With the business stagnant and the future of WWE best described as "status quo," the company attempted to inject some excitement into its product by introducing the first viewer's choice pay-per-view ever, Taboo Tuesday. Fans would have the opportunity to log onto WWE.com and vote for opponents, match types and special stipulations for the night's top bouts. Whether it was deciding on something as trivial as what outfits the Divas would wear in the Women's Championship Battle Royal or something as vital as the top contender to Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship, the people would have a major impact on the show they paid for. As it turned out, bad idea. The show was packed heavy with matches that lent themselves to stupid gimmicks. Christy Hemme and Carmella DeCesare wrestled an all-time bad Lingerie Pillow fight, Eugene defeated "uncle" Eric Bischoff and shaved his head and Kane and Snitsky wrestled the first of many, many atrocious matches. Shelton Benjamin, Chris Jericho, Triple H, an injured Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton and Ric Flair attempted to save the show with commendable performances but no match stood out as anything past the quality of what one would see on Monday Night Raw. The Taboo Tuesday event would continue for another year but the impracticality of holding a show in the middle of the work week prevailed and the show became Cyber Sunday in 2006. The stupidity of the gimmick matches and the inability to craft a good show from top to bottom thanks to the sometimes unpredictable nature of the voting results led to the elimination of the show in 2009.
Erik Beaston is a freelance pro wrestling writer who likes long walks in the park, dandelions and has not quite figured out that this introduction is not for Match.com. He resides in Parts Unknown, where he hosts weekly cookouts with Kane, The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango and The Boogeyman. Be jealous.
