10 Raw Moments WWE Wants You To Forget
Twenty-five years of cringe.
The curtain on WWE's edgy TV-14 era was drawn nearly 10 years ago, taking with it a whole host of crass and tasteless Monday Night Raw moments that Vince McMahon and his famously jittery sponsors would probably rather we never brought up again.
Unfortunately, anything stupid enough for WWE to purge from its history books is also stupid enough for fans to commit to memory, and thanks to the internet, these days much of it is just a few clicks away (and also available on the Network, which is often surprisingly unfiltered).
In a way, as we march towards Raw's 25th birthday, it's probably a good thing that segments and storylines such as these are remembered. Some of them are kind of funny, others worrying and a couple desperately tragic - but, within all of them, there are important lessons to be learned by everyone.
For WWE, however, the pertinent lessons are probably going to be learned privately - which is to say that none of these moments are likely to appear on the nostalgic "best of" compilations we can expect to see on 22 January.
10. John Cena Vs. Michael Cole
It's fashionable to criticise Michael Cole - but, quite frankly, the guy has been doing an incredibly difficult job for the best part of two decades, and your constant whining about how he's not as good as JR - while true - does absolutely nothing to help that.
Even so, it was kind of unedifying to watch in 2012 when John Cena - having been given the luxury of choosing any opponent he wanted - pulled Cole into the ring, stripped him half-naked and then poured barbecue sauce all over his bare chest.
From everything they tell us publicly, WWE takes a strong anti-bullying stance - and yet this segment didn't really jibe with that. Cole was completely humiliated in a way that we hadn't seen since the time JR was forced to kiss Vince McMahon's ass (and they wonder why Mauro Ranallo walked out last year).
True: Cole probably agreed to the idea. Hell, he may even have suggested it (hey, who are we to judge what goes on between a man and his condiments?). But, even in kayfabe, this was utterly stupid. Why would Cena, the most squeaky clean baby-face of them all, choose to fight a commentator?