15 Exact Moments Failed WWE Ruthless Aggression Gimmicks Actually Got Over

2. The Spirit Squad | April 30, 2006

Is “bad” the correct word to describe the Spirit Squad? 

It’s not inaccurate, since the Spirit Squad were not a good act. If you were in an extraordinarily generous mood, you might say that this was a creative and never-before-seen way to mine the toxic masculinity that once defined the average professional wrestling crowd. We had seen Gorgeous George. We had seen wussy, effeminate poets like The Genius. Boo! 

In 1995, WWE debuted Goldust, which was basically Vince McMahon’s new way of saying “Eww, gay!” with the euphemism “androgynous”. WCW preyed on this mentality with the boy band 3 Count, which by WCW 1999 standards was really quite clever. This was the age of nu-metal after all. Then, just when you thought WWE had exhausted every avenue of fear and hatred, they happened upon a troupe of male cheerleaders. 

Ultimately, yes, the Spirit Squad was a failure of an act because they were at the sh*tty heart of Raw in the summer of 2006: one of the worst ever periods in the history of the show. They were an animated collection of gay jokes, but unlike so many acts in the 2000s, the group was responsible for one legitimately iconic moment: the spot in which they launched Shawn Michaels into the rafters and through a table at Backlash 2006. This was terrifying, spectacular, and will pop up on X and Reddit and whichever platforms will replace them for years. 

The Squad did some decent bumping themselves in the subsequent series with D-Generation X. Tonally, this was all as bad as you remember; action-wise, a damn sight better.