10 Problematic WWE Storylines That Have Aged HORRIBLY
Time heals SOME wounds, but not gaping ones left behind by WWE's worst excesses.
A recent lawsuit filed against WWE by ex-writer Britney Abrahams alleged a number of damning practices including-but-not-limited-to storylines riddled with discrimination and offensive stereotypes.
It was the latest story to emerge out of the wrestling industry that could be classified as shocking without being surprising. Decades of characters and stories espousing lowest common denominator values for cheap heat, even cheaper pops and moderate tickets sales have been staples of just about every mainstream organisation, not least because they've been shared by the market leader.
Vince McMahon's personal, social and political beliefs might once have been thinly-disguised before he well and truly dove headfirst up his own backside post-2001, but even before that, wrestling wasn't exactly whip-smart with its subtext. Jingoism sold, sexism, racism and ableism were overlooked if they were an easy routes for babyfaces (or a booker!) to take,
Of course, all of these events are from the dim and distant past, and definitely not between 1998 and 2017, and that's discounting the aforementioned lawsuit cases that are as recent as 2020.
Tl;dr - wrestling is as gross as it ever was, don't let anybody tell you otherwise, and here's some proof...
10. Jinder Mahal's Ugly War Of Words With Shinsuke Nakamura
There was just something so needlessly defensive about Jinder Mahal's racist micro-aggressions towards Shinsuke Nakamura back in 2017.
The WWE Champion was flopping hard in the role, but naturally had to go out there every week and act as if this extended and warped troll-job was in fact going swimmingly. That we were all supposed to be bored rigid, that we were supposed to lose interest in the top of the card completely, that we were supposed to be booing the bigot. Bruce Prichard wasn't back with WWE at that point, but it smacks of a storyline he'd defend on his podcast as serving its purpose because fans didn't like Jinder while nakedly ignoring the fact that maybe people just didn't like barely coded hate speech and there are substantially different kinds of dislike anyway.
'The Modern Day Maharaja' mocked the way Nakamura spoke and looked, then retained the WWE Championship against him in consecutive pay-per-view matches that stunk. Zero sense of good prevailing over evil, and barely any sense that either man was even really fighting for a cause. It was the worst of times - a creative machine (barely) running on fumes and two walking and talking props unable to push the heap of junk up a hill.