10 Horribly Cruel WWE Moments WORSE When You Know The Truth
WWE: The only company with a less effective HR department than the Empire in Star Wars.
In 2009, basketball GOAT Michael Jordan (sorry, Lebron fans) gave one of the most notorious Hall of Fame speeches in the history of sports. Rather than use the occasion to thank those who helped him in his career, MJ used his speech to reveal what fueled him in his climb to the top of the NBA mountain.
Unfortunately, said fuel turned out to be a toxic cocktail of revenge, anger and spite. Jordan raged against every petty grievance and perceived slight against him in the course of his historic career, leading to the uncomfortable realization that the best to ever play the game was driven almost entirely by the devil on his shoulder.
That same realization is, unfortunately, all too familiar to those who have charted WWE's journey to becoming a $9.3 billion dollar company.
As this list will show, wrestling's biggest company has a long and spiteful history of belittling and endangering its employees to satisfy the often-cruel whims of the people in charge. Whether its the biggest name in the locker room or the owner of the company, WWE's untouchables have placed many a wrestler in their crosshairs and pulled the trigger without regards to the consequences.
10. WWE "Motivate" Jeff Hardy With Pictures Of His Dead Dog
Considering how much of wrestling is based on psychology and crowd manipulation, WWE's higher-ups often show a surprising lack of awareness for how the average human thinks.
WhatCulture has written before about Matt and Jeff Hardy's 2009 feud, which cut uncomfortably close to the bone. Matt was understandably uncomfortable about having to claim responsibility for the real-life house fire that claimed the life of Jeff's dog, Jack, but it gets worse when you learn how WWE tried to use the tragedy to motivate Jeff for a promo.
As reported by Sportskeeda, Jeff revealed on the podcast Wrestling with Freddie that WWE commissioned a video package which prominently featured Jeff's deceased pet. As Jeff put it, company officials told him this was done to get Jeff "fired up" (itself an unfortunate choice of words), but it had the exact opposite effect. Rather than filling Jeff with righteous fury, seeing a video of his beloved former pet just bummed him out.
It beggars belief that WWE thought showing Jeff a video of his recently killed dog would do anything other than depress him. Jeff knew damn well Matt had nothing to do with the fire that claimed Jack's life, so it was ludicrous on WWE's part to assume that Jeff would instinctively get angry at his brother after watching the video.