10 Most Offensive WWE Moments Ever

6. Hawk's Addictions

Shinsuke Nakamura Jinder Mahal
WWE

With realism the endless agenda of Vince Russo as his vision of professional wrestling took over WWE's product in 1998, the very real drug and alcohol dependencies of Road Warrior Hawk were rather cruelly exploited for a cheap and relatively meaningless storyline.

With the Legion of Doom slipping down the card following comprehensive losses to the New Age Outlaws and Disciples of Apocalypse in the summer, Hawk was asked to portray a drunk version of himself on-screen to accentuate the duo's sad descent.

Stumbling over during their entrance, being too intoxicated to tag, and slurring words on guest commentary, the sad portrayal of the former tag team great was too near-the-knuckle to be entertaining, and did nothing to promote the tag team or sell a match or storyline with their likeness on.

The payoff (using the term loosely) was Droz shoving a suicidal Hawk off the TitanTron structure to imply he was the 'pusher', enabling Hawk's problems to steal his spot in the team.

That element of the angle was abruptly shelved, as was anything further with the characters, but the damage was done.

L.O.D briefly reunited in a losing effort during a WrestleMania pre-show battle royal, before exiting the company in disgust with their position weeks later.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett