10 Insane Things WWE Will Never Do Again
5. Televised Executions
The horrifying Chris Benoit incident means WWE have fortunately dialled back on using death in storylines over the past decade. They still dabble, but today’s situation is nothing like the Attitude Era, when attempted murder was a near-weekly occurrence, with a certain ‘Deadman’ taking things to the extreme at WrestleMania XV
The Undertaker literally hung his opponent, The Big Bossman, inside Hell In A Cell. It was a dreadful match, but the aftermath was shocking. ‘Taker fastened a noose around Bossman’s neck, called for the cell to be raised, and forced viewers to deal with the brutal sight of the seemingly ‘dead’ wrestler dangling from the structures.
Bossman survived, of course, but the fact that WWE staged this scene is bad enough. They continue dabbling with potentially fatal situations in 2017, as Braun Strowman’s recent struggles with ambulances and bin lorries show, but this was different. Far removed from today’s cartoon violence, ‘Mania XV was a premeditated ritual execution, made even more abominable by wrestling’s depressingly high mortality rate.
‘Taker performed a similar feat by seemingly drowning Paul Bearer in concrete five years later. He, too, survived, but we can only hope WWE avoid such repugnant acts in the future.