10 Moments WWE Don't Want You To Find On The Network
8. The Rock Vs Lana
Where to find it: Raw, 25th January 2016
In which The Rock summons the spirt of 1999 in actually energising an audience, but does it by channelling the bottom-of-the-barrel tone and content from that very same time period.
An incredibly tough watch at the time let alone now, Rock's walk-and-squawk ahead of addressing the live crowd was a lovely idea in concept and execution until he reached the 'Ravishing Russian'. He banters The Big Show off the face off the planet and wishes Pat Patterson a Happy Birthday on his travels, but reaches Lana and proceeds to go into detail about a hotel sex scene between the two that she's barely scripted to react to let alone verbally dispute.
At one point she grins on cue or pops for real, and either way that's the invitation for this to feel more inclusive than it actually is. Rusev appears on scene to theoretically scare 'The Great One', but he continues unabated with knowing glow before playfully spanking Lana in another spot that goes mostly unchecked.
Every bit of the scene is too new-feeling to be happening, because it is. Women were still "Divas" for another few months in WWE-speak at the time, but they'd long ceased being mere objects as was the case here.