10 Outrageous WWE Experiments That Failed
He's got a gun!
The 'Attitude Era' is considered by many to be the most creative time in WWE history. Pushing the envelope further than ever before, there wasn't much Vince McMahon wasn't prepared to try in order to cause a stir and draw more eyes to his product.
Something that's often forgotten is that McMahon didn't suddenly develop this mindset during that particular era and, in fact, he had it for years.
Long before he was appearing in promotional videos advertising the then-WWF's hot new marketing slogan of 'Attitude', McMahon liked to test the waters.
Sometimes, his experiments worked, but other occasions proved that not everything pushed by the 'Sports Entertainment' juggernaut was a guaranteed money-maker.
Even now, Vince enjoys throwing things out there to see what might stick. Such maverick behaviour is admirable, but it doesn't always elicit positive reactions from his core WWE audience. Still, at least McMahon has had the bravery to try these things and experiment with his product.
From grown men acting like farmyard animals, rough and tough Chicago natives suddenly believing themselves to be African, and clear insults to those vertically-challenged, WWE have failed with their experiments more than once.
Let's look at some of the most notable examples...
10. Constant Slew Of Raw Celebrity Guest Hosts
Dr. Phil's recent Monday Night Raw appearance won't be the last time WWE pull in outside celebrities to appear on the show. Vince McMahon has always enjoyed the idea of mixing mainstream entertainment with his own product, but sometimes it's handled very poorly.
Just look at the celebrity 'Guest Hosts' for Raw from 2009-2010.
Looking to spark outside interest in what was happening on WWE programming, McMahon decided the best way to do that was to have various musicians, actors (and actresses) and TV stars converge on his flagship show.
The resultant episodes were amongst the worst the promotion ever presented, and the celebrities were largely to blame.
A clear lack of product knowledge hampered proceedings. On the August 3, 2009 episode, Jeremy Piven couldn't even remember the name of SummerSlam, calling it 'Summer Fest' instead. Worse, NASCAR drivers like Kyle Busch and Joey Logano barely even came across as celebrities to most of the watching world.
Having different 'celebrities' dominate portions of Raw each week actually served to hurt the show, not help it. Decent idea at first glance to use celebrity rub, yet seriously flawed in execution.