reason.

The Lita beating was meaningless because the fans kept cheering Austin. It wasn’t until he became a coward heel that the fans hated him.