Mere weeks after WWE switched to PG, fans got an idea of what was in store. John Cena -- who had shockingly returned from injury to win the Royal Rumble, but had failed to recapture the WWE Title -- was feuding the JBL, the man he first defeated to become champion. The feud culminated in a great Parking Lot Brawl at The Great American Bash, spurred on because, on Raw two weeks earlier, Cena decided to get JBL's goat by destroying his limo (with help from Shad and JTG). So far, no problem -- not particularly original, but no problem. They smashed the limo with baseball bats as an irate JBL looked on from the ring, then procured cans of spray paint. In red letters, big as life, Cena wrote the words "JBL IS POOPY" across the hood of the limousine. Fans over the age of seven were utterly baffled -- who could possibly think such an insult was cutting or entertaining? Older fans already saw Cena as pandering to children (and indicative of a new generation which they didn't support) and this didn't help matters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pjJwzyX6vk Though the angle may have been relatively harmless in the long run, it's gained infamy for its inanity -- and it served as a sign that changes were a-comin'.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
