10 Alternative Takes On Hated Wrestling Moments
Against us.
Some wrestling moments are irredeemably awful.
Hulk Hogan's impromptu challenge of the WWF Title at WrestleMania IX will never transcend its status as a counterproductive booking tactic because no good came out of it whatsoever. It didn't move the needle in the short term, it was retconned just months later, and Bret Hart had to withstand the threat of another passé patriotic hero to establish permanent residence in the main event bracket. It was a year wasted.
Triple H's reign of terror between 2003 and 2004 is never going to be held aloft as anything other than a prolonged exercise in ego massage. It barely produced any good matches. Even the sight of Mae Young's grown up hand/son on RAW 1000 did not rid the original angle of its putrid stench - but the received wisdom of the hardcore wrestling fandom is sometimes as distorted as WWE's revisionist history.
That's not to say that many of the moments this list is comprised of weren't, variously, counterproductive at best and utterly moronic at worst - but the perspective gained from history has painted them as undeserving of the universal derision.
The McMahon In Every Corner angle at WrestleMania 2000 is widely considered a disgrace - but it should be remembered that the eventual Rock Vs. Triple H singles match exceeded a gigantic 600,000 buys on a B-level pay-per-view.
It's far from the only shorthand requiring more elaboration.
10. The Castration Of The Nexus
At SummerSlam 2010, it took just one minute and thirty seven seconds for John Cena to recover from a DDT onto exposed concrete and defeat both Justin Gabriel and Wade Barrett in the finishing sequence of the seven-on-seven Team WWE Vs. Nexus main event.
It was absolutely moronic in and of itself. Cena suffered what was ostensibly a career-threatening injury in an era in which awareness of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) was soaring. The quickness with which Cena rose from the dead made no sense and peeled back the curtain of the industry in order to serve Cena's then-rampant ego. In isolation, it was a head-scratcher - and it precipitated the downfall of the Nexus faction altogether. It was one of the more egregious missed opportunities in WWE lore.
But was it?
The Nexus faction, after Daniel Bryan was fired following the controversial and incendiary formation angle, was comprised of Wade Barrett, Skip Sheffield, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Michael Tarver and Darren Young. Of those seven men, at least four barely had credentials as midcarders, let alone headliners. The repackaged Ryback experienced proper success, but he was a non-starter in his Skip Sheffield guise. Gabriel was talented, but colourless.
Barrett was the standout - but first headlining singles match, with Randy Orton at Survivor Series 2010, was something of a dud. How much of that was as a consequence of his aura being tarnished is up for debate - but WWE didn't squander a main event-level faction with the Nexus. The group only ever worked in the context of the group; it was never an Evolution or Shield-like stable with scope for lasting breakout solo success.
The landscape of WWE in the current, workrate-centric internet darling era underscores that; their like was near enough obsolete a few short years later.