10 Times WWE Didn’t Learn Their Lesson

1. The Art Donovan Debacle

Seth Rollins
WWE

King Of The Ring 1994 was co-commentated by Art Donovan - an American football player of such standing that he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

The decision to draft him into the Titan fold was mystifying. Not only did he not hold the faintest clue about wrestling's inner workings, he exposed them entirely in a riotous exhibition of total, utter bewilderment. To be fair to the man, he did try to learn on the job, asking a constant stream of unwelcome questions. Those questions, however, didn't so much peel back the curtain as rip it clean off the rail.

"Did that really hurt him?" he would ask, as he took in the action. Upon first viewing the business-attired IRS, he wondered aloud if he was even a wrestler. Most infamously, he constantly enquired about the weights of certain (read: all) wrestlers on the card, as if he was genuinely concerned for those at a disadvantage. He wasn't just unprepared - he hadn't even been smartened up.

You'd think, then, that WWE would refrain from hiring someone with a similar lack (read: none) of experience. You'd be wrong. In 2008, the company hired another former football player with no grasp of the product: Mike Adamle. He wasn't as catastrophically bad as Donovan. But he was bad.

Like Donovan, Adamle had a tenuous grasp on physiology. "John Cena has a severely herniated disc in his necks."

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!