10 Cringeworthy Worked Shoots In Wrestling History

Eric Bischoff was no stranger to infusing reality with wrestling. Much of Nitro's appeal in its dominance of RAW in '96 and '97 was that it felt "realer" than WWE's live action cartoon offerings. Storylines such as the nWo blurred the lines and allowed the audience to think, in Bischoff's words "I know wrestling's fake, but that was real!"

However, angles like the nWo worked because it played on the wider audience's knowledge of the talent switches between the WWF and WCW. When penning angles that only a certain hardcore niche will possibly understand, you're setting yourself up for disaster.

By 1998, Eddie Guerrero was fairly unhappy with his position in the company. With Eric Bischoff refusing to allow Mexican talent to take other bookings while working for him, Guerrero sought to be released from his contract, but Bischoff wouldn't budge. Instead, their tension was turned into an onscreen angle, with Eddie passive-aggressively outing Eric Bischoff as a terrible boss who kept him prisoner. The apex of this insider w*nkery came when during a promo, Eddie poured coffee on himself, alluding to an alleged incident when Bischoff, in a heated moment, threw a cup of coffee at Guerrero (as Eddie would later attest, Bischoff just threw the cup on the ground near Eddie).

Naturally, this angle was met with complete confusion and indifference from the fans, who greeted Eddie with apathetic boos.