10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2002
2. Time For Some “HLA”!
Clearly, the final clutch of entries on this list are depressing to write about, but this is the worst of WWE's year in 2002 so it's unavoidable. Of course, publicity stunts like teasing explicit "Hot Lesbian Action" on your pro wrestling programming was certainly avoidable, but the promotion decided to give it a whirl anyway. "HLA" was born in September '02, and it was rotten to the core.
On an episode of Raw that month, 2 extras portrayed “The Lesbians” as part of this crude publicity stunt to drive ratings. Again, like with other attention-seeking antics, all of it was unwanted by the core viewership. People wanted to see top matches, interesting storylines and fab characters. Teasing something pornographic and salacious which WWE clearly weren’t going to deliver anyway was…a choice, and not a positive one.
This nonsense bled over into a similar deal at Unforgiven. Raw GM Eric Bischoff said that SmackDown counterpart Stephanie McMahon would engage in “some HLA” if 3 Minute Warning beat Billy & Chuck. They did, but Steph conspired with Rikishi (called “Hildegard”, for some reason) in drag to humiliate Bischoff. OK then - was Rikishi just hanging out in that attire backstage on the off chance Stephanie needed him?
WWE found themselves in hot water with people arguing against stunts like this. There was negative feedback on the infamous Billy & Chuck wedding too, but HLA stands out as the worst example of Vince McMahon's forced 'any publicity is good publicity' mantra during a concentrated time period of courting controversy in spite of what fans really wanted to see.
HLA? More like 'WBTC'? Why book this crap?!