10 Times WWE's Fake World Got Dangerously Real
1. Every Time The Toxic Culture Seeped Into The Ring
For years, a toxic culture existed within WWE. Well, several did, but among them was the idea that a wrestler had to act a certain way. Otherwise, an ornery veteran wrestler would beat the tar out of an arrogant rookie or somebody not adjudged to “know their place”.
The Public Enemy were battered by the Acolytes for, allegedly, debuting in the WWF with a sense of entitlement and refusing to get put through a table for the finish (that in ECW and WCW was the Public Enemy’s “thing”).
Kanyon was brained with an Undertaker chair shot that was shockingly violent even by the standards of the era. Why?
You shudder to think.
At various times, Bob Holly seemed to revel in distributing beatings that were as stiff as they were tedious, all in the pathetic business of learning the young’uns some respect. Respect for the business. This all felt like an excuse for a small man to unleash the frustration of being a perennial midcard act who rarely connected with the crowd under the pretence of “valuable lesson”.
Years earlier, the Beverly Brothers would even smirk, with what felt like a legitimate streak of sociopathy, when endangering the careers of enhancement talents with their head-first Shaker Heights Spike finish.
Is there anything more pathetic and revealing than a man proving they’re tough by maiming their work partners in a predetermined performance art?
This doesn’t happen much anymore, thankfully - although Drew Gulak's recent conduct suggests there is no zero tolerance policy for it - and WWE is hotter than it has been since 2000.
None of this was ever truly necessary. Ar*eholes just convinced themselves that it was because they were ar*eholes and wanted to do it for themselves.