10 Times WWE Made Us Ashamed To Be Wrestling Fans

In 2002, WWE were in a bit of a pickle. Following the absolute peak of their business in early 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven, Vince and his merry band seemed to have run fresh out of ideas on how to keep viewers tuned in to the product. The WCW/ECW Invasion filled a few months of programming, but will always go down in history as a huge wasted opportunity. The Rock had gone to Hollywood, Stone Cold Steve Austin had retired from active competition, and wrestling didn’t seem to be the cool thing to watch anymore.

Some bright spark had the idea of what Monday Night Raw was missing: lesbians!

In an effort to appeal to the sexually frustrated everywhere, Eric Bischoff proceeded to promote that live on Raw, viewers would be treated to “Hot Lesbian Action”. In a move that quite possibly couldn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence more, Bischoff promised that two ladies would be engaging in “HLA” in the ring on Raw. This mostly consisted of two ladies awkwardly groping each other to Eric’s encouragement, to the delight of nobody.

Shockingly, this wasn’t just a one-off, as Eric continued to reference the concept on Raw for some weeks, before an inter-brand tag team match at Unforgiven 2002 carried the stipulation that if her brand lost, SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon would have to engage in HLA. Presumably, this was all signed off by Stephanie’s father, Vince McMahon.

Classy, Vince.