10. When Raw Became A Show That Sucked Up To Celebrity Guest Hosts In 2009
It can be argued that 2009 and 2010 were the worst years in WWE history at least on the Raw brand. Things were bad. There were an endless cycle of John Cena/Randy Orton/Triple H matches with nobody ever really breaking through to be a top guy. Smackdown was pretty great thanks to the likes of CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and guys like that. Raw became a joke. What made Raw so difficult to watch was the parade of celebrity guest hosts (or GMs) that they would bring on the show every week. It was their way of trying to reach the mainstream media. There were celebrities out there that were so clueless that it hurt the show so badly. The band ZZ Top were there and they looked so out of place. Jerry Springer may have been the worst one ever. The Macgruber segment they did was so awful. Who can forget Jeremy Piven saying "Summerfest" instead of SummerSlam? It's still a running joke five years later. There are so many others too. There were some great guest stars like Bob Barker, Hugh Jackman and Shaquille O'Neal, but the bad far outnumbered the good. The reason people contemplated the idea of not watching Raw anymore is because the show lost the edginess and coolness that it once had. It wasn't a wrestling show when all the celebs were involved. Things got better once the celebs stopped being part of the show and CM Punk was out there trying to change things, but we'll never forget how awful all the celebrities were.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
