10 Times WWE SmackDown Went Too Far
"We make (blue) movies"
Once a week for about a year, AC/DC have kicked off the wrestling fan's Friday night by asking if they were ready for a good time. And for about two months over the course of those 12, SmackDown has actually provided one.
A truly bizarre brand at its worst but bizarrely brilliant at its best, the first spell of Friday's show being WWE's billion dollar brand has played host to Roman Reigns realising every bit of his limitless potential in the space of a month as well as Roman Reigns being covered head-to-toe in dog food. When Bayley and Sasha Banks weren't saving an absolutely dire state of affairs once a week, they were being held up as evidence of just how far the storytelling on the show had come. Otis was simultaneously a total laughing stock and the number one contender to the Universal Championship. Still is.
It's a lot to have happened in a year, but then that's been the story of most people's 2020 too. And SmackDown's got form for this sort of sh*t. Even when it presented WWE at its most critically acclaimed, it still had something of a wild side.
Here's a selection of those, mostly taken from a time when the B in 'B-show' used to stand for "Big Benefit of being the show not as many people B*stard Bother with"...
10. Sh*gged To Death
Thanks to the work by Paul Heyman's celebrated 'SmackDown Six' and solid protection of the Brock Lesnar/Kurt Angle story, watching the blue brand wasn't hard in 2003. Or not as hard as the contents of Al Wilson's underpants during his deranged wedding to Dawn Marie, anyway.
Fresh off his divorce from daughter Torrie's mother, jolly old Al appeared with eyes wandering quicker than verbal delivery. A charm and charisma black hole to the point where the black hole itself sort of became charming and charismatic, Al's exhibition of what Dawn could enjoy on their...ahem...killer honeymoon during the nuptials should have told us how close the fatal attraction was.
Having a bit too much of a good time writing this very bad thing, Vince McMahon booked his choice of death through the interior lives of his ridiculous television characters. Wilson f*cked 'til his heart stopped.
Much like when Steve Austin held a toy gun to his head, the Chairman hadn't stopped p*ssing himself. Marie and Wilson fought over his open casket, lacking the remarkable acting chops Al did as he lay there completely motionless.
"Look at Dawn!" was 50% of the Michael Cole/Tazz running gag on commentary at the time. It'd become 100% of her act soon after...