10 DUMB WWE Matches (We Didn't Want To Admit Were GENIUS!)
Sometimes, you've got to tip your cap and say silliness = WWE greatness.
The phrase "guilty pleasures" gets thrown around a lot in entertainment. Everyone has movies and music they'd class under that heading, but what about wrestling? It's so easy to go along with the crowd and say things like, 'Yeah that gimmick match sucked', but some silly experiments look genius with the benefit of hindsight.
No, that's not to say anyone who thinks they're steaming piles of trash should be pilloried for their opinions either. However, age has been kind to some of the decision-making from WWE on bouts that have been heavily criticised or even laughed at over the years/decades.
They all had value. It just took a wee while for that to become clear.
Time to resurrect Xia Li's forgotten 'Great Protector' gimmick and leap to the defence of dumb (on paper) matches that offered something quirky in execution. You should really go back and watch some of them if you haven't since they aired. Who knows? You might find a few hidden gems you previously thought were floating turds circling the WWE Network toilet bowl.
Silly, but so much fun. Here goes!
10. Crybaby Match
Old wrestling magazines used to tear strips off the infamous 'Crybaby' gimmick from In Your House 6. Razor Ramon beat The 1-2-3 Kid on that 1996 pay-per-view, then dressed Kid up like a literal baby as he floundered around in talcum powder. For some reason, this hate continued onto various message boards into the 2000s.
Want to know something cool? It wasn't actually bad. Like, at all.
The actual baby stuff didn't come into play until afterwards, so Razor and Kid were able to have a predictably kickass match before getting silly. Also, and this is something a lot of the critics flat out denied, 1-2-3 Kid had been acting like a spoiled little brat for a while before the pay-per-view. Basically, the gimmick was hokey but made sense.
Again, this wasn't Ramon in a nappy vs. Kid in a nappy. It wasn't even some dire 'On A Pole' variation. No, it was Scott Hall and Sean Waltman tearing the house down, then both guys giving fans a laugh after the fact. It fit the story, and doesn't deserve the misplaced hate.