10 Alternative Takes On Hated Wrestling Moments
6. Pepper The Dog
Memories are often distilled into one overarching and emblematic image. In the case of the Al Snow/Big Boss Man rivalry of 1999, that image is of several drugged, defecating Rottweilers wandering aimlessly betwixt two cages at Unforgiven. But while that Kennel From Hell match is objectively tedious, the angle itself was unique and plotted with gripping hooks from one week to the next.
It was as low-brow as pro wrestling gets, there's no disputing that - but the 1999 vintage Boss Man was so impossibly awful that his genuine menace was tempered with the guilty pleasure of high camp. He fed Al Snow's dog Pepper to him, which instigated the Unforgiven match, but lost amid the deserved criticism is the original match at SummerSlam - which while overlong - was an entertaining Hardcore Title affair, one of the better efforts the division presented before introducing the 24/7 rule.
It was a Vince Russo special, and Russo's oeuvre was largely as incomprehensible as it was damaging, but this was a unique and unpredictable midcard programme, the attention paid to which would make a number of modern WWE stars envious. The babyface even emerged victorious.
Boss Man had so much heat in the aftermath that he was perceived as worthy fodder for the Big Show's first feud as WWF Champion - but while those matches wouldn't make this list, they don't indict what was chintzy but effective episodic television.