10 Times WWE Got Its Ass Kicked

1. The Monday Night Wars

Sting Undertaker Higher Power
WWE

In every sense possible, WWE has never had its ass kicked as much as it did for so much of the famed Monday Night Wars.

From talents jumping ship to the green, green money pits of Ted Turner's WCW, to consistently getting trounced by WCW in the ratings, to being completely left behind by its rival on a creative level, and to being faced with the very real prospect of being forced out of business, the Monday Night Wars was a painful experience for WWE.

We all know that the company would spin so many of these negatives into positives, with the departure of top stars forcing the then-WWF to create new stars, and the live nature of WCW Nitro forcing Monday Night Raw to become a live production. The end result, of course, would be Vince McMahon buying WCW in 2001 after Turner's company had become a sinking ship shell of its former self.

Still, for a good few years there, it was very much squeaky bum time for the very future of what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation. And it can be argued that WCW's own excesses and boneheaded decision making were just as pivotal a factor in the WWF's survival as anything that McMahon's company did off its own back.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.