10 Times WWE Misread Their Own Audience

Standing there adorned in his cape and crown, the 1995 King Of The Ring winner soaked up boos from the World Wrestling Federation's fans. 'King' Mabel had been crowned, defeating the likes of The Undertaker and Savio Vega on his way to becoming only the third 'King' in the history of the event on pay-per-view. There was only one major problem, fans weren't booing because they detested Mabel as a top heel, they were jeering because they hated the idea of him being in main events. People recoiled instantly at the mere thought of seeing Mabel vs. Diesel at that year's SummerSlam. Previous King Of The Ring winners like Bret Hart and Owen Hart had seemed deserved, due to their incredible skill inside the ring. Mabel was simply an extremely large man, a physical attribute Vince McMahon seemed to think would be enough to explain why he was headlining. For the fans, it wasn't, and Mabel's subsequent short main event run was a complete failure. Usually on the ball more often than not, McMahon had misread what his rabid fan base wanted badly. Mabel was collateral in poor decision making by those calling the shots, and WWF/WWE history dictates that he wasn't alone...

10. Forcibly Pushing Bobby Lashley As Top ECW Name

Reigniting the flame of Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2006, WWE officials introduced ECW as a third brand alongside Raw and Smackdown. Fans were initially excited, especially after having witnessed the sterling One Night Stand PPVs in 2005 and 2006. That initial excitement would soon turn to apathy and then disappointment and then outright rage, however, and WWE only have themselves to blame. Paul Heyman later claimed that the company should never have tried to use the ECW name whilst presenting something at odds with the history of the brand. In essence, that's exactly what WWE attempted to do here, pushing their own agendas instead of those which appealed to the pre-existing audience. Even those staunch WWE fans who had little knowledge of ECW surely must have been appalled by a lot of what WWE were trying to pass off as 'Extreme'. The likes of Bobby Lashley and the infamous Zombie character were poor substitutes for what fans had come to expect from a product bearing ECW's name. Lashley himself was never as over as WWE may have wished, and tagging him to the ECW brand felt more than a bit forced by the McMahon family. Fans left over from ECW's glory days, along with WWE fans in general, didn't want seem to want Bobby Lashley as ECW Champion. He was a WWE guy, not an ECW guy, and it was easy to see right through what Vince and co were trying to do.